14 DAY TRIAL // Left 4 Dead 2 had been teased by Valve even before Steam for Linux was launched, but the waiting game is over and fans will be able to play the first Beta next week.
Left 4 Dead 2 is a FPS zombie-killing cooperative game developed by Valve that has millions of fans all over the world.
The game hasn't made it to Linux yet because it's based on the Source engine, the one that has been used and pioneered by Half-Life 2 (an upgraded version of course).
If we add the fact that it's a multiplayer intensive game, with a lot of special requirements, it's understandable why it's taking a lot longer to port L4D2 to Linux than anything else in their library.
“The L4D2 Beta is mutating. Not content to just be the testing ground for the new Extended Mutation System, we will be adding Linux to the Beta. And not content with the number of testers in the Beta, we will also be opening up the Beta to all L4D2 owners,” reads the official announcement, on the Left 4 Dead blog.
The game will be released as a separate Beta and will appear alongside the original title. This means that players will only be able to connect only to other users in the Beta and only to Beta servers.
This will be a public beta and everyone will be able to access it. Be careful though, if you have bandwidth issues, you might want to reconsider adopting the Beta because the developers will push a lot of updates.
“You do not need to enter a code to gain access and it is totally voluntary to download and participate in the Beta,” is also stated the announcement.
There is no word about the first Left 4 Dead and at this point, it's uncertain that it will ever be ported. Valve did say that they were going to port the complete catalog, but there's no word so far.
We'll keep you apprised with information about Left 4 Dead 2 for Linux.