Left 4 Dead is a series of cooperative first-person shooter survival horror video games created by Turtle Rock Studios and published by Valve. Set in the days after a pandemic outbreak of a viral strain transforming people into zombie-like feral creatures, the games follow the adventures of four survivors attempting to reach safe houses and military rescue while fending off the attacking hordes.
The games encourage cooperative play between up to four players, each taking the role of one of the survivor characters and the computer controlling any unassigned characters. Players use a combination of melee weapons, firearms, and thrown objects to fend off attacks from the bulk of the infected creatures, while using an assortment of healing items to keep their group alive. Certain unique infected creatures pose a more difficult challenge, requiring teamwork to take down effectively. The games are overseen by an "AI Director", designed to give the players a more dramatic experience based on their performance, penalizing players for stalling while rewarding players with special weapons by taking longer or riskier paths. The Director also makes gameplay dynamic, meaning that no two playthroughs are quite the same.
Video games
Left 4 Dead was released in November 2008. The game's development was started by Turtle Rock Studios, who were bought by Valve during the game's creation, with continued development occurring at Valve's studios. Left 4 Dead 2 was released a year later in November 2009. Valve attributed the short turnaround between the titles as a result of having many ideas to expand on the first game, but more than could be reasonably done through software patching or downloadable content. The fast turnaround of the sequel was initially criticized by many players of the first game, leading to a temporary effort to boycott the second game. Valve helped to placate matters, demonstrating that it was still developing content for the first game, including a crossover campaign, "The Passing", between the characters of both games.
Downloadable content
Crash Course is the first downloadable content (DLC) campaign for Left 4 Dead. It is free on PC, but not for Xbox 360. It was released on September 29, 2009. According to Valve it is meant to bridge the gap between No Mercy and Death Toll. The Passing is the first DLC crossover campaign of Left 4 Dead 2, which includes a new campaign and "new co-operative challenge modes of play" and introduces a new firearm, the M60; the Golf Club, and a new Uncommon Infected called the Fallen Survivor. It was released April 22, 2010. The Sacrifice is a three-chapter DLC for both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 and was released on October 5, 2010. Taking place after Blood Harvest and is considered to be the prologue to The Passing, as both campaigns are connected to each other. Cold Stream is the third DLC for Left 4 Dead 2. It was announced in a blog post on February 16, 2011. Cold Stream was released on March 22, 2011, in beta form on Steam, and it was officially released in its final form on Steam on July 24, 2012. Cold Stream was released on the Xbox Marketplace August 3, 2012 for 560MSP. It was created by map making community member Matthew Lourdelet and features various wall graffiti featuring the author's friends. The Last Stand is a community-made scenario for Left 4 Dead 2, and was released on September 24, 2020, with Valve's blessing as an official update to the game. The update includes over twenty new maps for survival mode, a new campaign, and additional updates to the game.
Spin-offs and crossovers The Mercenaries: No Mercy makes a return on the PC version of Resident Evil 6. As an exclusive to No Mercy, Capcom and game developer Valve had teamed up to allow Left 4 Dead 2 content for No Mercy. The content includes the main cast from Left 4 Dead 2 being playable characters with their own loadouts alongside the Witch and the Tank replacing the Bloodshot and the Napad as enemies. Pixel Force: Left 4 Dead is a downloadable indie game where the game is played as if it were released for NES. is a version of Left 4 Dead 2 released on December 10, 2014, for Japanese arcades by Taito. The game features the same scenarios and locations as L4D2, but features a different cast of survivors unique to this edition. The No Mercy level of Left 4 Dead appeared as DLC for the cooperative-shooter Payday: The Heist and its sequel Payday 2. On August 20, 2015, a free update was released for the PC version of the game Zombie Army Trilogy which imported the eight survivor characters from the Left 4 Dead games. In March 2017, asymmetric horror game Dead by Daylight released the "Left Behind" DLC for PC, which unlocked Bill as a playable character. It also unlocked Zoey, Ellis, Francis and Rochelle costumes for Meg, Dwight, Jake and Claudette respectively.
Comics
Tied to the release of "The Sacrifice" downloadable content, a four-part web comic drawn by Michael Avon Oeming was released to describe the events of the first set of survivors, Bill, Louis, Zoey, and Francis, that led them to meet the second group, Coach, Ellis, Rochelle, and Nick. Each of the parts provides a backstory for each of the first survivor characters at the onset of the pandemic, and also follows directly up on the final campaign from the first game, "Blood Harvest", where the survivors, identified as carriers, are taken to a secure military facility. The use of the comic medium to expand the game's story outside of the game's bounds has been used by Valve before in promoting Team Fortress 2.
Merchandise and other products Within Left 4 Dead 2, a fictional southern rock band called the Midnight Riders was introduced. Several songs have been produced for the game and tie-in promotions. Two of them, "Midnight Ride" and "One Bad Man", have appeared as downloadable content for the Rock Band series via the Rock Band Network.
