Left 4 Dead

Co-op first-person shooter with dynamically paced zombie hordes

Valve · Released Nov 17, 2008

Reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive; 96% of 68K
Recent reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive; 95% of 371 in 30 days
Playing now: 219; peak 24h 432
Steam Deck: Playable
Last update: 2 months ago; Jun 29, 2026

What is Left 4 Dead?

Set just after a zombie apocalypse, this first-person action-horror shooter follows four survivors trying to escape an infected disaster zone. One to four players fight through five-map campaigns while an AI director adjusts enemy attacks; Versus pits survivor and infected teams against each other, and Survival tests how long a team can hold out.

For you if...

+you enjoy replaying campaigns with changing enemy attacks
+you want both cooperative and competitive zombie modes
+you prefer direct shooting over progression and crafting systems

Not for you if...

−you want a large variety of weapons and enemies
−you dislike linear, map-based campaigns built for repeated runs

What players say

96% of 68,198 reviews are positive · 95% of 371 in the last 30 days

Players praise the straightforward design, team play, atmosphere, and variation between runs. Common complaints say the sequel includes the original campaigns alongside more content, while public matches can suffer from teamkilling, vote-kicking, and other griefing.

Screenshots and trailer

Left 4 Dead system requirements

As published by the developer.

Minimum

Processor: Pentium 4 3.0GHz
Graphics: 128 MB, Shader model 2.0, ATI 9600, NVidia 6600 or better
Memory: 1 GB
Storage: At least 7.5 GB of free space

PC version details

DRM, required accounts, controller support and Steam features.

DRM: None declared on Steam
Controller: Full controller support
Platforms: Windows
Achievements: 73
Steam features: Cloud saves, Family Sharing

Steam Deck: Playable

Default controller config not fully functional
Shows Steam Deck controller icons
In-game text is legible on Steam Deck
Default graphics settings perform well on Steam Deck
External controllers are not supported for the primary player

Multiplayer and co-op

Languages

Full audio: English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Russian. Text only: Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese - Portugal, Simplified Chinese, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Bulgarian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Portuguese - Brazil, Romanian, Spanish - Latin America, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese.