Zombie Master 2 mod shambles out

Left 4 Dead 2

Set in the zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2) is the highly anticipated sequel to the award-winning Left 4 Dead, the #1 co-op game of 2008. This co-operative action horror FPS takes you and your friends through the cities, swamps and cemeteries of the Deep South, from Savannah to New Orleans across five expansive campaigns.

You try hurrying when your knees are splintered and tear rotten flesh with every step. After almost three years of development, Source mod Zombie Master 2 launched over the weekend. The follow-up drags the asymmetrical multiplayer RTS-FPS into the Orange Box version of Valve's engine with new features t'boot.

Zombie Master 2 pits a team of human survivors against hordes of naughty AI zombies, which are spawned and controlled by one single lord of the undead. The humans need to work together to complete objectives, not to mention scavenge for weapons and supplies, while the macabre manager works to stop them. The sole spook supervisor can spawn different strains of zombie with assorted attributes, controlling them from an RTS view.

As well as being spiffier thanks to the updated engine, having previously been on the plain old Half-Life 2 edition of Source, the sequel introduces new weapons for survivors, and the zombie master gets more monsters and traps to trigger. A team of ZM fans released the mod, building upon the code open-sourced after development on the original mod stopped in 2009.

Things are a bit wonky, this being the initial public beta release, but patches are promised. Hit the Mod DB page for more and to download Zombie Master 2.