Counter-Strike: Source mod leaks, offering glimpse into early Left 4 Dead concept
A Counter-Strike: Source mod has appeared online that more or less gives a glimpse into an early concept of the game Left 4 Dead. This mod concerns Zombie City, in which the ‘counter-terrorists’ run towards the terrorists like zombies.
Modmaker Wolfcl0ck has one video posted online about the playable mod, which is by him too has been made available and in which he has incorporated some adjustments. The video shows the counter-terrorists turning on the playable terrorists, but not in the usual way. The counter-terrorists are bots that behave more or less like zombies and run towards the players armed only with a knife. A bomb can be placed, but the goal seems more like surviving the hordes and reaching the end of the map.
Zombie City is a map created by Valve or the previously acquired Turtle Rock and is part of a series of leaked map files. It is unclear who is behind the leak. The map can be considered a prototype and the possible starting point for the later shooter Left 4 Dead. Zombie City is clearly not a completed product, considering, among other things, the great lack of details and the rudimentary contours of a city.
During a recent documentary spoke Turtle Rock founder Michael Booth on the concept. “While developing bots for Counter-Strike: Source we discovered that pitting a few of us armed to the teeth with automatic weapons against 30 knife-wielding enemy bots was a lot of fun. After releasing Counter-Strike: Source in late 2004, we started “We wanted to experiment with new game prototypes. That basic core of a small team of friends against hordes of enemies was something we kept coming back to and we quickly realized that co-op versus the horde game had a lot of potential.”
Turtle Rock previously worked on Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and approached Valve in 2005 with two ideas, including a mod for Counter-Strike called Terror-Strike. The concept has now appeared online. Turtle Rock would later be acquired by Valve and the studio made the shooters Evolve and Back 4 Blood, among others.