Unprecedented Update Breathes New Life Into Left 4 Dead 2 After 14 Long Years

Highlights

Valve has released a fresh update for Left 4 Dead 2, fixing bugs and technical issues.

In addition to the update, Valve has humorously named the alligator in the game's swamp "Fred" as per the community's popular request.

Despite rumors of a possible Left 4 Dead 3, Valve has a track record of ending its franchises after the second installment, so fans should not anticipate a new game in the near future.

Valve initially launched Left 4 Dead 2 in 2009, and now, after 14 years, they have released a recent update for the game. Similar to other games developed by Valve, Left 4 Dead 2 received highly positive reviews upon its release. The game was praised for its enhancements compared to its predecessor and the introduction of new features to the franchise. Valve continued to support Left 4 Dead 2 with bug fixes and fresh content even after its initial release.

Furthermore, players who owned the PC version of the game were provided with numerous DLC packs for free. Although the Valve-developed DLC ceased a few years after the release, certain community-created content was officially released, including Cold Stream in 2012 and The Last Stand in 2020. Presently, Valve has released another update for Left 4 Dead 2, but it does not include significant new content.

The most recent update for Left 4 Dead 2 is now available for download on PC. This update focuses primarily on fixing persistent bugs and addressing various technical issues. One particularly amusing aspect mentioned in the patch notes is that Valve has, in response to popular demand from the community, officially named the alligator in the swamp "Fred." Aside from this entertaining addition, the update is primarily routine and aims to ensure that Left 4 Dead 2 is even more polished than before.

It remains uncertain whether this update will entice former players to return to Left 4 Dead 2, considering the game's 14-year age. Still, there is a demand for the series to resurface with a new installment. Although rumors about Left 4 Dead 3 have circulated, Valve has refrained from making any official announcements. If such a game were to be released, it would likely generate significant anticipation, although Valve tends to conclude their franchises after the second installment without explanation. This pattern was observed in Portal, Team Fortress, and notably, Half-Life. While it is possible that Valve may eventually release a third main series game in one of their popular franchises, fans should not expect it to happen in the near future. Left 4 Dead enthusiasts will have to be content with the existing two games, as there is no guarantee that a proper third installment will ever be released. Thankfully, Valve occasionally provides random updates for the game.

Left 4 Dead 2 Update Patch Notes

- Fixed several exploits reported via HackerOne.

- Fixed controller navigation in some menus.

- Fixed not being able to open the train door in Crash Course when playing the Tank Run Mutation.

- Only the original attacker gets credited for damage caused by exploding props.

- Restored the knife's original horizontal swing trajectory.

- Fixed incorrect instructor lesson bindings for the Tank.

- Fixed LDR skybox rendering on low shader settings.

New response criteria:

- "TankActive"- 0 means no Tank aggro, 1 means Tank is aggro.

- "Chapter" - 0 is first map of mission.

New Script Functions:

- "AreAllSurvivorsInBattlefield" - Returns true if all Survivors are in the battlefield

- "GetClosestCharacterWhoIsIT" - Returns the closest character who is IT

- "GetClosestSurvivor" - Returns the closest Survivor to the passed origin

- "GetHighestFlowSurvivor" - Returns the Survivor with the highest flow

- "GetLowestFlowSurvivor" - Returns the Survivor with the lowest flow

- "GetRandomSurvivor" - Returns a random Survivor

Maps and Mutations:

Dead Center

Map 1:

 - Restored window clip-hang bugs that were patched with TLS to re-allow access to the rooftop in Coop mode.

 - Versus: Tank will now only spawn after Survivors have exited the elevator, and no later than leaving the kitchen.

Map 3:

 - Blocked a stuck spot at vending machine alternative path.

Dark Carnival

Map 1:

 - Patched a rarer stuck spot at the swamp's cargo container.

 - Patched an elaborate SI out of bounds exploit.

Map 5:

 - Addressed some issues with "THE MAIN ATTRACTION" Achievement by adding more triggers so it no longer fails if any Survivor disconnects or goes idle while on stage.

Swamp Fever

Map 1:

 - Patched janky ladder near the ferry event.

 - By popular community request the TLS Swamp gator is now canonically named Fred.

Map 2:

 - Blocked a stuck spot behind some rocks at the start near the parachutist.

 - Blocked a stuck spot on a cypress knee near the parachutist area dock.

Map 3:

 - Blocked stuck spots at two sets of cypress knees around the event start area.

 - Versus: Blocked a stuck spot for SI behind a bush to the left of the first bridge upon entering the water.

 - Versus: Blocked a stuck spot for SI in the bush near the lantern/event start.

 - Versus: Improve SI clipping of first ladder outside saferoom to allow drop through a large gap.

 - Versus: Moved a TLS Infected ladder out of the Survivor's way at the start.

Map 4:

 - Versus: Blocked a stuck spot for SI behind a bush in the back of the enclosed hedge area.

Hard Rain

Map 2:

 - Restored a shortcut that was patched with TLS; instead fixed the soft-lock where Survivors cannot progress if one player skipped the elevator.

The Parish

Map 2:

 - Eliminate a stuck spot that a previous ladder patch created.

Map 3:

 - Versus: New ladder in far corner of manhole drop area to fix stuck .

Map 4:

 - Versus: The jet strike trigger that used to inflict 25 damage per touch (75 total) to Survivors after the balcony drop has now been reduced to only 2 damage per touch, aligning it with the behavior of other triggers.

The Passing

Map 1:

 - Blocked a stuck spot in a corner behind a floodlight in the top floor after the alarm cars.

Map 2:

 - Fixed collision issue with clips on the stairs by the saferoom that caused noticeable teleporting when not on a local server.

