A Terror-Strike: Zombie_City mod for Counter-Strike: Source, which laid the foundation for Left 4 Dead co-op play. The playable map is available for download; not sure the experience is still worth it in 2023 though.
A massive leak of Counter Strike maps at the end of last week contains several files, including the prototype of Left 4 Dead: a map entitled Terror-Strike: Zombie_City which laid the foundations of the cooperative game of Turtle Rock (studio called Valve South between 2008 and 2010). You can check it out in the video above.
Let’s put things in context. After Counter-Strike: Source, the developers at Turtle Rock had other projects in mind. Michael Booth, the studio’s founder, explained in 2009: “While we were developing bots for Counter-Strike: Source, we discovered that it was a lot of fun to be a few, armed to the teeth with weapons automatic, to face 30 enemy bots armed with knives. After shipping Counter-Strike: Source in late 2004, we began experimenting with new game prototypes. ceases and we soon realized that the game “cooperative against the horde” had enormous potential.
From this idea would have been born this concept mod Terror-Strike: Zombie_City, shown at Valve. It would obviously have seduced Gabe Newell’s company and resulted in the game Left 4 Dead in 2008.
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Modder Wolfcl0ck made several changes to make this map playable. You can download it at GameBanana.
Regarding the Left 4 Dead series, a second opus, simply titled Left 4 Dead 2, was released in November 2009. The franchise ended there. However, Turtle Rock developers continued to offer cooperative games: Evolve in February 2015, then Back 4 Blood en 2021.
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