Cut Content

Cut content are features that were removed from the final product before the release of any Left 4 Dead game. These changes range from changed Survivor models and features to the removal of Infected and weapons.

Survivors

 * Bill underwent only small changes during development. The only differences in his beta appearance to those finally used are: an olive drab colored hoodie, a black military assault vest with the U.S. flag, and gray/black gloves. Personality-wise he was paranoid about the fact that the Survivors could turn into the Infected but these lines were subsequently cut.
 * Francis originally had slightly long, black hair with a beard and appeared overweight. His vest was denim instead of leather. His original design was likely re-used for the Midnight Riders.
 * Louis had short curly black hair, a beard and a bandage on his forehead. He wore a khaki long-sleeve shirt plus a yellow undershirt, blue jeans and a bandolier of shotgun shells over his shoulder. His original backstory cast him as the manager of an electronics store. (This may also be a reference to the movie Shaun of the Dead wherein Shaun manages an electronics store.) Louis and Bill's relationship was strained, they did not get along and often argued.
 * Zoey's beta appearance was significantly altered during development. In the beta, Zoey had longer hair, a pink hoodie with what appears to be ammo straps on it, gloves, khaki green baggy shorts, white and reddish-pink striped legging stockings, boots and knee pads. She sounded much older in early footage of the game and had a romantic relationship with Francis.
 * A large volume of dialog was recorded for the Survivors and NPCs that was subsequently cut from the game. Much of this dialog still resides in the game files.
 * Originally Valve had the idea of accentuating the role of News Chopper 5's pilot in No Mercy by casting him as an unwitting Green Flu victim undergoing change into an Infected. The cut storyline had him asking for a first aid kit, saying that he was feeling unwell after attempting the dangerous move of rescuing some other Survivors from the street. Shortly thereafter, he would state he was very cold, begin coughing, turn and become Infected causing the helicopter to crash; thus beginning the Death Toll campaign. However this scenario was judged to be unsuitable and it was cut... until Crash Course came.

The Infected
Common Infected 
 * Originally when in Versus mode, the player was able to take control of a Common Infected while waiting to respawn after being killed as a Special Infected. This was scrapped as it was deemed too difficult for many players to attack the Survivors as they were always competing against AI-controlled Infected.

The Boomer 
 * Originally, the Boomer's explosion simply caused damage to nearby players since the Horde-attracting abilities were assigned to the cut Screamer.
 * When the Boomer's bile was first added to the game, it was red. It later was replaced by the green seen in the final version.

The Hunter 
 * The Hunter has an unused animation of him hanging upside down. It is unknown how this was supposed to be done in-game, as no pre-release footage shows the Hunter doing this.
 * The Hunter also has an unused first-person animation, which could be seen by player controlling it when he managed to pounce Survivor. It still remains in game files of both L4D1 and L4D2 and with use of third party mods can be partially restored, as seen here.
 * Originally, when a Hunter pounced a Survivor, there would be no special visual indicators (such as the red light around the victim).
 * The Hunter's ability was originally to become invisible. He did this when backed up against a wall, then the pounce ability could be used. It could also regenerate health, but this was cut along with the invisibility.
 * During development, Hunters could jump off their attacked Survivor after a pounce by crouching, then lunging away.

The Smoker 
 * The original design of the Smoker was to sneak up on the Survivors in a cloud of smoke, seize any one of them, and "pop out" again to leave the unlucky Survivor stranded.
 * In early footage, the Smoker seems to have had the ability to release pitch-black smoke whenever he wanted to. If the Survivors were near the Smoker when he fired his smoke, they would have been pushed back as if they were hit by a Boomer explosion.
 * The Smoker's tongue would drag a victim at a significantly faster rate, but the victim would still be able to fire at the Smoker while they were being dragged.
 * The Smoker's tongue couldn't lift Survivors caught above the ground, should the Smoker be on higher level.
 * The Smoker's smoke originally injured anyone who'd make contact with it, similar to the Spitter's acid.
 * The Smoker used to be able to release his victim, via secondary fire or turning away while a Survivor was being pulled. This can still be accessed by using the console command tongue_allow_voluntary_release 1.

