The last time Valve addressed the rumors was in 2020, where the company said that it isn’t developing a new Left 4 Dead game. So where does that leave us? Sadly, it leaves us with uncorroborated Left 4 Dead 3 leaks and rumors, and with a lengthy new Left 4 Dead wishlist. Still, if you want to get caught up on all the information that’s out there, you’ll find details on every whisper we’ve heard over the years about Left 4 Dead 3.  

Left 4 Dead 3 Rumours

There have been a number of rumors pertaining to Left 4 Dead 3’s development, with many credible sources teasing its existence. While Valve addressed some of the rumors, there have been some notable rumors over the years. 

The first interesting tidbit arrived in 2014 thanks to an anonymous source posting a singular image to Neogaf (opens in new tab)with the garbled caption “jU$st fel acros myd esk, mbight b a thin.g”. 

The image is a screenshot of an open Powerpoint presentation, seemingly an internal, confidential Valve document that showcases levels from Left 4 Dead 2 enhanced and rebuilt in Valve’s Source 2.0 engine. The main event appears to be the Plantation mission, the final stakeout in the Swamp Fever campaign. With no official word on the matter, we can’t be sure that this came from Valve, but given how well-made it looks, it must have been the work of some incredibly talented modders and developers if not.

If we flash-forwards to 2016 we can then address the wonderful investigative sleuthing of Tyler McVicker of Valve News Network, who collected a number of leaks from the Steam VR Performance Tool (opens in new tab), which appeared to blow Valve’s entire future development plans wide open via a number of Source 2 files. As well as a “retired engineer” character found in the Left 4 Dead 3 directory, a new Special Infected is also referenced, known as The Nocturnal, whose abilities may have been tied to a day/night cycle, one of the features of the new engine. It’s worth checking out this run-through of the leaked content on the ValveTime website (opens in new tab) if you’d like to know more, which includes a potential Left 4 Dead test map, possibly bound for VR, and containing strings referencing a Moroccan lantern.

In what appears to be a gaffe on the side of Valve, references to the game (and Half Life 3, for Pete’s sake!) were found in the file directories, which led many to assume that the game was in development. Later that year, a tutorial posted to Valve’s official developer community website contained an image that referenced a ‘l4d3’ folder before it was swiftly replaced, too. Later in 2017, user Barnz posted a discussion thread to the ValveTime forum (opens in new tab) pointing to the portfolio website of one Moby Francke (opens in new tab), an ex-Valve artist who appears to have drafted up some concept characters for a potential Left 4 Dead 3. The two characters are armed to the teeth and look fit for fighting zombies. At that time it was surmised that the previously leaked VR files matched the actual textures for the 3D models of these characters, further turning the rumor mill.

Earlier this year in April 2019 we saw perhaps the most credible leak yet in a series of woefully boring screenshots (opens in new tab) of a walled middle-eastern city. These were once more provided by Valve News Network host Tyler McVicker and despite lacking confirmation, it certainly lines up with the conceptualized character designs. The problem is that at this point, it looks like the project was probably canned, as the images are from an old 2013 build of the game. At this point, it’s probably not worth getting your hopes up about Left 4 Dead 3.

Left 4 Dead 3 wishlist

Still, we can’t help but imagine just what a Left 4 Dead 3 would be like. Below, we’ve put together a wishlist for features we’d love to see as we continue to dream about one day seeing a sequel. 

1. New and returning characters

One of the Left 4 Dead series’ best features are the interesting and diverse cast of characters available to players. Though their backstories have previously been explored via easter eggs, external media and back and forth voice lines, characters like Louis and Bill have still become beloved in the eyes of fans, even appearing in other titles. 

Given the time since the previous game, Valve will have no doubt had time to dream up an even more unlikely team of protagonists from all corners of the globe, not just America. The avenues for exploration of their moral code via in-game side missions, environmental storytelling and more have opened up significantly since the days of Left 4 Dead 2, and the concept introduced in The Sacrifice of losing a player as part of the narrative and making genuine choices mid-gameplay could certainly be expanded in the next game.

