Chet Faliszek, a former Valve who worked on games such as Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, and Half-Life, revealed in an interview with YouTube channel Kiwi Talkz (via VG247) that Valve president Gabe Newell didn’t want to have zombies in Left 4 Dead.
Faliszek explains that one night over dinner, Newell was asking him what his zombie game was about. Because most zombie movies address some social issues, Newell went on to say how “Night of The Living Dead is about racism, Dawn of The Dead is about consumerism.” Faliszek explained that Left 4 Dead was about working together, and “it’s a reflection of the game.”
Newell didn’t want to do a zombie game because it was “cheesy.” This was before shows like The Walking Dead aired, when zombies were considered a niche category that lacked broad appeal.
So Faliszek decided to make some of the characters in the world of Left 4 Dead aware that they’re in a zombie-like movie with Zoey and Louis. Even though both characters acknowledge that what they’re experiencing is something you’d only see in movies, they take it seriously.
This idea of being self-aware in a horror movie-like situation inspired The Anacrusis, Faliszek’s next game. Currently, The Anacrusis is in early access and available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. It’s a game similar to Left 4 Dead, but instead of zombies, players are in a ’70s-inspired spaceship that gets hijacked by aliens. “It’s very cheesy, but if you just take that as serious and you have those players inhabit that world and play it serious, then it has a different feel to it,” Faliszek said.
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