The Tank 
 * Not much is known about The Tank during development, but a pre-release screenshot and some footage shows that he originally had no hair, couldn't throw rocks, and used to be faster.



The Witch 
 * Originally, The Witch was to attack the entire group upon being startled. However, this was cut from the final game because it was deemed too difficult, as she would often wipe out the whole group with little trouble.
 * The Witch was going to have black hair and black clothes instead of white hair and pale green clothes.

Cut Infected
 * The Screamer was a Special Infected that was cut. His only known photo is his concept art and his scream was given to the Hunter. His in-game sounds were also re-used for the Jockey.
 * The Leaker was being developed. It had similar attacks to the Spitter and the Boomer, and the ability to plant itself in the ground and act as a bomb. It was removed because the Survivors could run, as the Leaker would alert everyone that he was planting itself.
 * In the sound files, there are sounds for an infected dog. It seems to have been cut, but all of the sounds are still in the game files. Some sounds have been recycled for the Hunter.
 * There seems to be lots of concept art that never ended up in final game, or seen in any Beta phases of the game, including an Infected with a large colony of rats bursting out of his stomach that would most likely be found in the sewer, a giant, most likely slow, but strong infected called "Meat Wall" (looking somehow like a mix of Boomer and Tank), an infected named "Claws" (possibly a male Witch), and an infected pig called a "Hell Hog" most likely the only zombie animal,  and most likely meant to appear in Blood Harvest.

Weapons
Pump Shotgun 
 * An unusual ammo counter for the Pump Shotgun's magazine is in the game's files. There are two versions: one for an empty magazine and one for a full one. This seems to hint that in very early versions of the game, the player ammo count would be shown with a physical representation of how much ammo is left in the magazine.

Submachine Gun 
 * Originally, its flashlight was mounted directly under its handguard.
 * The Submachine Gun also had a full-reload animation of pulling the cocking handle after replacing the magazine.
 * The ammo count of 480 in the original game hints that the Submachine Gun may have originally had its real-life capacity of 32 rounds.

Auto Shotgun 
 * According to the Auto Shotgun's weapon file, it used to have a larger spread, less accuracy, fired two fewer pellets and had a 9-round magazine.
 * The Auto Shotgun is based on Counter Strike's XM1014 automatic shotgun. Early footage shows that the Auto Shotgun used unmodified XM1014 sounds.

Assault Rifle 
 * Early screenshots show that the Assault Rifle lacked text on its left side at one time.
 * When the Assault Rifle was drawn in early versions of the game, the character would pull the charging handle as soon as they took the gun out.
 * It, too, had a different reload animation. After replacing the magazine, the player would both pull the charging handle and hit the bolt catch.
 * It has 360 reserve ammo, so it may have originally had its real-life capacity of 30 rounds.

Hunting Rifle 
 * Early screenshots show that the Hunting Rifle's world model had a charging handle on its right side at one time. The handle was removed in the final version, after all cocking animations were removed.

M1911 Pistol
 * Originally, the Pistols had limited ammo. It appears that the player was able to hold 240 maximum rounds in addition to the rounds loaded in them. This was scrapped and replaced with infinite ammo.
 * At one time, when dual-wielding Pistols, both Pistols had a flashlight on them. This can be seen on the Intro Scene, where both of Zoey's pistols have flashlights attached.

Molotov 
 * An early screenshot shows that the Molotov was gray and had a different shaped top before becoming the final design.

Pipe bomb 
 * According to the game's Developer Commentary, the Pipe bomb did not have a flashing light when it was originally conceived; instead, it served as a conventional grenade.
 * It is likely that the Pipe bomb was a regular grenade at one time. Hidden in the game's files is a very early grenade icon for the HUD; this grenade looks exactly like the Counter-Strike: Source HE Grenade. This, combined with the earlier info about the Pipe bomb being based off of the HE grenade, means that the Pipe bomb was likely a regular grenade at one time.

