July 20th, 2009

This is a sub-page of Proto:Left 4 Dead 2.

Campaign DifferencesGet on the... monorail tracks?

General Differences#

• The game's shader settings are set to Low by default instead of a higher setting. Consequently, all screenshots provided in this article will be taken in the Low setting.

Game Modes#

Versus#

July 20	Final

• Strangely, when Survivors are grabbed by a Smoker in this mode, they will play a sound clip corresponding to warning people to get away from Spitter goo.
• tbd

Press Demo#

An undocumented launch option present in the final game is intended to modify the game and turn it into a condensed version acceptable for press gameplay, but it does not do much at all to modify the gameplay in the final game. In this prototype, however, it does make a somewhat notable difference, changing features which make it functionally closer to how it was showcased during Comic Con in 2009, with differences such as:

• The Jockey is disabled from spawning.
• All weapons from Left 4 Dead aside from the pistols are disabled from spawning.
• Only the fourth and fifth map of The Parish are accessible from the main menu, when playing through the first and second map of The Parish, the game session will end once you reach the second saferoom.

Game UI#

At this point in time, the game's UI is almost entirely taken from the original Left 4 Dead.

July 20	Final

• Instead of using a random background image of each mission, the loading screen uses the same static image every time. Notably, the Survivor silhouettes are darker and Rochelle's design reflects her appearance in the E3 demo and teaser trailer.

July 20	Final

July 20	Final

July 20	Final

• The lobby icons for the Survivors have a dark grey frame and white artifacts on the edges, lacking the distressed black overlay. Coach's icon is slightly more zoomed out and uses an entirely different color palette from the other icons.

July 20	Final

• The loading screen is a direct copy of the one from the first game, complete with the scratched metal background and different player name credits. Logically, the names of the original Survivors in the loading screen have been changed to fit the cast of the sequel.

Survivors#

• Because the game's subtitles file is taken directly from the original game, the survivors in this game do not have any subtitled dialog.
• Survivor bots are in a more primitive and unfinished state:
  • Survivors get stuck in difficult spots and left behind very easily, and often do nothing at all when other players are in distress.
  • They can set off car alarms.
  • They are not programmed to pick up upgrades like Incendiary Ammo and Laser Sights.
  • They are not programmed to shove Jockeys off of other players.
  • They do not actively avoid Spitter goo, resulting in lots of bots being downed due to their carelessness.

July 20	Final

Nick is significantly less beaten up and bruised, sporting a cleaner shave and a much nicer suit. He's missing his gun holster and the rings on his fingers, too.

July 20	Final

Ellis has a completely different outfit - he wears a brown jumpsuit and a light yellow shirt with blue sleeves, matching the color of his hat. His shirt says "J.B.'s Auto Service" over a pair of checkered flags on the front and back. The marks all across his clothing are also different, and just like Nick, he doesn't have a gun holster.

July 20	Final

• Coach TBD

July 20	Final

• Rochelle TBD

Infected#

Fallen Survivor#

To do: Add footage of the fallen survivor in action and the witch being a fallen survivor

In this build, the Fallen Survivor uncommon infected appears in all campaigns with a low chance of spawning. It behaves identically to how it did in the original release when it was unused; unlike its updated behavior released in the Passing, it does not flee from the survivor when provoked, and its molotov cocktail ignites when shot and killed in the chest. Curiously, the Witch can spawn as a Fallen Survivor in this version, seemingly unintentionally, as its items float on the ground beneath her. This version of the Fallen Survivor could still be enabled in the retail game through hacks in 2009..

Special Infected#

All Special Infected from the original Left 4 Dead still use their original models instead of the brand-new models which appear in the final game. Despite this, some new features unique to the second game are already present, such as the ability to cut the Smoker's tongue with a melee weapon and the Boomer being pushed further back when shoved.

Charger#

July 20	Final

The Charger's design has changed the least out of all Special Infected, as the only difference is his darker arms.

The Charger has some different animations, such as his idle and jump. The most notable animation unique to this prototype is his main attack, the charge. The charge attack only exists to bowl people over - he will transition into a gorilla-like galloping animation and send anyone in his path flying. However, he will not actually begin to pummel anyone into the ground because, instead of being part of the charging attack, the pummel attack is relegated to his regular scratch attack, meaning that he can now pummel incapacitated survivors. The scratch is much slower, having a long windup and heavily impeding the Charger's movement until the animation is over, even completely stopping the Charger if it is controlled by an NPC. In order to efficiently pummel, the Charger is intended to charge into the survivors and scratch a survivor while they are getting up from the ground. The Charger can also charge while punching, causing him to suddenly jolt forwards or backwards while still playing the punch animation. Chargers are also much more durable in this build, having 1000 HP, the same as the Witch. Because the game's subtitles are taken directly from the first game, the Charger does not have any subtitles.

