I'd buy it in a second, even knowing it's going to be basically the same game with a few bells and whistles. I played the original Left 4 Dead heavily for about six months and Left 4 Dead 2 for about three, and I suspect I'll get that three months of interest out of every sequel they make. Left 4 Dead games can be made on the cheap, since the entire game consists of less than 20 game maps (Half Life 2 had over 50) that by placing enemies randomly in response to character feedback require significantly less time to populate with NPCs than traditional maps.
Currently Left 4 Dead 2 is being kept not-quite fresh by showcasing a variety of gameplay mods called "mutations" that make small hit-or-miss tweaks to gameplay, but the real draw of a sequel is going to be a new batch of quality map packs in a different series of locations, and a new cast of survivors. What I would like to see is a larger cast (pick your favorite four) with the option to have more or even less players in game at once, and the difficulty scalable so sometimes you need eight or sixteen survivors just to get through. Maybe NPC escourt missions or play as non-immunes, so that getting incapacitated brings you back as an infected.
Currently Left 4 Dead 2 is being kept not-quite fresh by showcasing a variety of gameplay mods called "mutations" that make small hit-or-miss tweaks to gameplay, but the real draw of a sequel is going to be a new batch of quality map packs in a different series of locations, and a new cast of survivors. What I would like to see is a larger cast (pick your favorite four) with the option to have more or even less players in game at once, and the difficulty scalable so sometimes you need eight or sixteen survivors just to get through. Maybe NPC escourt missions or play as non-immunes, so that getting incapacitated brings you back as an infected.
