One of the key creators behind Left 4 Dead is developing a new shooter, and you can sign up now for future playtests.
Alongside the likes of Bioshock and Gears Of War, Left 4 Dead was a defining pillar of the Xbox 360 generation.
The 2008 co-op zombie shooter went on to receive a sequel just a year later but, surprisingly, developer Valve has done nothing with the IP since – aside from comic books and light crossovers in other games, like Dead By Daylight and Zombie Army.
There have been occasional rumours of a third entry but the game’s lead writer appeared to rule out the possibility in 2023, with the only alternative being the many copycats and spiritual successors which have emerged in the years since.
We’ve already had Back 4 Blood from Turtle Rock Studios, a team consisting of seven people who worked on the original Left 4 Dead, but now another of the game’s OG creators is working on a successor.
Mike Booth, who served as a lead designer on Left 4 Dead, has announced he’s developing a four-player co-op shooter ‘built on the foundations of what made Left 4 Dead special’.
‘If you enjoyed the teamwork, tension, and replayability of my past games, you’ll probably find this one interesting,’ Booth wrote in a post on the Left 4 Dead subreddit. ‘It expands on the co-op formula in ways I’ve wanted to explore for a long time.’
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Booth notes that it is ‘in the early stages of development’, but they’ll soon be opening up playtests to a ‘limited number of players’. If you’re interested, you can sign up on the website for Bad Robot Games.
Booth is the chief creative officer at Bad Robot Games, the gaming offshoot of the film and TV production company founded by J.J. Abrams. Prior to this role, Booth founded Turtle Rock Studios in 2002, where he worked on titles like Counter-Strike, Left 4 Dead, and Team Fortress 2. He left the studio, which was later acquired by Valve, in 2012, and went on to to have stints at Blizzard and Facebook in executive roles.
While there are no screenshots of the game (or even a name), this will be the third title which promises to be a Left 4 Dead successor from the original creators. Back 4 Blood failed to live up to expectations in 2021 and another co-op shooter, entitled The Anacrusis, was released in 2023 from studio Stray Bombay, co-founded by the lead Left 4 Dead writer Chet Faliszek.
Booth focused on Left 4 Dead’s AI director, which dynamically determined enemy placements and items in levels. It was arguably the game’s most interesting feature, so there’s perhaps more hope this project could emulate the same magic if it uses a similar system.
Interestingly, there’s no mention of ‘zombies’ in the Reddit post, so there’s a chance this co-op shooter might leave the undead behind – in the wake of imitators like World War Z and Call Of Duty Zombies.
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