Spitter#

July 20	Final

The Spitter's appearance is considerably different, more closely matching the design of Infected from the original Left 4 Dead which are also used in this prototype. Her skin has a dirty green tone to it with blood all over her arms and some differently weathered clothes. Her head has been remodeled, too: her pigtails and her neck are both shorter and her mouth has been completely remodeled, with the original design showing grey, decayed teeth. In the game, acid doesn't drip out of her mouth and leave a trail like it does in the final. Notably, several lines of dialog in the final game refer to her having "green skin," something which is obviously untrue in the final game and a relic of this early design.

Her animations are completely different, too, standing and running around in a pigeon-toed stance that was, as noted in the final game's Developer Commentary, removed for being found humorous rather than scary. The appearance of the Spitter's noxious acid is completely different, being a smoke-emitting neon orange pile of goo and giving a much more literal meaning to the Survivors referring to it as "fire spit." She doesn't spawn any acid around her when she dies, either, making her less of a hassle to deal with as a Survivor. Because the game's subtitles are taken directly from the first game, the Spitter does not have any subtitles.

Jockey#

July 20	Final

Arguably the least finished special infected in the build, the Jockey uses a shrunken-down Hunter as a placeholder model. It uses a texture that changes the clothing to resemble a horse jockey's outfit, being a bright blue and pink argyle sweater with white pants and, for whatever reason, pearly white teeth.

Gameplay-wise, the Jockey reuses a lot of the Hunter's animations and AI; it's equal in speed, can leap almost as far as the Hunter can, and jumps away when shot, but has 25 fewer health points than in retail. When a Jockey latches onto a survivor, a unique animation plays where it sits on its victim's shoulders, with the survivor putting their hands on their forehead as the Jockey blinds them (survivors have no animations for being steered, so the Jockey awkwardly slides off when moving). Curiously, both the survivor and Jockey have full movement control during rides. Because the game's subtitles are taken directly from the first game, the Jockey does not have any subtitles.

Leaker#

While still unused without enabling it through developer console, the Leaker functions slightly differently in this build in that it will actually visually show when it is about to explode. When it stops moving, the "Boomer puke" effect will begin spewing out of its buttcrack shortly before it explodes. How charming.

Weapons & Items#

• Several weapons and items are missing from the retail weapon set:
  • The Counter Strike: Source weapons.
  • The Magnum.
  • The M60 and Golf Club, which were added in The Passing DLC post-launch.
  • The Guitar and Katana.
    • The Machete, Baseball Bat, Crowbar, and Tonfa are present in this build, but are commented out in the melee manifest file, making them unable to spawn.
  • Carriables such as the Firework crates, Gnome Chompski, and the Cola Bottles.
• Lots of items have different names ingame:
  • There are no instructions for chainsaws, Boomer bile, single pistols, and nearly every new primary weapon introduced in Left 4 Dead 2 except for the ones mentioned here.
  • The Tactical Shotgun is called the Auto Shotgun.
  • The M-16 Assault Rifle is called the Assault Rifle.
  • The Desert Combat Rifle is also called the Assault Rifle.
  • The Sniper Rifle is called the Military Sniper Rifle.

Weapons#

• A majority of weapons new to Left 4 Dead 2 use placeholder animations which are directly taken from the weapons in the first game. Certain weapons, such as the AK-47 and Grenade Launcher, use separate, early revisions of their animations.
• Some weapons such as the Combat Shotgun and Silenced SMG have jigglebones, parts of the object which are rigged to freely wiggle or rotate during movement, for specific sections on their viewmodels. While missing from the initial retail release in 2009, these jigglebones would later be added back in the The Last Stand update.
• The Pistols (both singular and akimbo) reuse their Left 4 Dead animations and reload sounds. Notably, this means they have proper walking animations, something that would be absent from their final animation set before being added in The Last Stand update in 2020.
• Incendiary and Explosive Ammunition do not actually exist as pickups in this build - instead, they are pre-spawned upgrades which can be found throughout the map similarly to how the Laser Sight upgrade is implemented in the final game.

Melee Weapons#

Melee weapons function very differently in this build. Equipping them results in them being assigned to your player very similarly to how picking up Gnome Chompski or a gas can functions - it is not a secondary weapon and it will be assigned to a temporary slot, which means you will drop it when incapacitated, switching to a different weapon, or ensnared in the attack of a Special Infected. In addition, each melee weapon has a special "hard attack" associated to the button normally used for shoving, including a downward axe attack which can still be found in the final game, albeit unused.