2. Intercontinental maps and biomes

As well as an even more culturally diverse cast, it’d be great to see the game spread it’s wings from North America and travel to other continents. Whilst Valve risk muddying the waters by making the campaign an international journey, perhaps a change of scene would be good for exploring different biomes and their related infected (see the clowns at the carnival and the context-specific swamp zombies.) 

Even if it was set in Europe, or as the leaks suggest, the Middle-East, it’d be a fascinating new lens to present the unique zombie apocalypse that Valve has crafted. We already know that iconic maps can come from humble beginnings like No Mercy’s claustrophobic hospital, so by taking a step back, perhaps we could be in for some even more death-defying set pieces.

3. New special infected types

As referenced in the leaks, The Nocturnal is evidence that Valve already had plans for more special infected beyond the already stacked roster of Jockeys, Tanks, Spitters and the like. It’s worth noting that zombie dog sound files have been found as cut content from the game, and more notably The Screamer was cut from the game, a special zombie that alerts the horde to its position by yelling. With enhanced logic potential and increased player-infected interaction, the gate is open for swathes of new enemy types that learn from years of iteration and play mind games with the survivors rather than being purely physical like the Tank or Hunter.

4. VR capabilities

Given Valve’s focus on VR with SteamVR, the HTC Vive and now the Valve Index, it’d make sense to see Left 4 Dead 3 offer some kind of VR support. Whether that means cross-play with PC players or a specific game mode for designated VR players, it’d be fascinating (if not nauseating) to zip around the map as a hunter, scaling buildings and leaping through the air to land on prey. It’s certainly possible to load up a VR player with the abilities of the infected, and given Valve’s rumored work on a Half Life 2 VR release, perhaps the tricky design issues of implementing shooter gameplay into VR might have been remedied by the point of its release, allowing VR players to exist in an asymmetrical map and contend with one another. It would certainly be an ambitious concept to pull off, but well worth it if it works.

5. Horde and director intelligence enhancements

Left 4 Dead’s AI director is by far and away the most impressive and ambitious part of the zombie shooter’s formula, a dynamic means to control the pacing and difficulty of each round of survival, as the players strive to get to the safe room and proceed to the next map. Even though the A.I. is still fairly unmatched as far as online asymmetrical co-op multiplayer goes, the mind boggles as to what Valve could do with the directorial systems in-game given enhancements in machine learning since the previous game’s release. 

Horde and special infected management as well as the spawning of Tanks and Witches could be even more clever and adrenaline-pumping than before. Beyond the infected, the director is also in control of items, map events like car alarms and rain and music, which is the main means to figure out if you’re about to get swarmed or not. Technically, this is the most tricky part to work on but if done correctly, even slight improvements upon Left 4 Dead 2’s already stunning A.I. base would be a welcome shock to the system for co-op shooter fans. 

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Invisible, all-seeing and all-powerful, the director is a weight on your mind throughout each chapter, however reassuring your surroundings, and however hale and hearty your gang of gun-toting human Survivors may be. This is a brilliant gambit not just because the result is a ferociously unpredictable co-op game, perfect for frequent play. It also demonstrates how interactive art can reinvigorate conventions beloved of older media, by taking well-worn devices – the rasp of violin strings when something ghastly squelches out of a sideroom, the miraculous yet expected discovery of a shotgun in a basement – and reorganising them on the fly.

In terms of the blow by blow of combat and survival, Left 4 Dead is frustrating to write about because its moving parts are so cleanly and cleverly meshed that they’re hard to analyse in isolation. The temptation is to bumble off on a series of anecdotes, rather than dissect the mechanisms that give rise to them – that time everybody found themselves dangling off the same rooftop by their fingertips, for instance, or that time a lone Survivor made it all the way to a campaign’s end, only for a rogue Smoker to snatch her up as she ran for the helipad.