Valve released a series of holiday cards themed after the survivors, created by Alexandria Neonakis. Three plush toys have been released based on the Left 4 Dead series' infected; first with the Boomer, and later with the Hunter and the Tank. They are to be followed by two more plush toys yet to be released. They were also created by Alexandria Neonakis. In June 2011, it was confirmed that Valve had signed a deal with NECA, to produce action figures, which includes Left 4 Dead and other Valve series. There are two figures produced so far, Left 4 Deads Boomer (which was released in June), and Left 4 Dead 2s Smoker (which was released in November).
Cancelled sequel
Valve has not yet made any direct statement related to future games in the series, though Chet Faliszek said in 2012 that like Valve's other games, a sequel had not been ruled out. Rumors from 2013 through 2016 led players to believe that Valve was developing Left 4 Dead 3, with a target release date in 2017.
In April 2019, Tyler McVicker of Valve News Network reported that while Left 4 Dead 3 had been in development at some point at Valve, it had been subsequently cancelled a few years earlier. Assets that McVicker had obtained showed a level comparable to assets used in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and indicated that very little other work appeared to have been done on the title.
In July 2020, multimedia storybook The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx, which focused on the 2010s at Valve, gave information about the cancelled Left 4 Dead 3 project that was developed around 2013, describing it as an open-world game set in Morocco where the player fights hundreds of zombies. The project was shelved due to the slow development of the Source 2 engine.
At The Game Awards 2020, Turtle Rock announced Back 4 Blood, their spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead 2, released on 12 October 2021.
Setting The Left 4 Dead games take place in the days following a pandemic outbreak of an infection that transforms humans into feral, zombie-like creatures, seeking to kill those yet to be infected. Within the United States, the Civil Emergency and Defense Agency (CEDA) orders the creation of safe zones with the aid of the military, and evacuates as many people as possible to these areas, aiming to transfer them to islands and ocean-going ships, as the infected are unable to cross bodies of water. A number of people are discovered to be immune to the infection, though they can carry and unintentionally spread it to others. In both games, four of these "Carriers" or otherwise just immune humans, meet and become the game's "Survivor" characters, making their way to safe houses and extraction points.
Characters The first game follows four survivors as they travel from Pennsylvania to Georgia. The game's four Survivors are: William "Bill" Overbeck: an old Vietnam War veteran. Voiced by Jim French. Louis: a frazzled IT analyst. The most optimistic of the four. Voiced by Earl Alexander. Francis: an obnoxious and insolent outlaw biker who hates everything, except for vests. Voiced by Vince Valenzuela. Zoey: a college student who loves horror movies. Voiced by Jen Taylor. The second game follows another group as they travel from Savannah, Georgia to New Orleans, Louisiana, and features four new Survivors: Coach: a portly high school football coach. Voiced by Chad L. Coleman. Ellis: an overly talkative mechanic. Voiced by Eric Ladin. Nick: a pessimistic gambler and con artist. Voiced by Hugh Dillon. Rochelle: a low-level TV reporter. Voiced by Rochelle Aytes and modeled on Shanola Hampton. The Japanese arcade version of the second game follows the same route and story, but features four Survivors exclusive to the Arcade edition: Yusuke: a Japanese college student visiting America on vacation. Voiced by Ryuichi Kijima. Haruka: a Japanese schoolgirl visiting America on a school trip. Voiced by Ayane Sakura. Sara: a Japanese-American tour guide. Voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro. Blake: an American bartender and army veteran. Voiced by Hidenori Takahashi.
Gameplay The Left 4 Dead games are first-person shooters incorporating survival horror elements. A player controls one of the four Survivor characters, and has the ability to move, jump, and use weapons in their possession. Players are limited to two weapons: a main firearm with limited ammunition taken from ammo caches, and either one (or two pistols) sidearm with unlimited ammunition or a melee weapon. Players also have three additional inventory slots. The third slot gives the player a thrown weapon, including a Molotov cocktail, a pipe bomb that can be used to lure a horde towards it before it explodes, or a bile jar that can be used to lure a horde to a specific area. The fourth slot provides for either a health kit which they can use on themselves or the other survivors, a defibrillator to revive a dead Survivor, or a special ammo deployment kit providing unique ammo such as explosive bullets. The fifth inventory slot is used for pain pills, giving the player a temporary health boost, or an adrenaline shot, temporarily increasing the player's movement, interaction, healing, and teammate revival speed. Some environmental objects like propane tanks or gasoline cans can be carried and thrown at hordes, upon which they can be fired upon as a makeshift explosive, but cannot be stored in the player's inventory. In Left 4 Dead 2, limited-use weapons such as the chainsaw, grenade launcher or the M60 machine gun can also be carried in a similar manner. The player can use whatever object they are holding to temporarily push back any Infected surrounding them.