Notorious as it is for taking an age to update its beloved franchises, fans of Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2 have taken it upon themselves to make their own new content.
Despite being a decade old, the zombie-slaying co-op shooter maintains a sizable cult following on PC to this day, with modders regularly keeping the experience fresh with gameplay additions. Whether it be weapons and enemies, graphical upgrades or simple quality of life fixes, the relative accessibility of Valve’s Source Engine has allowed fans to make some extensive changes over the years, though none are as ambitious as today’s latest addition.
Chernobyl Chapter One is available to download now (link below) for the title and to celebrate, those responsible for the mod have released a new trailer. Check it out above.
As for what’s included, the key campaign features are as follows.
- 5 new maps in Co-op
- Accurate representation of the actual Jupiter Factory/Pripyat locations
- Over 400 new models and 500 new textures
- New “rescue vehicle”
- Custom panic events
As only the first chapter in an ongoing series, Chernobyl‘s creators say plenty of future updates are planned, including one focused entirely around Versus Mode. A release date for the multiplayer component has yet to be announced, though the development team is calling for “experienced versus players” to help optimize gameplay.
Excellent news for Left 4 Dead 2 fans, then, but what of Valve’s future involvement? Despite having never officially announced as such, the studio was, at one point, believed to be working on a sequel, though, for whatever reason, ultimately opted to scrap the project entirely. Whether or not a replacement ever entered full-scale production remains a mystery, though, with the recent announcement of Half-Life: Alyx, there’s a chance, however slim, that Valve hasn’t forgotten about Left 4 Dead entirely. Fingers crossed, eh?