Left 4 Dead 3 mention spotted in Counter-Strike 2’s files

Left 4 Dead 3
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Left 4 Dead 3 gets a mention in Counter-Strike 2’s code. Just don’t expect Valve to actually make a sequel any time soon…


 

Proving that gamers are incredibly adept at finding needles in haystacks, a poster on Reddit has flagged that there’s a reference to Left 4 Dead 3 buried in Counter-Strike 2′s code. A single screenshot provides a look at the pertinent file, which mentions “Left4Dead3.”

The discovery arrives mere days after Counter-Strike 2′s beta test phase launch last week, with CS:GO players now invited to try out Valve’s latest multiplayer shooter.

Anyone hoping that Valve is set to return to its asymmetric-multiplayer zombie shooter series once Counter-Strike 2 is finished are almost certain to be disappointed, however. As you can see, the file has “priority” set to “none” – which doesn’t exactly sound like good news for Left 4 Dead fans:

Left 4 Dead 3 spotted in CS2 files!
byu/PaP3s inSteam

Left 4 Dead 2 was released in 2009, and reports that Valve has been working on a sequel have surfaced occasionally since. Most recently, documentary The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx revealed that Left 4 Dead 3 was indeed in development at one stage, and featured an open-world setting based on Morocco, and saw players fighting off huge armies of slavering zombies. The project was ultimately cancelled.

Other rumours suggested that Valve might be working on a VR-enabled Left 4 Dead 3 in the vein of Half-Life: Alyx, though nothing has emerged to substantiate that so far.

Where Valve has eschewed the Left 4 Dead series, Turtle Rock Studios attempted to recapture at least some of its gory, chaotic spirit with 2021’s Back 4 Blood. The game did well at the time of its release, though Turtle Rock announced in February that it’s no longer developing new content for the game, and is instead working on a new project.

If you’re still hoping that someone, somewhere at Valve is quietly working on a new Left 4 Dead, there’s a least a shred of positivity to cling onto: before Counter-Strike 2 was formally announced, its existence was rumbled thanks to references to ‘CS2.exe’ in some NVIDIA driver files.

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