The sooner we move on from hope for Left 4 Dead 3, the happier we'll all be. But then along come mysterious teaser videos like this one on unknown YouTube channels, all professional looking and full of nods toward the Left 4 Dead universe. Before you get your hopes up for the start of a viral ad campaign, Valve has confirmed that this teaser isn't official. It's just a fan creation from some anonymous, talented person or people. But man oh man, do I want to play the game it's selling.
The video doesn't show any characters or flash a Left 4 Dead title - if you weren't familiar with the property, you'd probably think it was a tease for any given zombie game. But look closer and there's a map with the CEDA evacuation location in New Orleans highlighted, and a familiar safehouse door. Even the zombie hand at the very end of the video curls its pinky down before the screen cuts to black, leaving three outstretched fingers. Whoever made this wanted it to feel like Left 4 Dead 3.
On the other disfigured hand, some red flags indicate this is a fan creation even without Valve's official denial: the prominent appearance of real-life products (would Quaker Oats really license Life, Little Mikey's favorite cereal, to a game about slaughtering zombies by the hundreds?), the direct callback to Left 4 Dead 2's evacuation map, the lack of almost any animation aside from slow camera pans.
The only look at Left 4 Dead 3 we've gotten so far was through allegedly leaked environmental screenshots from an old version of the game. Valve's keeping quiet about Left 4 Dead's future or lack thereof, but at least the studio behind the original game is stepping up to fill in the gap: Turtle Rock (who you may also know from Evolve, RIP) announced work on Back 4 Blood in March and it sounds like a proper Left 4 Dead successor in all but name. Name too, honestly, what with that "4" right in the middle of the title.
The world of co-op zombie shooting keeps rolling - check out the World War Z roadmap to see where one such game is going over the next few months. Or see what we thought of the more grounded zombie action of the Resident Evil 2 remake in our video review.
