Left 4 Dead project lead Mike Booth is working on something new, and if you’re hoping it’s something like L4D but different in some undefined, hopefully additive way, I have good news: It sure sounds like it.
“I’m excited to share that I’m working on a brand new project—a four-player co-op shooter built on the foundations of what made L4D special,” Booth wrote on the Left 4 Dead subreddit. “If you enjoyed the teamwork, tension, and replayability of my past games, you’ll probably find this one interesting. It expands on the co-op formula in ways I’ve wanted to explore for a long time.”
Lest there be any doubt, a subreddit mod confirmed that the message was in fact posted by Booth.
Of course, there’s already been at least one shooter that expands on the Left 4 Dead formula: Back 4 Blood, released in 2021 by Turtle Rock itself, but without Booth. We liked Back 4 Blood quite a bit, naming it the best co-op game of 2021, but its user rating on Steam is “mixed” and enthusiasm for the game in replies to Booth’s Reddit post is, shall we say, muted. That’s resulted in a certain amount of caution in some of the responses to Booth’s message, even though it wasn’t his thing.
The new project is still in early development, but Booth is looking for “a limited number of players” for upcoming playtests. If you’re interested, you can fill out the form at badrobotgames.com—and yes, that’s the gaming division of the JJ Abrams-led production company of the same name. Booth joined Bad Robot Games in 2020 and became chief creative officer in 2022.
The Bad Robot survey reveals that Booth’s new game is known internally as Project Tacoma, and asks questions like whether you’re a PC or console gamer, if you typically have voice chat enabled when you play online, whether you prefer a controller or keyboard and mouse, and if you’re a regular on games like Apex Legends, PUBG, or Fortnite.
There’s also what is presumably a minimum PC spec listed: RTX3070 or RX6800 or better, 8GB VRAM, 32GB RAM, and a Core i7 CPU or above. If you get in, you’ll be notified by email—access to the playtest will be sent out in waves.
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