Other

 * Weapons originally did not have flashlights on them, as seen in pre-release pictures. In addition, their worldmodels had blood on them.
 * All weapons in Left 4 Dead originally had two reload animations: when the magazine is empty and when the magazine is not. The animation played when the magazine was empty is longer than the other animation because the player needed to cock the gun after loading a full, new round.
 * These animations were removed from the game by community request, but can still be seen in the Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools (1 or 2; 2 has the M1911 Pistol viewmodel unused but still having empty reload animations). The only weapons that still use their empty reload animations are the Pump and Auto Shotgun.
 * Left 4 Dead 2 on the other hand, re-uses the full reload animations for the P220's.
 * Laser Sights were originally set to be an upgrade for Left 4 Dead, but the concept of upgrades were cut. It then was put into Left 4 Dead 2 as a lone upgrade.
 * In development of Left 4 Dead, doors could be locked to stop incoming Infected long enough for the Survivors to escape entirely from a horde.
 * This was replaced with breakable doors, as it made things way too hard for the Infected team.
 * During early development, Left 4 Dead's working title was "Terror Strike."
 * According to Kotaku.com, Left 4 Dead's campaigns used to be different. Beta Campaigns were Dead End (which resembles early Dark Carnival-like settings), Drive-In Hell (which also resembles Dark Carnival) and Fair Game (again, looks like the final version on Dark Carnival), Ghost City (which includes a flooded city, like Hard Rain), Line of Fire (which shows a trailer park), Wrecked (a campaign never seen in both games which features a cruiser ship) and Dead March (features a Swamp Fever-like theme).

Healing items
 * Early screenshots show that the first aid kit had a more box-like shape, didn't look like it was made out of soft materials, and had a carrying handle at one time. This design can still be seen in the final version's first aid kit icon.
 * Early videos showed it was possible to share medkits like pills instead of healing them, but after adding temporary healing items (pain pills), this was scrapped.

Campaigns
No Mercy 
 * No Mercy looked significantly different in early versions; it was much darker, but where there was light, it would be quite bright.
 * The skyscrapers and other buildings in the background would be a part of the skybox texture, which makes them look completely flat; in the final version, the buildings dotting the landscape are actual brushes and models.
 * The sky itself was a dark blue, compared to the blue/green mix in the final version.
 * Buildings in the campaign would have most of their lights still on, which was changed to very few of them in the final game.
 * The working title for this campaign was "Hell Hospital."
 * In the game's sound files, there are unused sound files for the Chopper Pilot: "Hey down there! I can't get any closer, but if you can get to Mercy Hospital I can take ya to the military outpost up north. You have to get to Mercy Hospital! Call me on the radio when you get there." This seems to suggest that the chopper pilot was originally going to notice the Survivors, but this concept was cut.
 * Originally, the 28th floor was going to be much like the lower floors, but with large windows. It was revealed that playtesters avoided these windows due to fear of falling.

The Apartments
 * The spawn area originally had Molotovs on the weapon table.
 * Originally, the safehouse at the end of this map was supposed to be in a clothing store in a building, which was to the right of the current entrance to the subway.
 * The apartment was supposed to be a hotel at one time, judging by the HOTEL sign on the apartment building in early versions of the game.
 * A large sign was supposed to be in front of the building that is to the left of the apartment complex, which indicated that the building was a convenience store.
 * An extensive network of rooms and an outside courtyard exists in a map area, located at the end of Holly Street past the subway entrance. This map area is redundant for gameplay purposes and is probably a legacy of a cut scenario abandoned during development.

The Subway
 * There was to be a long corridor that lead to the last set of subway cars the player goes through. This was scrapped, likely because of how boring it was.
 * The lights inside subway cars used to flicker on and off.

The Sewer
 * In earlier footage, it seems that the players had to get to the roof by going through the building to the left of the gas station, not by using a lift.
 * Plus, the Survivors originally had to progress through the gas station. It was changed because of frustrations from many players accidentally shooting the gas pumps.
 * An early picture of the front of the Hospital shows that there was to an advertising billboard to the left of the hospital at one time.