Healing Items#

• Adrenaline lacks any screen effects once applied.
• The defibrillator animations are unfinished, lacking any animations for the dead player and using some provisional animations for the player applying the defibrillator.

Ammo Pack#

The scrapped ammo pack is present in this build, and placed throughout multiple levels. While Developer Commentary in the final game implies it may have been a deployable item in the same way as the Explosive and Incendiary ammo packs for the entire team to use, it actually functions more like a first aid kit - it uses the healing animations as a placeholder, and can be used on either yourself or another survivor to give them full ammo for their primary weapon. It was removed due to eliminating the need of finding a new gun when you are low on ammo and was presumably replaced with Incendiary and Explosive Ammo pickups.

Audio#

Soundtrack#

To do: Compile all the music into this table.

At this point in time, most of the game's soundtrack is reused from the original Left 4 Dead, with some exceptions. This build contains some early mixes of the soundtrack that plays in the final game. Note: All campaign start tracks have different intros and a differently mixed outro. The start music for Dead Center is missing at this stage in development.

Special Infected#

Some music was written with MIDI prior to studio recording.

Survivor Dialogue#

To do: The page probably needs another video like the original Left 4 Dead one except with the L4D2 outtakes.

Most of the original Left 4 Dead audio remains in the files, although curiously, this build includes tons of the survivor dialogue removed from the files of that game.

In the retail release of the game, many voice lines from the second game's cast were heavily compressed in a last-ditch effort to reduce the game's file size. However, in these prototype builds, every voice line is available in its uncompressed glory. These lines can be easily added back to the PC version using a mod like this. Here's one example voice line:

Some alternate takes of voicelines were left in this build, too:

Several voice lines do not exist at all in the files yet, such as:

• All dialog spoken by NPCs except for the soldiers on the radio in The Parish.
• Anything related to defibrillators, adrenaline, special ammo upgrades, grenade launchers, or Boomer bile vials.
• All "world" dialogue for Dead Center.
• Most "world" dialogue for The Parish besides the bridge.
• Friendly fire while fighting a Tank.
• Friendly fire by being hit by a bile jar (which is unused in the final game anyways).
• Being caught by a Charger while it is still sprinting (which is unused in the final game anyways).
• Noticing Uncommon Infected.
• Noticing or picking up most melee weapons.
• Most directional dialogue telling you where to go.
• Some extra reloading and safe room clear dialogue.
• Ellis's stories in addition to other Survivors responding to them.
• Nick's "OCD" dialogue about zombie germs in addition to other Survivors responding to it.

Special Infected Noises#

Spitter#

The Spitter has placeholder insect swarm sounds for her acid spit puddle in this build, with no fade-out sounds or accompanying music like in the final release.

Jockey#

To do: I think that the bit with the lines unused in the final game would work better on this page, while mentioning on that page that the voice lines are used in this prototype.

The Jockey has voice lines that were left unused in the retail game's files but are used in this build:

File Directory	Audio	Notes
sound\player\jockey\voice\idle\jockey_lurk01.wav
sound\player\jockey\voice\attack\jockey_lurk02.wav
sound\player\jockey\voice\idle\jockey_lurk03.wav
sound\player\jockey\voice\idle\jockey_lurk04.wav
sound\player\jockey\voice\idle\jockey_lurk05.wav
sound\player\jockey\voice\idle\jockey_lurk06.wav
sound\player\jockey\voice\idle\jockey_lurk07.wav
sound\player\jockey\voice\idle\jockey_lurk09.wav
sound\player\jockey\voice\idle\jockey_lurk11.wav		Identical to another file used in final: jockey_recognize_02.wav

The rest of these voicelines were overwritten by the time of the final release:

Unused Audio#

Left 4 Dead Cast Charger Warning#

Placeholder voice clips exist for Bill, Louis, and Francis spotting a Charger. The presence of these voices in the game is strange - the original Left 4 Dead crew were completely omitted from the sequel at release and did not make an appearance until the release of The Passing, close to a whole year after this prototype was built. When they were added to the game, new voice lines were recorded for this scenario, with the exception of Bill, who did not receive any lines at all.

Let's All Go To The Lobby#

Some music corresponding to the classic movie intermission cartoon. It would be logical to assume that this is paired with Dark Carnival, as the cartoon actually plays there in the finale of this prototype, but it is associated with the files of a scrapped "trailer park" level instead.

Unused Maps#

Early The Parish#

The original Left 4 Dead used separate map files between Versus and Campaign. Similar files exist in this prototype solely for The Parish but were scrapped early in development. As a result, playing these maps reveals a barebones, even earlier version of the entire campaign (except the bridge) with plenty of differences.