It’s also a game that manages the trick of amassing complexity and variety around simple concepts, without diluting their charm. Take the four Special infected, playable in the game’s competitive multiplayer. Each handles in a unique way – the Hunter is a hyperactive panther in a hoodie, the Tank a rotting Hulk – but they’re all meditations on the same core function: separate the human players from each other as they move through the level, then pick off them off one by one. The Boomer causes Survivors to scatter for fear of being showered in zombie-attracting stomach acids. The Hunter is there to ambush gung-ho types and those who make a desperate break for the exit. The Smoker’s job is abduct Survivors during bigger brawls, suffocating them while friends are busy fending off the horde. And the Tank’s role is to soak up precious bullets and smash people out of formation so that other Specials can run them down.

The exception to the divide-and-conquer rule is the Witch, a sadistically zero-sum piece of enemy design (thankfully not playable in PvP) who appears near building entrances or mid-corridor, sobbing hysterically. Stray too close, and she’ll cut you to pieces in a heartbeat. This naturally entails a drop in tempo, as you tiptoe along the wall one by one, or cautiously nose around for side-routes – and while you’re picking your way past, the Director may be sneaking up behind you with an army of common infected. It’s a magnificent interweaving of priorities and pressures.

You could argue that Left 4 Dead is all the zombie game you’d ever need: the Director’s underhandedness, together with the choice of strategies afforded by the layouts and each special Infected’s abilities, make for a co-op shooter that still feels fresh after your hundredth playthrough. Excellent though it proved, the second game wasn’t able to build on the formula in a revolutionary fashion. Nevertheless, I’d absolutely love to play the long-rumoured threequel, which is reportedly in development for the next generation of Valve’s Source engine.

For one thing, the zombie genre at large has progressed since Turtle Rock’s game hit shelves in ways that might benefit from the AI Director’s attention – it came out before The Walking Dead TV series, before Telltale’s video game adaptations of the same property, and before the mighty DayZ. There’s something to be said for a change of backdrop, too: a Left 4 Dead that takes place in a picturesque European city, perhaps. I don’t know about you, but the idea of whisking the arms off a pugnacious stiff while roving the cobbled streets of Cologne has a certain appeal.

Beyond that, we need Left 4 Dead back because there’s still nothing on offer that scratches quite the same itch, as abundant as wave-based zombie survival modes have become. I’d say we need a new Left 4 Dead more, even, than Valve’s other hotly coveted sequel, the borderline imaginary Half-Life 3. Many a first-person odyssey has riffed on Half-Life’s level design, toolset and narrative beats, from Bioshock, through the Thief, series to Metro and even Halo. By contrast, Left 4 Dead’s only real imitator (the upcoming HUNT: Horrors of the Gilded Age aside) is Turtle Rock’s spiritual successor Evolve, a predatorial offworld adventure of huge ambition and richness that never quite coalesces into something amazing.

Perhaps above all, Left 4 Dead deserves resurrection because, as frantic and unhinged as the action can be, it’s also one of the most layman-friendly games ever made – an emissary of sorts to the world beyond our industry. That reliance on shlocky cliche means that even a total game-o-phobe can work out what’s going on, given a passing familiarity with B-movies – one of my sisters, a resolute non-gamer, used to watch as my brother and I put the Survivors through their paces, laughing along with us when we fell victim to the game’s machinations. It’s rare to come across a title that straddles the gap between industries and disciplines this smartly, at once revelling in the legacy of cinema while making a case for the video game as an artform.

It’s this balance between brains, depth, possibility and accessibility that makes Left 4 Dead so important. With Evolve both simplifying and over-complicating things – focusing down the threat, while replacing the immaculate Director with unreliable human intelligence and a good deal of random environmental hazards – and zombie co-op in games now represented largely by a, well, horde of identikit horde modes, we need Left 4 Dead back.