Rooftop Finale
 * In the earliest pictures of the Rooftop Finale, it seems that there was a building in front of the supply room that had electric generators in it. There was also a tower on top of the supply room.
 * The building from which the player emerges - as they enter the rooftop area - was much thinner.
 * The buildings in the background were all sprites in a 3D skybox, whereas in the final, the buildings are mostly brushes and models.
 * An early screenshot of it found in the game's files shows at one time, the player was supposed to be able to see the streets surrounding Mercy Hospital. This was likely removed for optimization reasons. It also shows that there were many buildings with lights on, which fits with other screenshots of No Mercy. In some of the pictures, it seems that there was a stadium in the background, which means that there was most likely a sports event going on at the time of the outbreak.

Death Toll
 * Judging by the cut lines, the bridge in The Turnpike exploded seconds before the Survivors could have used it to go through.
 * Some of the lines that Zoey and Francis said when talking with the Church Guy were originally meant for an argument between them and the pilot from the Runway Finale. In the sound files were the lines they said to the Church Guy, while their file names suggested that it happened in Dead Air. Some of the Runway Finale pilot's cut lines seem to respond directly to these.
 * The five chapters of Death Toll were different: 1. The Caves; 2. The Drainage; 3. The Ranchhouse; 4. The Main Street; 5. The Boathouse.
 * The Church chapter provides the only example in the game of AI Bots engaging in gratuitous vandalism. Although Francis will occasionally break up a crate in a saferoom, here, all AI characters smash the shunting control tower's guardrails for no apparent reason. It is suspected that this uncharacteristic behavior is due to legacy programming of some now-deleted action sequence.

Boathouse Finale
 * Originally, the finale took place near a houseboat that was docked at the edge of a river.
 * An early photo of the area, seen in the "materials/console" directory of the game files, shows a houseboat. The houseboat was such an memorable part of the map that this map's filename is "l4d_smalltown05_houseboat". It is unknown why the houseboat was removed, but based on the screenshot, it seems that the houseboat would be too easy to defend.
 * Of note: The image shows that there originally was no burning city in the background; instead, a clear, dark sky can be seen.
 * The Boathouse Finale was simply called The Boathouse.

Dead Air
 * Based on an early Runway image in the game's files, it is evident that Dead Air was originally intended to have a light blue "moonlight" visual tint.
 * There is an unused map called tutorial_standards that was originally going to be part of this campaign, as the Dead Air poster can be seen at the end of this level.

Runway Finale
 * An early version of the Runway seen in the "materials/console" directory shows that the area was virtually pitch-black at one time, with the only lighting being near some parked planes.
 * It seems that the idea of Dead Air taking place in a ruined city was not a part of the campaign from the beginning. In addition, there is no rubble near or on the runway, which suggests that the idea of the airport being bombed was not developed when the airport chapter was first made.
 * Originally, in cut lines, the C-130 Pilot was supposed to have a partner named Terry who was the one going over to fill up the truck, but died while holding the radio that you use.

Blood Harvest
 * Beta versions of Blood Harvest were much greener and brighter than the final version. In addition, there is no fog, making the sky much more visible.
 * Some chapters of this campaign, like the others, were also named differently: 1. The Hilltop; 2. The Train Tunnel; 3. The Bridge; 4. The Barn; 5. The Cornfield.

Farmhouse Finale
 * An early screenshot of the Farmhouse Finale in the "materials/console" directory shows that early versions of the Farmhouse looked significantly less fortified by the military; there is no sign that designates the area as Echo and there is much less military equipment surrounding the farmhouse
 * Early images show that the rescue vehicle was a flatbed truck with a minigun on it.
 * Unused lines from the APC Driver indicate that the farmhouse was to be blown up after the truck picked up the Survivors.

The Lighthouse
 * Before this Survival map was released, a video showed that instead of turning on the generator, the player was supposed to use a radio to call for help instead.

Versus

 * Originally, the only mode was to be Versus. However, Valve found that it was very difficult to balance the game so that both teams could have fun, so they split the game modes.
 * In Versus, the Infected players had the ability to select which Infected they wanted to play as. This menu can be seen in early footage. This idea can be found nowadays on some modded servers.

