Blasting hordes of zombie mutants never gets old and the first Left 4 Dead brought gamers into a world where their choices with three teammates would determine everyone's survival. With Left 4 Dead 2, players head to the southeastern part of the United States, starting in Savannah, Georgia for a taste of zombie action without the Southern hospitality.

Along with the journey to the south, players get introduced to four new characters with Coach (a high school football coach), Ellis (an former auto mechanic), Nick (a hard-nosed conman) and Rochelle (a TV reporter) as they work to wipe out hordes of zombies in between safe house breathers.

New melee weapons like this Cricket Bat will let the game's new foursome take out the infected.

Over the course of the new adventure, players will journey through five campaigns that take place in Savannah and spread all the way to The Parish (New Orleans) and Swamp Fever (we'll assume that takes place in Louisiana). This Mardi Gras party in the Latin Quarter may lack the thrills of beads but the action as you'll blast zombies through the fabled city in such places as an history mansion. There's also a bridge level filled with zombies, who'd love to stop you from getting to the other side. With big drops on either side, there's only one direction to go -- straight through them. Of course, it won't be easier, especially with the new Charger, an infected creature who tosses cars like toilet paper and take lots of hits before falling down (don't worry... you'll still have to face the bigger Tanks and a Wandering Witch too).

Each of the new levels features new infected creatures including Swamp Fever's Mudmen, capable of hiding in the muck and laying lower while under water. On one level in the swamp, your four-person team must defend a formerly compromised outpost that lacks walls and sits on stilts. Fun, right? Your vantage point is high enough to see the zombies coming, but Mudmen aren't shy about throwing mud in your eye to blind you momentarily - just enough to block you from fighting back or disorient you enough to fall off the platform or its elevated walkways.

Another not-so-nice infected who's new to the series is the Spitter, an infected woman with a distended stomach or pregnant lower torso, who specializes in spitting acid from far distances, and those spit bombs also explode once they've hit the ground, perfect for damaging several teammates at once.

Like the original game, Co-op, Versus and Survival Modes are included and Valve says that there's a fourth mode that will be announced at a later date. For weaponry, Left 4 Dead 2 adds melee weapons such as a chainsaw, baseball bat, axe and even, if you believe the game's original trailer, a frying pan.

Splitters let out fluid that not only burns -- it explodes!

Joystiq recently reported that during Comic-Con, Depeche Mode's likeness and music will be featured in the game, with the band's help. In the poster for Swamp Fever, you may have already noticed that Rochelle was wearing a pink Depeche Mode shirt. Whether the British synth-pop band will make an appearance as themselves (or infected variants) remains unknown.

Yet the controversy with Left 4 Dead fans about whether Valve will offer more DLC, if Left 4 Dead 2 might be the full-priced version of that DLC, or if the developer will simply wait it out to see if players will migrate to Left 4 Dead 2. So far, zombie-killing fans looking for more chaotic scenes from their worst nightmares, Left 4 Dead 2 may be hard to pass up the when it arrives on November 11, 2009.