50 Fun Facts About Left 4 Dead

Which Left 4 Dead special infected sits crying in one spot and attacks only when disturbed?

The Witch stays put until light, noise or a survivor coming too close startles her, and on the hardest difficulties she kills with one hit.

Left 4 Dead's infected are living humans carrying a pathogen modelled on which real disease?

Rabies was the model: designer Mike Booth said a virus that turns a loyal pet into an attacker scared him more than magically animated corpses.

Why was the hand on Left 4 Dead 2's cover turned around for the UK release?

The gesture is an insult in Britain when two fingers are raised with the back of the hand outward, so the UK cover flips the hand into a victory sign.

What household device is strapped to Left 4 Dead's pipe bomb so its beeping lures the infected?

A smoke alarm does the luring, because the common infected chase high-pitched sounds and ignore louder, lower ones such as gunfire.

What does Left 4 Dead call the AI that places enemies and items according to how players are doing?

The Director replaces fixed spawn points, and Valve had tried a simpler version of it in key battles of Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

Which country, then lacking an adult rating for games, refused to classify the uncut Left 4 Dead 2?

Australia had no adult rating for games in 2009, so players there got an edited version without dismemberment until the uncut game was cleared in 2014.

Bill, the old soldier among Left 4 Dead's four survivors, is a veteran of which war?

The Vietnam War also features in Dead by Daylight, which added Bill as a playable survivor in 2017 and later expanded the story of his service.

Which British band let Valve print its imagery on Rochelle's T-shirt in Left 4 Dead 2?

Depeche Mode answered eagerly when Valve asked several bands to appear, and the game uses the group's music as well as the shirt.

Left 4 Dead began as a mod pitting players against knife-wielding bots in which Valve shooter?

Counter-Strike supplied the code for the mod, Terror-Strike, whose bots carried only knives and behaved so much like zombies that a horror game grew out of it.

Which Left 4 Dead survivor, a college student, has to shoot the infected pilot after No Mercy?

Zoey kills the pilot moments after he lifts the group off the roof, bringing the helicopter down in an industrial district outside the city.

What is Francis, the Left 4 Dead survivor who hates everything except vests, described as?

An outlaw biker, Francis is voiced by Vince Valenzuela and is one of the three original survivors who turn up again in the sequel's campaign The Passing.

In The Sacrifice, why does Left 4 Dead's Bill leave his friends and face the horde alone?

To restart a generator that failed while raising a lift bridge, Bill gives his life so the other three can sail away.

At the end of The Sacrifice, Left 4 Dead's remaining survivors set sail for which island chain?

The Florida Keys were Bill's idea: he believed islands offered long-term safety, and the infected are unable to cross bodies of water.

Jim French, the radio host who voiced Bill in Left 4 Dead, also played which Half-Life 2 character?

Father Grigori and Bill share a voice, and French went on to play the Elder Titan in Dota 2 while still producing radio dramas.

Which actress, the voice of Cortana in Halo, also voices one of Left 4 Dead's four survivors?

Jen Taylor has been Cortana since the first Halo in 2001, and she also voiced Princess Peach in Mario games for almost a decade.

Mike Patton, who voiced Left 4 Dead's common infected, is best known for fronting which band?

Faith No More's frontman supplied the snarls of the common infected, the Smoker and the Hunter, and he also voiced the Anger Sphere in Portal.

In Left 4 Dead, what happens when a survivor kills the bloated special infected that vomits blinding bile?

It explodes: the Boomer bursts and showers anyone nearby in more bile, which draws a horde, so players hesitate to shoot it on sight.

What does the Smoker in Left 4 Dead use to snare a survivor and drag them away?

Its long tongue can leave a victim dangling in mid-air, and killing the Smoker releases a cloud that hides everyone's view.

How does the Hunter, Left 4 Dead's hooded special infected, pin down a lone survivor?

By pouncing from afar, the Hunter lands on a survivor and tears at them until a teammate shoves it off or kills it.

Left 4 Dead's opening campaign, No Mercy, climaxes with a rooftop rescue from what kind of building?

A hospital named Mercy gives the campaign its title, and the survivors reach it through the city's streets, subway and sewers.

Which Left 4 Dead campaign passes a church sheltering a paranoid man before a boathouse rescue?

Death Toll crosses the small town of Riverside, and the fishing boat that answers the call drops the survivors in a burning city across the river.

In Left 4 Dead's story, the outbreak that creates the infected begins in which US state?

Pennsylvania is where the first game opens, in the city of Fairfield two weeks after the first infection.

What nickname do the Left 4 Dead games give the infection that turns people into the infected?

Green Flu is the nickname used in both games, and neither the source nor the nature of the infection is ever made clear.

Which Left 4 Dead DLC campaign, set shortly after No Mercy, sends the survivors to a truck depot?

Crash Course is only two levels long and begins beside the downed helicopter; at the depot the survivors find the armoured truck that carries them onward.

In Left 4 Dead's campaign mode, where does a dead survivor reappear to be freed by teammates?

In a closet or small room, and only a human player can let them out, because the computer-controlled survivors will not open the door.

Every Left 4 Dead survivor starts with which pistol, the only weapon with unlimited ammunition?