We need it back to remind us just how special undead survival really can be in the right hands, and hell, to remind us just how special the hands at Turtle Rock and/or Valve can be. In order to justify its existence, Half-Life 3 needs to evolve the FPS in the same way that its predecessor did. That’s an almost unattainable goal, and certainly a very long-term development prospect if it even is possible. Revitalising the half-dead corpse of one of gaming’s finest co-op campaigns though, for a generation now obsessed with zombies, survival, and connected worlds? That resurrection is all too possible.

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AI companions tend to come in a couple different flavors. There’s the true companions, versatile and interesting characters who really add something to the experience, like Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite or Alyx from Half-Life 2. Next are the harmless annoyances, who aren’t great to have around but don’t get in the way–Ashley Graham has the good sense to keep her head down, and Navi has some alright advice here and there. And then there are the AI companions who actively make the game worse by existing. From charging headfirst into enemy bullets to using up your precious resources while you shriek in rage, they seem deadset on making EVERY level the “hell level.”

In (dis)honor of these hated, virtual hanger-ons, I’ve compiled a list of the worst AI companions gaming has to offer. Hoarders, pesterers, jerkfaces and straight-up dead weight–they’re all here, and they’re going to do their best to ruin your fun. It’s time for some naming and shaming!

Sheva (Resident Evil 5)

The thing about going into battle with someone is that you need to trust them. “With your life” is a pretty good benchmark, since your partner will hopefully be stopping bullets and knives from trying to occupy the same space as your internal organs. That’s why so many players hate Sheva, Chris Redfield’s partner in Resident Evil 5: she can’t be trusted. She consumes all your shared ammo and health items like its penny candy, and when you’re on your last legs and need her most, she has a penchant for standing around and letting nature run its course. She may not be a bad character per say, but it’s kind of hard to remember that when she’s watching you die like an unfeeling robot.

Tails (Sonic 2)

Bless Tails; he really does try. He just sucks so bad that failure is his only option, and he simply can’t keep up with Sonic “Gotta Go Fast” the Hedgehog. Sometimes that’s literal, like when he’s so slow on special stages that he regularly runs into bombs and ruins everything. Other times he’s just flat-out dense, like when he collapses platforms before Sonic can even touch them or runs straight into very obvious spikes. You want to give him a little credit, because he will nab a ring or two for you. But then he’ll promptly lose them doing something stupid, or drag you down when you try to help him, and you’ll suddenly wish Sonic would aim his fist bumps a little higher.

Duck Hunt Dog (Duck Hunt)

With man’s-best-friends like these, who needs enemies? Not Duck Hunt, where your only real enemy in the struggle for duck dominance is your son-of-a-bitch hunting dog. Rather than focusing on your victories like any good dog should, the Duck Hunt Dog spends more time ridiculing you for your failures. The mockery never ends. Every time one of the slippery fowl gets away from you, the Dog is there to undercut your self-esteem until you just can’t take it ANYMORE!!! You can’t shoot him either, to the disappointment of frustrated players everywhere. However, he is set to appear in the upcoming Super Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS, so revenge might finally be ours.

Roman (Grand Theft Auto 4)

Niko Bellic deals with some unpleasant things in GTA IV, brawling with vicious gang members and dealing with the popo after accidentally mowing down a group of tourists. But few things in Liberty City make your stomach drop like getting a phone call and hearing “HEEEEEY COOOOOOOOOUSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN” blasting down the line. After the fifteenth time cousin Roman ask you to join him in an annoying bowling minigame, you start running people over out of rage instead of just for fun. It would almost be bearable, if that was the worst family failure you had to deal with. But when you have to kick the crap out of a bunch of guys to clean up your cousin’s mess? And then he calls you for the sixteenth time? Bowling balls aren’t all that’s gonna roll!