Left 4 Dead Leftovers#

All of the maps from the original Left 4 Dead can be found in complete working condition, looking and behaving identically to their real counterparts. While they do exist in the current version of the final game, they were not initially present at release and were only implemented in later updates, adding features from Left 4 Dead 2. Unlike the versions present in the final game, these levels are played using the cast of Left 4 Dead 2 and are otherwise virtually unchanged from the final version of the first game. Due to a bug in applying new shaders to older models, some Common Infected will erroneously be spawned with neon-colored clothes. Out of these maps, there are some strange, notable entries:

l4d_r_smalltown03_ranchhouse#

A clone of the ranch house from Death Toll. Not to be mistaken with the real level "l4d_f_smalltown03_ranchhouse", this one is given a bright white fog and sky, giving it a daytime effect. Not only that, the level is played in reverse, spawning you inside the church and making you go back to the trainyard. However, the safe house inside the train is set to use a "locked" saferoom door, making it impossible to complete the level.

l4d_r_smalltown04_mainstreet#

A clone of the main street from Death Toll. All the same changes apply here that were made to the ranch house, except that upon spawning, the map will fire an error calling it "unplayable." It will spawn you in the backyard of a random house, but you are free to move back to the real spawn area with the noclip tool in the developer console.

c5m1_waterfront_sndscape#

This leftover version of Waterfront still exists in the retail release of the game and even the newest versions available on Steam. However, in this build, most of the textures and models which have been removed from the game are still present.

Unused Weapons#

Chainsaw#

An extremely unfinished chainsaw can be obtained through the developer console. Obtaining it will show a pistol icon entering the secondary weapon slot and will give you a very broken fire-axe incapable of performing any attacks. Interestingly, though, this chainsaw functions differently from all the other melee weapons found in-game, as it will be assigned to a hidden sixth slot instead of being a temporary addition, meaning that putting it away will not drop it. However, it will still drop if you pick up another melee weapon. This behavior matches the implementation of melee weapons seen in the E3 demo.

Tonfa#

The tonfa, otherwise known as the nightstick, is present in the game's code like many other unused weapons, but is different in that it can actually be "given" through the developer console. Despite the fact that this is possible, the weapon itself doesn't actually exist, resulting in an error when the game attempts to give it out.

Other Unused Melees#

These melee weapons have matching models and textures in the game and even have code associated with them, but are disabled from actually being in the game:

• The crowbar.
• The baseball bat.
• The machete.

Bile Jar#

Also found through the developer console is the Boomer bile jar, something which appears in the final game but is unobtainable through normal means in this build. The visuals are much more closer to retail than the chainsaw, but it is absolutely useless functionally, incapable of actually applying a "Boomer puke" effect to anyone or anything.

Unused Graphics#

Placeholder Charger#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Add a screenshot showing his back as well, as it has text on its back.

This placeholder texture which has been knowledge since before the game even released still exists in the textures of the Charger. Before the Charger model was finalized, it would reuse the Hunter model with a new texture changing the hoodie into a football uniform, similarly to how the Jockey appears in this build as a lanky Hunter with an argyle sweater.

Placeholder Spitter#

Yet another placeholder texture, this time for the Spitter. Before the model was complete, it would use the Smoker's model with a bright green shirt which says "spit happens." on the back.

Rifle_A#

Found unused in the game files is presumably an early revision of either the Assault Rifle or the Desert Rifle, as the Desert Rifles model is named "Rifle_B" internally. It appears to be a combination of various rifles, being an MK18 with an M16 heatshield alongside an EOTech holographic sight on it. This weapons (solid color) texture file is present in the retail game files, but its model was not.

Early Melee Weapons#

Older revisions of the baseball bat and the machete can be found in the models. The baseball bat has a metallic appearance while the machete's textures are bugged and improperly assigned.

Melee Icons#

Although they function differently in this build and never appear in the player's HUD, the melee weapons have matching icons for the inventory which are identical to the ones which appear in the final game. Icons for melees which are disabled from appearing ingame are also present, like the crowbar and machete.

Unused Text#

"Chop Door" Event#

Chop this door with an axe to get inside

Dozens of filthy infecteds will be alerted!

An instruction for a crescendo event involving an axe which doesn't appear anywhere.

Waypoint Instruction#

Go here next

A vague instruction to "go here next."

Dark Carnival Finale#

shout into the mic to start the show finale

Seemingly, an even earlier version of the Dark Carnival finale text than what appears in the prototype.

Broken Weapons#

Your melee weapon has broken

This instruction appears on the screen when your melee breaks - the only issue here is that they can't break. Some sound effects corresponding to this cut feature still exist in the final game.

Explosive Shotgun Slugs#

You picked up Explosive Shotgun Slugs!

An instruction for a scrapped upgrade unrelated to Explosive Ammunition.