Iconic co-op multiplayer shooter Left 4 Dead almost didn’t have zombies because they were considered too “cheesy”.
Left 4 Dead is still, one of the most popular co-op shooters on the market, especially its sequel. According to SteamDB, L4D2 currently has a 24-hour peak of 18,752. Furthermore, as of right now, it has 12,975 concurrent players. Not bad for a 13-year old game.
However, just imagine if Left 4 Dead had no zombies. What would it have done for the series, and would have it proved to be more popular? Personally, I have my doubts, but according to a former Valve employee (thanks VG247 via TheGamer), zombies were nearly never a thing.
Seriously, no zombies?
When talking on the Kiwi Talkz podcast, former Left 4 Dead writer Chet Faliszek claimed that Valve founder Gabe Newell wasn’t keen on zombies featuring in the game, as he thought they were too cheesy.
Pitching the idea of Left 4 Dead to Newell, Faliszek said: “it’s about working together, it’s the game itself, it’s a reflection of the game,” he continued.
“We’d kind of get pushed more and more because I remember [Newell] said ‘well let’s not do zombies, zombies are just cheesy.’ At the time you did not have The Walking Dead TV series and all of this, so it was very cheesy.”
Knowing that Newell wasn’t keen on zombies featuring in the game, Faliszek continued to try and convince the Valve founder to see his vision.
“So, I was just like why don’t we just take the characters and the world and make some of the characters in the world aware that they’re in a zombie movie essentially,” said Faliszek. “Zoe and Lewis understand that like ‘oh my god this is the thing from movies,’ but they play it seriously.”
Thankfully, Newell came around
I have no crystal ball, but I have a feeling that Left 4 Dead wouldn’t have been as successful without the hordes of the undead. Unless it had featured rampant Honey Badgers, then I’d buy the **** out of that game!
Do you believe that Left 4 Dead would have been a success without zombies? Let us know on Twitter.
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Featured Image Credit: Valve