If I had a nickel for every Valve game that had a completely different beta vaguely teased in an E3 demo and would later be restored after nearly ten years of development from die-hard fans, I’d probably be able to get a copy of Left 4 Dead 2 in a Steam sale. I’ve interviewed the leads of various Half-Life fan projects in the past, but efforts to restore Left 4 Dead 2’s beta are much rarer. That’s where the Beta Restoration Project comes in.
Left 4 Dead 2 originally had combat more in-line with the first game; Nick, now a riverboat gambler, was conceptualised as an escaped convict who had ditched his prison clothes for a lavish white suit; there was an ammo pack to compliment the med-pack, and the Charger started life as a three-legged dog creature. The list of changes goes on, and it was those leaps from the beta and concept phase to retail that sparked Beta Restoration Project’s project manager Gigan’s interest way back when he was only 13 years old.
“As a little kid, I played on the PlayStation 2. And there was a game on there called Jetx20 – I only had the demo when I started, back in the mid ‘00s,” Gigan tells me. “I picked it out of a magazine that came with a set of trailers, and one had all these really awesome designs and characters and maps. So eventually, for Christmas, I got the full Jetx20, and I was so incredibly happy about it. But I noticed that, all of a sudden, I’m not getting all of the content that's in the trailer. So I’m intrigued – how come I can’t unlock this costume? Why do these characters look different? And Left 4 Dead does the same thing. Coach looks completely different, Ellis has a different shirt on – same as Rochelle – and then I saw the Charger. It was awesome. I was inclined to look at the differences and I wanted to relive that experience, because that is history. And we can make it so that it continues on.”
Marketing manager Nick describes the project as a “time capsule”, seeking to preserve a slice of gaming history by making that original Left 4 Dead 2 E3 beta playable again in a way it never has been. There has been the odd skin or animation tweak, but never a fully-functioning build. That’s partly because there’s little to go off, bar the odd gameplay clip and trailer, meaning that the team is rebuilding it from footage alone.
“The campaign in particular was a big deal,” Gigan tells me. “The E3 demo campaign has never been made. People have made the beta Parish, but that’s a prototype map from the game files that’s not even the E3 version – it dates back earlier. It’s not the same thing. We created that campaign solely off footage, because that’s all we can do. That’s how we made it, literally taking frame by frame screenshots and mimicking it the best we possibly could.”
Given the scope, Gigan reached out to others, bringing in friends and external collaborators to build what was essentially, in the beginning, a modpack. These were a rarity in the pre-Steam-Workshop days, but that initial concept blossomed into a dev team called Sourcerer. Graphic designer MikeyD joined around April 2020 after meeting Gigan and Nick in a Left 4 Dead 2 public lobby. While still in high school, he began by sifting through old E3 footage on YouTube that the team would end up using. This was in-depth analysis, as they would look for individual items, weapons, and other objects missing from the retail build. His work has been on the finer details, not only bringing the E3 beta to life via the maps, enemies, and characters, but through its UI and menus.
“Perhaps my favourite item I’ve created is the E3 Level Transition,” MikeyD says. “I had to use a mixture of my media recreation and scripting skills to implement it. It was a pain given that, at the time, I could not find another mod to use as reference for changing the level transition user-interface. I had to create new splash art, recreate the 180p, blurred, and distorted images in Photoshop, and then figure out where and what to alter to bring it to the game.”
There’s room for the smaller points that ultimately complete that classic E3 feel, not only bringing the original demo’s campaign back but also the feel between each segment. That’s because Sourcerer’s restoration efforts are gearing up for a full release, though that doesn’t mean the team is finished.
“Just because the project is technically at its completion doesn’t mean we’re going to just let it sit,” Gigan says. “There has been talk of bonus game modes, not that it’s going to be part of the actual mod itself, but something that players can download separately. We’re trying to think of creative ways we can extend the E3 demo universe, so to speak. And I also have ideas of an E3-inspired booth experience for the beta pack, for a convention like ComicCon as we live in Florida. That would really allow people to share that same experience from back in 2009.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s a one-to-one recreation, but I will say I don’t think we can get much closer,” MikeyD says. “The menus, sounds, maps, models, music, graphics, UI, scripts, animations, and the rest are impeccably similar to the demo videos I had consumed consistently in 2020. And, for that accomplishment, I cannot put into words how proud I am of this team. I think all those who play it who have watched footage of the E3 build will notice the similarities and respect it for that, and I think all the players who haven’t will respect just how different the mod is from the final product we received on launch back in 2009.”
As gaming becomes increasingly digital, markets shut down, and old games get harder and harder to play legally, fans like Gigan and his team are putting the work in to keep that history alive. Left 4 Dead 2 is playable on Xbox One, Series, and PC; still readily available for those itching to get back into Valve’s landmark co-op shooter, but that old build that introduced so many to its world is lost in obscurity. While we don’t have that original build today, this project is incredibly close, making a part of Valve’s history available like never before.
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