Survivors (Dead Rising)

I get that the zombie apocalypse can be stressful, especially when you find yourself locked in a shopping mall with a horde of the undead, packs of psychopaths, and no Orange Julius stands in sight. But as completely idiotic, frustrating, and useless as the survivors in Dead Rising can be, it looks like the zombies arent the only ones in want of brains. Most of your human cohorts are unbelievably slow, lagging behind you even when you’re carrying an injured party on you back. They’re virtually incapable of defending themselves even with a weapon, and have a nasty habit of walking into the thick of a zombie pack and expecting you to get them out. Sure, you can leave particularly infuriating survivors behind, but that hurts your overall score, and the one you left for dead could be replaced by someone equally useless!

Survivors, again (Left 4 Dead)

Speaking of left for dead–sorry, Left 4 Dead–those survivors don’t come out looking so good either when a fellow player isn’t controlling them. CPU versions of the zombie-blasting friends do their best to emulate human behavior, like a robot trying to calculate the square root of love, and do seem to get it right some of the time. But they’ll just as soon stare at you Sheva-like as you die, play lemming and leap off balconies, or get comfy in a toasty patch of fire. Forget any time you need to lay low and not draw attention–the AI knows that proper way to combat the horde is to run in with guns blazing. Oh, and never forget to walk directly up to a witch. Come on, they just need some love.

Superfly Johnson and Mikiko (Daikatana)

Granted, Daikatana itself is notoriously awful, and it’s AI characters could hardly escape the crapshoot. Still, Superfly Johnson (yes, that’s his actual name) and Mikiko go above and beyond, combining their powers to make this game as bad as it could possibly be. These two hit all the terrible AI touchstones: running directly into any stream of bullets you let loose, getting stuck on doors, and happily putting themselves in lethal situations where their deaths spell Game Over for you. They even spice it up a bit by being blithely hostile, occasionally shooting you in the midst of a firefight instead of getting shot themselves. Did I mention friendly fire is on? When Mikiko double-crosses you and steals the Sword-of-Ultimate-Power-or-Whatever at the end (I’d warn for spoilers, but who cares?), you almost start to wonder if these two were actually brilliant enemy combatants. But, no–they’re just that stupid.

Your comrades (Gears of War)

The characters in Gears of War are men and women of extremes. I don’t mean those times when they go mano-a-monster with the demonesque Locusts, but the part where they’re either really bad or way too good at it. In the first Gears game, your brothers in (h)arms spent a lot of time doing lethally stupid things, like meleeing a megaboss or standing on top of a campfire. Dom in particular is known for putting himself in deadly situations that are too dumb to comprehend. The developers saw the problem here and adjusted for Gears of War 3, by which I mean the game basically plays itself. Yes, replace my clunker van with a rocket I can’t ride. That’s so much better.

Natalya (GoldenEye 007)

Yes, Natalya, I know we have to go to the main control room. Now if you could do that without walking in front of all of my bullets, marching directly into enemy fire, or getting stuck on the goddamn door of the goddamn main control room, I would REALLY. FREAKING. APPRECIATE IT!!! The most frustrating part of an otherwise great game, Natalya is the epitome of rage-inducing escort bots. Progressing requires that you anticipate her slow, clunky movements and keep her from walking into the business end of a rifle like she thinks it’s shooting money and free ice cream. I’m pretty sure she leads a double life as a target dummy, which explains why she has such crap dexterity that she gets stuck on a doorframe.

WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT???

Even years after they first drove us into a frothing rage we haven’t forgotten these AI idiots, and I’m sure most of us would rather hang out with anyone else over them. A rabid wolverine, perhaps. What do you think? Does the memory of these horrible partners make you want to tear your hair out? Did we miss an odious offender? Tell us in the comments below, and share in our hate-pain. Hain. Yes.

Want more rage against hapless “helpers”? Check out the Top 7 video game sidekicks we hated. Would you rather sooth your wrathful heart? Check out 10 sidekicks that deserve their own game, because they’re not all useless.

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For 560 MS Points.

Above: The Cold Stream campaign is not officially canon to the Left 4 Dead storyline, but at least it’s officially being published by Valve. A seal of approval if ever there was one

560 MS Points may be a nominal amount, but it is a price ‘in money’ for something PC owners can already get for free. We would admittedly rather have to pay for the content than not have it at all (as Left 4 Dead is ace), but it does seem a bit unfair.