Survivors

 * In his first concept art, Coach had a football helmet and a light blue and white shirt with a red "S" on it. Then in the E3 2009 trailer he is seen in a light blue and yellow shirt without the red "S."
 * In early designs for Ellis, he has a white shirt and a green hat. His appearance changes in the E3 and Comic-Con playable beta version, then wearing orange pants, a blue and white shirt and a matching hat. He used to have a cap has a Saint George's Cross on it; this may indicate that at one point he was to be English, rather than Georgian. At one point, he wore a John Deere hat, but this was changed, likely for licensing reasons.
 * In the commentary for Left 4 Dead 2, the developers stated that Nick's character was originally an escaped prisoner who stole a nice suit, but he was eventually adapted into his current con man persona. Nick is the only current Survivor who retained his appearance from either beta screenshots or trailers out of all of the playable Survivors.
 * The designers of Left 4 Dead 2 changed Rochelle's clothing designs several times. In the trailer, she is wearing an orange shirt. The designers then changed it to a red shirt and then to its present pink T-shirt. Her hair has also received some minor changes; the designers changed it from dark brown to black, and made it shorter, from a waist-low ponytail to a bun. Her original, longer hairstyle can still be seen in various artwork of her latest design.

The Infected
The Charger 
 * Concept art shows that the developers had planned for the Charger to be either a large zombie with an armored upper skull yet tiny "T-Rex" arms, or a "tripod" dog-like animal.
 * Originally, the Charger had many different series of attacks and has gone through multiple versions with different twists on his charge attack. In one version of his build, his charge attack caused him to trample over Survivors rather than grab them, and his melee attack was replaced with an overhead strike that smashed the Survivor to the floor before the Charger started pounding them.

The Jockey 
 * Concept art shows the Jockey as being gray-skinned, much larger and more ape-like, as well as being completely naked. Another shows him without a large amount of muscle mass around his neck and upper back, as well as being much more skeletal.
 * An early version of the Jockey's attack had the Survivor stay in first-person with the Jockey's hands obscuring the screen.
 * Similar to the Hunter, the Jockey was also going to be a Special Infected able to dismount his targets after mounting or ensnaring them at his own will.

The Spitter 
 * As seen in concept art, the Spitter's pigtails originally were not tucked behind her head, but stuck out like antennae.
 * The Spitter also had a large, rounded stomach to give her a logical place to brew her acidic goo. However, during playtesting, it became apparent that many playtesters thought she was pregnant or called her pregnancy-themed names. Valve decided that this was rocky territory and made her stomach flatter to avoid any confusion.
 * The Spitter also had a comical pigeon-toed bird walk, changed for being more humorous than frightening.
 * The Spitter's primary attack was going to behave in a manner similar to the Boomer's bile attack, in which the acid would stick to the Survivor that it came in contact with; this concept, however, was scrapped since it made it too easy for Spitters to incapacitate Survivors.
 * Originally, the Spitter's acid would change colors as it became more potent. It was to start off green, then change to yellow, and finally red.

Common Infected 
 * There is an unused gore effect featuring a gigantic slash completely down the Common Infected's spine. It is possible that this would have been used, should the axe have kept its overhead downwards slash, and was used on a Common Infected's back.
 * Some of the original Common Infected's models and textures exist in the game files in Left 4 Dead 2.
 * Original, for the Male: Police, National Military Guard and Worker, both textures and model files. Female: Only textures for heads, casual shirts and suits.
 * The Hospital Patient is present in the Left 4 Dead 2 port of No Mercy's Hospital and Rooftop Finale, though with most problems in the original model fixed as the model is prefixed with a "_l4d2" at the end of the model's name. (Non-prefixed model with square shadows fixed). The Surgeon is in the game files too, but is nowhere to be seen among the Infected.
 * Cold Stream/left4dead2_dlc3, Male: Baggage Handler, Pilot, Rural and TSA Agent's body textures, with the old version of the Hospital Patient w/o the "_l4d2" prefix. Female: Hospital Nurse's body textures and female Common Infected models, however they are only used as ragdolls because they use a lot more memory, have messy colors on their shirts (due to $blendtintbybasealpha and because of the new gradient system), square shadows and lack the features which the new Infected possess (better gore effects, gradients and so on).
 * The "Infected Suit guy" is still listed in the population.txt under "test_common_male_suit", but again, lacks the new features.
 * Another "Infected Suit guy" is present in Left 4 Dead 2, with support for gradients but is left unused.

