Summary
- Left 4 Dead's influence spawned a subgenre of PvE FPS games.
- Remnant 2 offers a Soulslike looter shooter experience with cooperative gameplay.
- GTFO provides a slower-paced cooperative stealth horror experience.
The original Left 4 Dead is one of the most influential PvE FPS games of all time, spawning its own subgenre of games as well as laying the blueprint for many PvE shooters. From Destiny to Overwatch's PvE events the 'DNA' of Left 4 Dead can be felt throughout the cooperative shooter genre.
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As a result of the original and its sequel's success, as well as the current hiatus of the franchise, there are a lot of games that are trying to fill that space. While there are many iterations inside the genre, this list has a mix of both the best and most popular attempts at emulating Left 4 Dead.
7 Remnant 2
But With a Souls-like Twist
Remnant 2
- Released
- July 25, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Gunfire Games
- Genre(s)
- Soulslike, Third-Person Shooter
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
Remnant 2 is the sequel to Remnant: From the Ashes, and follows the same style of moment-to-moment gameplay. It’s a Soulslike looter shooter with hordes of enemies. The game has long-term progression unlike Left 4 Dead, but the moment-to-moment gameplay is similar: load into a map with a group, and get to the other end without dying, going up against the bosses and mini-bosses that come the player's way.
The game’s levels are procedurally generated out of handcrafted tiles, giving them more replayability than typical Left 4 Dead without sacrificing art style and cohesion. It should be noted though that this game requires a commitment to these progression systems, as the game gets continuously harder as players progress. Thankfully, co-op is extremely easy to take advantage of, and there is even a dedicated healing role for those especially cooperatively inclined.
6 Deep Rock Galactic
Rock and Stone!
Deep Rock Galactic
- Released
- May 13, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Ghost Ship Games
- Genre(s)
- FPS
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One
Deep Rock Galactic is like if Left 4 Dead was crossed with a party game. One minute it’s shotgunning bugs as they climb on the caverns above players, next it’s kicking barrels into hoops and drinking beer. The coolest part of the game is that outside of mission-critical objectives, the world is 100% destructible.
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This makes all of the mining and explosive work not only super responsive but also super deliberate, working completely in 3D to accomplish tasks. It’s super lighthearted and has probably the best community that one can currently join. If players have tried Sea of Thieves and like the social aspect of that, give it a shot.
5 GTFO
Plain Scary
GTFO
- Released
- December 10, 2021
WHERE TO PLAY
GTFO takes Left 4 Dead’s formula, slows it down, and turns up the horror. GTFO is first and foremost a cooperative stealth game. Health and ammo are so rare that every combat exchange inches players closer to resource exhaustion and death, making melee takedowns critical to success.
The game is incredibly freaky and not at all for the faint of heart; think of a more subtly disturbing Dead Space in first person. The game is fun, but it should be noted that it is one of the harder games on this list and isn’t really feasible to play solo. For those with gamer friends, however, it is an incredibly effective horror game in groups and is worth a try.
4 Back 4 Blood
Deceptively Similar
Back 4 Blood
- Released
- October 12, 2021
WHERE TO PLAY
Back 4 Blood is probably the closest players will get to the core Left 4 Dead experience, but it is also one of the more controversial titles on the list. This is due to the game’s extreme difficulty spikes and an overall punishing campaign structure that discourages drop-in drop-out coop.
It is by far the hardest game on this list, and probably the least fair, but also the most in-depth in terms of its buildcrafting. This comes in the form of the roguelike Card system that allows players to accrue buffs that persist through their run. These cards are serious game changers, allowing players to double down on the different playstyles like melee, explosives, or healing.
3 Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
Far Future Zombies
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
- Released
- November 30, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Fatshark
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
- Platform(s)
- PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PlayStation 5
- Genre(s)
- FPS, Action, Science Fiction
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is the 40k successor to Game Workshop’s Vermintide series (more on them later), combining the melee-based combat they’ve perfected with the multitude of firearms from the Warhammer: 40k universe. It’s also a more ambitious game, sporting more underlying systems than its predecessors, for better and for worse.
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The game also comes with a big visual improvement over its predecessors, bringing quality akin to the modern Star Wars: Battlefront games to the underbelly of Tertium. For fans of the universe, it's interesting to see so much of it up close and is an easy recommendation on that alone.
2 World War Z: Aftermath
Casual Fun
World War Z: Aftermath
- Released
- September 21, 2021
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Saber Interactive
- Franchise
- World War Z
- Genre(s)
- Shooter
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One
World War Z: Aftermath is the overhauled version of the original World War Z, and probably the most casual entry on this list. Based primarily on the movie the zombies in World War Z are fast and intelligent, using one another to scale walls like ants and storm barricades.
The gameplay, like Left 4 Dead, has its special zombies and setpiece moments, but overall the game places a lot of emphasis on the common horde. This game can place a lot of zombies on screen without a hitch and takes advantage of that constantly leading to some impressive visuals.
1 Warhammer: Vermintide 2
The Closest in Quality
Warhammer: Vermintide 2
- Released
- March 8, 2018
- Developer(s)
- Fatshark
- Genre(s)
- Action
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
- Platform(s)
- PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4
This game is the closest game to Left 4 Dead in terms of concise vision and simplicity. It plays exactly how one would imagine a fantasy spinoff would work; sporting a more robust melee framework, magic, and 14th-century weaponry.
There are RPG elements, like gear score and weapons with perks, but much of this is used simply to gate the harder difficulties as opposed to being core to the gameplay. It’s fun to jump into, but on higher difficulties, it can be one of the hardest and most satisfying PvE FPS experiences.
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