A very early version of Left 4 Dead has been accidently released by Valve. Valve is one of the greatest video game developers out there, but some younger gamers may not even know this. Valve has largely moved away from releasing brand new games in favor of focusing on hardware like the Steam Deck, VR headsets, and supporting Steam. However, every once and a blue moon they come out of nowhere and release a brand new game that blows everyone away. Half-Life: Alxyย was a pleasant surprised that really changed the way people saw VR games and even gaming as a whole. Counter-Strike 2ย has had some backlash, but has generally been received well and is being played by a lot of people. However, many long for a new Portal, mainline Half-Life game, or even a new Left 4 Dead game.
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Well… fans did get a slightly new Left 4 Dead experience this week… kind of. Fans discovered a way to play a prototype for Left 4 Deadย thanks to a new patch released for Counter-Strike. As part of Valve’s anniversary, an update for Counter-Strike 1.6ย was released and it seemed to include an accidental prototype for the beloved co-op zombie game. Fans found a way to make it playable and… they’re picking it apart as you might expect. The prototype is extremely barebones, using a lot of Counter-Strike assets. All of the zombies are just CS models with knives and chasing the player around. It’s likely this was the very earliest playable idea for the game and that’s why it doesn’t have anything that really standsout. If anything, it just feels like a custom game for Counter-Strike. You can view instructions on how to download and play this yourself in the description for the video below, but as always, do so at your own risk.
Whether or not we ever see Left 4 Dead make a return is a mystery. It wouldn’t be too surprising if it came back in the form of VR, since Valve has a lot of interest there. There were rumors of a Left 4 Dead 3ย in the works at one point, but it never came to be. Ex-developers on the Left 4 Dead franchise did eventually make Back 4 Blood, but it lacked the same appeal and wasn’t received very well by fans. Ultimately, it seems like we’ll all just have to gravitate towards another zombie game until Valve decides to make another game in the series.