Uncommon Infected
 * The Fallen Survivor was going to be in Left 4 Dead 2 in the first place, but was cut from the final version due to people having trouble in the beta version with him ( though he was re-introduced in The Passing).

Weapons
Chrome Shotgun 
 * In early gameplay videos, the Chrome Shotgun shared the Left 4 Dead Pump Shotgun animations. The stats were shared as well.

Silenced Submachine Gun 
 * In early gameplay videos, the Silenced Submachine Gun used animations from the Left 4 Dead Submachine Gun.
 * The fabric strap doesn't seem to move at all, although E3 videos showed the strap moving when a user runs or turns.

Combat Shotgun 
 * Early beta footage showed that the Combat Shotgun re-used the first game's Auto Shotgun animations, including pulling a non-existent stock when the gun was pulled out. It also seemed to have the same damage, fire rate, and so forth as the original Auto Shotgun early on.
 * Early videos show that the folding stock on the Combat Shotgun jiggled a bit while moving.

Sniper Rifle 
 * In the first footage released, the Sniper Rifle magazine was shaped like the the PSG-1's 5-round magazine, while later footage showed the magazine shaped like the G3's 20-round magazine.
 * Early footage showed that the Sniper Rifle re-used the Hunting Rifle's animations.

AK-47 
 * On some footages AK-47 had faster rate of fire (the same as M60 has now) and it had running animation similar to International Weapons, with running while pointing the gun to the ground.

Combat Rifle 
 * During the beta version of Left 4 Dead 2, the Combat Rifle was fully automatic, had a 55-round magazine, and was sharing animations with Assault Rifle, but then changed to a three-round burst, due to balancing reasons, and got its own animations.

P220 Pistol 
 * In the beta version, the P220 Pistol had a lighter color scheme.
 * Also, in beta, it re-used the reloading animation of the M1911 Pistol.

Magnum Pistol 
 * The Magnum Pistol was originally supposed to be called the "Desert Cobra." A string calling the Magnum the Desert Cobra is in "left4dead2_english.txt" under a line about the Magnum.

Axe 
 * It was originally planned that you could decapitate a Witch by sneaking up on her and swinging the Axe at her head, but this was later scrapped.
 * In early gameplay video, the Axe had an animation in which the Survivor brings it over his or her head and slices downward, probably chopping the Infected in half. This was later abandoned. Some mods enable this animation; however, while it can be seen in viewmodel, it doesn't show in Third Person (Survivors don't have animations for this swing animation).
 * In the beta version, Axes could be found in The Parish campaign.

Baseball Bat 
 * Early on, the Baseball Bat was supposed to be made of metal, explaining its sound effect in the teaser. Its old design can be seen in the Left 4 Dead 2 Strategy Guide and in the texture file "4meleeweapons".

Bile bomb 
 * The Bile bomb appears to have originally affected Survivors near the blast radius, according to a game instructor line stating, "A Survivor bile bombed you" ― however, this line is used when biled as an Infected in Versus. There were also, according to captions in the game files, lines stating that Boomer bile attracts the horde, and that the player shouldn't throw it on them. It was removed for being too annoying, but it can be enabled by enabling cheats and typing in the console command vomitjar_radius_survivor # (where # is the value).

Heavy Machine Gun 
 * The Heavy Machine Gun was originally going to have limited ammo, but this limitation was given to the portable M60 machine gun instead.
 * There is a Heavy Machine Gun present in the beta version of the Waterfront + Park level, located on a tower just before the CEDA checkpoint and the Gauntlet Crescendo. Whether this was going to be a placement in the final game, or simply used to test the weapon's use is unknown.