The Sacrifice

Map 2:

 - Versus: Delete func clip that blocks SI access into end closet.

No Mercy

Map 1:

 - Lift anti-grief kill trigger off the ground to prevent an incap glitch.

 - Versus: Add clip to patch a ladder shortcut at the start.

Map 2:

 - All sets of railings will now appear for all players regardless of graphics settings.

Crash Course

Map 1:

 - Block rare stuck spot between the box wreck and traffic light.

Map 2:

 - Clip to prevent gas cans from falling between finale buses.

Death Toll

Map 3:

 - Blocked a stuck spot at the top of a rock cliff cluster just after the church bus.

 - Blocked a stuck spot between the cliff rocks and the right side of the mandatory house.

 - Versus: Fixed an SI stuck spot on the barricade by the church.

Dead Air

Map 3:

- Clip brushes and navmesh have been revised to grant access to SI players on a previously obstructed pipe featuring an Infected ladder.

- The clip brushes and navmesh have been modified, allowing Survivors to enter the hallway adjacent to the final saferoom, which was previously inaccessible due to a roof clip in the L4D1 port.

Map 4:

 - Fix SI player and AI stuck spot inside the end rubble.

Blood Harvest

Map 2:

 - Versus: Fixed SI stuck beyond the end of tunnel just before end safe room.

Map 3:

 - Fix rare stuck spot in starting saferoom for SI only.

 - Stuck in tree near shed.

Map 4:

 - Versus: Patched fence Infected ladder next to lawnmower room.

Cold Stream

Map 2:

 - Fix stuck next to military truck leading to barricade.

 - Fix two stuck spots behind the long hedges on the right of after the military truck leading to barricade.

 - Fix a regression with easy event skip clip and a stuck clip nearby.

Map 3:

 - Enlarged a stuck clip to fully fix it.

The Last Stand

Map 2:

- Streamlined the difficulty scaling for the finale, now only increasing on Advanced and Expert difficulties. This change aims to reduce player fatigue and confusion, while also aligning it with the expectations set by other finales.

- Single Player mode now requires 25% fewer gas cans to accommodate for the presence of bot teammates. On Easy/Normal difficulty, you will now need 6 gas cans, while on Advanced/Expert difficulty, the requirement has been lowered to 9.

- In Multiplayer modes, the gas can requirement has been adjusted to increase by 1.5 times per difficulty level. On Easy/Normal difficulty, you will now need 8 gas cans, while on Advanced/Expert difficulty, the requirement has been raised to 12.

 - Versus: Fixed an out of bounds exploit to get under a cliff side.

 - Versus: Fixed a stuck spot between a tree cluster and Versus-only fence at the cliff that overlooks the beach.

Tank Run:

 - The first map of a Campaign will now spawn two Tier 1 weapons near the start area if no other Tier 1's are nearby.

 - Car alarms will now spawn a Tank if triggered.

 - Disabled water slowdown for all maps.

 - Set Survivor revive health to 50.

 - Added auto self-revive mechanic with a delay based on the "survivor_revive_duration" Cvar (default 5 seconds).

 - Slight buff to pistol and melee damage against the Tank.

 - Fixed issue where the sacrificing player would get auto-revived after restarting the generator.

- Resolved the problem causing the finale to display a failed screen when players who jumped off the bridge to restart the generator became incapacitated.

- Addressed the issue that caused the auto-revive feature for a Survivor to malfunction when players went idle, switched characters, or left the game.

- Resolved the problem of script malfunction when a Tank was deleted during the biling process.

- Rectified the issue where Tanks were unable to maintain their deceleration effect after being biled, if they were hit with another vomit jar while already under the biling effect.

 - Fixed issue where Survivors could get instantly revived when hit with a car.

Death's Door:

 - Enabled heartbeat sound when under 25% health.

 - Enabled B&W state when at 1 permanent HP.

 - Fixed heartbeat sound when taking over bot.

 - Fixed Fallen Survivors being able to drop medkits.

 - Fixed temporary health decay in the safe room, loading players will no longer decay temp health.

 - Defibrillator now heals 1 permanent - 99 temporary HP (still B&W).

- The safe room respawn function has been improved to restore a total of 24 permanent and 26 temporary health points, accompanied only by the sound of a heartbeat.

- In addition, when transitioning to the safe room, living Survivors will now have 80% of their missing health points restored, bringing them to halfway towards full health (ranging from 1 to 40), without any side effects on their health.

 - Fixed an issue that caused the mission to fail for Sacrifice type finales when the player presses the final button.

Versus Survival:

 - Thickened clips and other map-specific fixes to dramatically reduce stuck spawns.

 - Made it auto-trigger any outputs on the entity used to start Survival if the pre-round timer expires.

Taaannnk!!:

 - Thickened clips and other map-specific fixes to dramatically reduce stuck Tank spawns.

 - Players no longer need to wait for incapped Survivors in order to progress at areas like elevators.

L4D1 Coop & Survival & Versus:

 - Set the claw viewmodels for the L4D1 SI to the proper L4D1 models for L4D1 Versus.

 - Disabled water slowdown for L4D1 Survival.

- The defibrillators have been revamped to serve as pain pills instead of medkits. This change was necessary because the game used to generate an excessive number of defibrillators when they were converted into medkits, resulting in an overflow of medkits.

- We have adjusted the noise levels for running and talking in line with the values used in L4D1. As a result, it will be slightly more challenging for Common Infected to detect Survivors, similar to their counterparts in L4D1.

 - Changed to use much more accurate L4D1-like looking ragdolls.

Left 4 Dead 2 is available for PC and Xbox 360.

Source: Steam