But is it? Double Fine’s Tim Schafer famously went on the record to say it costs $40,000 (opens in new tab) just to release a patch for a game on Xbox Live (as well as having to jump through a load of hoops). But perhaps the most telling story is that of Valve itself, who famously said that all of their first party DLC would be free (opens in new tab) back in 2009. Left 4 Dead’s first DLC was indeed free, but the second pack was not. Valve’s Chet Faliszek said at the time (opens in new tab):

“We own our platform, Steam. Microsoft owns their platform. They wanted to make sure there’s an economy of value there.” When pressed about whether Microsoft effectively enforced the pricing, he added: “Well, they helped us get the first one out for free. We had the one DLC out for free. And I think… they have to look and say, wow, we’re kind of being unfair to everybody else if these guys can do that.

So it’s more likely a case of Microsoft wanting people to pay for DLC on their service than Xbox owners getting a bum deal from Valve. Fair enough, of course – XBLA is not a charity. And besides, you won’t just get the Cold Stream campaign for your money. You also get ports of four campaigns from the original Left 4 Dead – namely Crash Course, Death Toll, Dead Air and Blood Harvest, plus the ability to use all the mutations in multiplayer.

Above: You do need to own ‘The Passing’ DLC if you’re playing on Xbox to access Mutations

If you’re still grumpy and wondering why it’s also hitting 360 a week later than the PC and Mac versions, it’s due to the ‘title update’ for L4D2 that’s coming at the same time. Apparently it took longer than anticipated to get that through Microsoft’s certification process, and the DLC won’t work without the update. It’s a whole other world that we’re pleased we don’t have to worry about – we can just play the results. Even if it is for 560 MS Points.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

Source: OXM (opens in new tab)

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Look at how responsive it is, even when the gyroscope is being used to move the camera by holding down the left bumper to activate it. And the frame-rate even looks reasonably smooth. We are slightly disappointed that such a technical wizard didn’t have an HD camera to hand, as the video is a little pixellated even on 480p. But we’re not complaining too much – we’re too busy being in awe.

If this is an indication of how PS3 Remote Play will look on Vita, we’re sold. However, bear in mind that most PS3 games weren’t programmed to leave some processing space for converting the video output for play on a PS Vita, so it may not be as simple as this PC link.

We always liked the idea of Remote Play on PSP, but it was always too laggy to be enjoyable, in our experience. This looks like… well, it looks exactly like Left 4 Dead. And that means brill.

Source: Joystiq (opens in new tab)

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Yesterday rumor mongers came up with an especially enticing little morsel of gaming news. The rumor floating around was that Overkill, the studio behind the co-op bank heist shooter, PAYDAY, was working with Valve on developing a prequel to the Left 4 Dead series.

Honestly, the rumor seemed a bit sketchy at the time so we decided not to write about it until an official word came in. Today, Chet Faliszek of Valve announced (opens in new tab) to the world that there is no such collaboration in the works.

I don’t want to give it away, because we want the community to explore and find it, but I want to make sure that people don’t think the prequel is coming,” said Faliszek told PCGamesN. “If that happens, then it will make this other thing we’re doing feel uncool, when the thing we’re doing is really cool. I mean, the problem is, if you make a rumour, and you can make the rumour anything, you’re going to make the rumour really, really cool. And that makes everything else sound less cool.”

The idea of a collaboration between Valve – with their endless resources and ingenuity – and Overkill with their obvious talent for unique co-op experiences, had many fans worked into a tizzy. However, Faliszek says that the collaboration is more akin to Team Fortress 2, where you’ll see other games weapons incorporated into the play. Not that the collaboration is exactly like that, but he says it’s similar. Whatever that means.

We’ll be sure to report on any news regarding the actual facts of the Overkill/Valve collaboration. Even if it’s minor in scope, we’ll still be excited to see what they’re doing together.

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