M1911 pistols can be carried in pairs once a second one is found, and the sidearm is the only weapon that still fires while a survivor is incapacitated.

What do pain pills do for a hurt survivor in Left 4 Dead, unlike a first aid kit?

Pills only boost health temporarily, so the gain drains away, whereas a first aid kit heals properly and can be used on any survivor.

Left 4 Dead runs on a 2008 version of which game engine, upgraded for multi-core processors?

Source gained multi-core support and physics-based animation for hair and clothing, yet one reviewer still said the engine was showing its age.

Which studio created Left 4 Dead and was bought by Valve partway through the game's development?

Turtle Rock Studios took its name from the neighbourhood where founder Mike Booth lived, and the team first worked out of his garage.

Which Left 4 Dead 2 survivor, a talkative mechanic, keeps telling stories about his friend Keith?

Ellis is voiced by Eric Ladin, who was allowed to ad-lib in the recording booth, giving the writers new ideas for the character's dialogue.

Which special infected new to Left 4 Dead 2 carries a survivor off with one enormous arm?

The Charger then pounds the captive into the ground until a teammate kills him, and anyone else caught in his path is sent flying.

Left 4 Dead 2's survivors cross the Deep South from Savannah hoping for rescue in which city?

New Orleans is rumoured to be the last standing city in America, but the survivors arrive to find it overrun and the military pulling out.

Left 4 Dead launched in November 2008 on Windows and which games console?

Xbox 360 owners got an official split-screen mode for two players, something the PC version only allowed through console commands.

What did Valve offer two leaders of the player boycott against Left 4 Dead 2?

A trip to playtest it persuaded two of the group's most prominent members that the sequel was well made, and the 40,000-strong boycott shut down weeks later.

The cancelled Left 4 Dead 3 was described as an open-world game set in which country?

Morocco was to host fights against hundreds of zombies at once, but the project was shelved because Valve's next engine was taking too long to build.

Which publisher handled the retail copies and console version of Valve's Left 4 Dead?

Electronic Arts did the same job for the sequel, and within three months it announced that the first game had sold 1.8 million copies, not counting Steam.

What do Left 4 Dead's survivors learn about themselves after the military rescue in Blood Harvest?

They carry the infection without showing symptoms, and by the time anyone realises it they have already infected most of their rescuers.

Which fictional band's abandoned stage show signals for rescue in Left 4 Dead 2's Dark Carnival?

The Midnight Riders left a large-scale light show behind, and two of the band's songs were later released as downloads for the Rock Band games.

Which special infected was cut from Left 4 Dead, its horde-summoning role passed to the Boomer?

The Screamer had no attack of its own: on spotting a survivor it ran to a safe place and made enough noise to bring a horde.

In Left 4 Dead's Dead Air, the survivors refuel and escape a bombed airport aboard which aircraft?

The C-130 Hercules first passes over a greenhouse where the survivors are resting, and like the helicopter before it the plane later crashes.

The Last Stand, the one new map in Left 4 Dead's free Survival mode update, is set at what landmark?

A lighthouse was the only original setting among the mode's 16 maps, and in 2020 a fan-made campaign of the same name became an official update to the sequel.

Which Valve writer championed the Left 4 Dead prototype to Gabe Newell and then led the project?

Chet Faliszek brought more than 100 Valve staff onto the project, and he later said the first game shipped in such a rush that rebuilding it as a sequel beat fixing it.

Which Japanese company released Left 4 Dead: Survivors, an arcade version of the sequel?

Taito replaced the four heroes with a new cast, including a Japanese schoolgirl on a school trip, and gave the cabinet a mouse-and-handset control scheme.

Which Valve co-op shooter gained an Onslaught mode that borrowed Left 4 Dead's enemy-spawning AI?

Alien Swarm used the system to generate enemies on the fly, and Valve has also experimented with feeding it biofeedback such as a player's skin conductance.

What is unusual about how Left 4 Dead's dynamic soundtrack reaches the players in a team?

Each hears a different mix because a separate music system tracks what every player has been through, and dead players listen to a teammate's version.

A hoax on the Left 4 Dead fan wiki invented a fifth survivor, a Francis tinted which colour?

Purple Francis came with pages of absurd invented lore, and fans liked the joke so much that a mod adding him appeared within days.

Left 4 Dead 2's special infected appear as caged monsters in which horror film?

The Cabin in the Woods was meant to get tie-in DLC for the game, and when the studio's money troubles killed the plan, Valve lent its monsters to the film instead.

Why did about 12,000 Modern Warfare 2 owners receive a free copy of Left 4 Dead 2?

They were wrongly banned by Valve's anti-cheat system over two weeks in July, and anyone who already owned the game could pass the copy on as a gift.

Coach, the Left 4 Dead 2 survivor with a bad knee, taught which sport at a high school?

Football was the game Coach taught, and his voice actor, Chad L. Coleman, later fought zombies again as Tyreese in a hit television drama.

What does the Spitter, a special infected added in Left 4 Dead 2, launch at the survivors?

Balls of acid splash into a pool that does more damage the longer survivors stand in it, and the Spitter leaves one last puddle when she dies.