Gabe Newell Was Against Cheesy Zombies in Left 4 Dead
Gabe Newell didn't want Left 4 Dead to include zombies. The screenwriter talked about the game in an extensive interview.
Source: Steam | Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead is one of the most famous zombie game series and undoubtedly one of the most popular brands in Valve's portfolio. However, it turns out that the game could have looked vastly different. This would have been the case if its screenwriter, Chet Faliszek, had succumbed to the opinion of Valve's CEO Gabe Newell, for whom the idea of a zombie horror game seemed misguided.
"Zombies are cheesy"
As noted by VG247, the YouTuber who runs the channel KIWI TALKZ recently interviewed former Valve scriptwriter Chet Faliszek about his work at the company. The men talked about such productions as Half-Life, The Anacrusis and of course Left 4 Dead. According to Faliszek, writing a zombie game in 2006 was not too difficult because The Walking Dead (which we'll come back to) was nowhere to be seen yet and neither was the massive boom on the zombie theme. Faliszek recounted that during one dinner with Newell, the subject of Left 4 Dead surfaced - Valve's CEO didn't like the idea of introducing zombies into the game because he thought they were "too cheesy".
However, that didn't stop Faliszek from standing his ground, and it was a good thing, because this formula of the game really appealed to the players. The screenwriter still remembered the fear he felt when, in his teenage years, he watched Dawn of the Living Dead. He wanted the gamers to feel that bit of uneasiness as well.
Zombiecalypse
Certainly many of you remember the fad for games focusing on zombies from around 10 years ago. Trend on the undead was also often used in cinematography, if only through the aforementioned, very popular The Walking Dead. Game lovers received many interesting productions, which approached the subject of zombies from different sides. There was Dead Island, which focused primarily on combat, there were cooperative network games such as Left 4 Dead and many players even fell in love with The Walking Dead, which was based on telling a human story, although there were also a lot of human meat connoisseurs mindlessly roaming the setting.
Back in the day, gamers often discussed the most effective weapons during a zombie apocalypse, so why don't we use the time machine and share our ideas for the most effective weapon against the undead in the comments?