Cut Weapons
 * In Left 4 Dead's game_sounds_weapons.txt file, listings for a flare gun and a LAW rocket launcher can be found. It is likely that these weapons were scrapped early in development, as none of the pre-release footage shows either of these weapons.
 * There were originally going to be a riot shield and a didgeridoo as usable melee weapons in Left 4 Dead 2. The riot shield was fully modeled, textured, and can still be spawned in-game both via the console and during custom campaigns, while the didgeridoo had a low-poly model, but no textures.
 * In early development, Coach was seen with a compound bow which was never put into the game.
 * There was an item called the Ammo Pack. They would be placed in the Medkits slot when picked up, and used a reskinned First aid kit model. Much like the Incendiary and Explosive ammo packs, they could be deployed for use by teammates, with which they could resupply their ammo. This was cut because it went against the idea of players having to pick up new weapons when their current weapon was low on ammo and because playtesters would deem ammo packs less usable, so long as ammo piles still existed. Its texture sheet can still be found in Left 4 Dead 2 materials files.
 * The two ammo upgrades were originally designed to be static items that the Director placed in the world; however, testing showed that players were unwilling to move away from an area that had ammo upgrades, so they made it so that ammo upgrades had to be picked up and placed somewhere.
 * Originally, the melee weapons were supposed to break after prolonged use. Break sounds for the Axe and Frying Pan weapons can still be found in the game files.
 * The designers removed dual-wielding melee weapons after several tests.

Healing items
 * The placeholder for the adrenaline shot was nothing like a syringe; rather, it was a re-skinned can of pain pills in yellow. The texture can still be found in Left 4 Dead 2 files. Then it became an syringe similar to the one used in the HUD, before the current look for adrenaline.
 * Likewise, the Defibrillator's worldmodel placeholder was a re-skinned first aid kit model. Its textures can still be found in the game files; the Defibrillator was yellow, with a lightning bolt instead of a cross.

Campaigns
Dead Center
 * Originally, the Uncommon Infected were going to be the Riot Infected, not the CEDA Worker Infected.
 * Originally, Whitaker was supposed to provide covering fire to the Survivors during their trip to and from the supermarket. (Sound files can still be found inside the "sound/npc/whitaker" directory under "defendchatter")

Dark Carnival
 * Originally, The Coaster was planned as a monorail and the Survivors were supposed to climb roofs and jump to a monorail from there. A barricade was planned at some point, but was scrapped entirely.
 * According to sound files, the Survivors (mostly Nick) were going to argue with a driver who has the Midnight Riders tour bus to pick them up. The Concert was the same, except the driver smashes through a door and pick them up.
 * Originally, the Coaster was supposed to be a survival level, but it was cut it in the final version because players would be able to stand on the wood that holds the track up, with the Infected unable to reach or attack them. The survival level can be accessed by the use of glitches or by using a mod from L4Dmaps.com.
 * Originally, the Coaster was supposed to crash, causing the alarm to go off, which would have explained the fire in the Zombie Survival Guide, but it was cut.
 * Originally, Valve planned the Concert to be set on a train, akin to a county fair-type setting. This was cut because it "wasn't as much fun as you would think."

Swamp Fever
 * Originally, the Uncommon Infected were the Fallen Survivors instead of the Mud Men, but they were cut from the game and later put in The Passing.
 * The Heavy Machine Gun at the finale was going to be in front of the entrance of the house, not on the second floor.
 * The wooden walkways would sometimes collapse when walked on (remains exist for Nick's dialogue), forcing the Survivors to trudge through the muck and take the other path. Valve removed this because playtesters found this extremely tedious.
 * The strung-up Charger found in Chapter One before the crescendo was originally a Boomer.
 * The radio in The Plantation is actually a button as seen here. It could also be seen that the gate will only open by itself at the end.

Hard Rain
 * Initially, the Survivors had to travel some distance into the first chapter to get weapons. During playtesting, it was found players were hesitant to do this, thus failing to get to upgraded weapons in time. This problem was overcome by putting weapons and supplies in the nearby Burger Tank restaurant.
 * According to Chet Faliszek at EuroGamer Expo London, early builds of the campaign had the players turn on the lights of houses and other areas on the way to the gas station so that they will be lit on the way back, but players found this to be a menial task, and so the idea was scrapped.
 * At first, the Survivors were going to use flares to signal Virgil (and start the finale) and he would sail back to pick them up. The idea of firing off a flare gun was later dropped in the final version and its sole legacy is a brief and occasional exchange between the Survivors at the start of the campaign when Nick is accused of leaving a "gun bag" containing the flare pistol behind on Virgil's boat.

The Parish
 * Originally, the Uncommon Infected were going to be the CEDA Worker Infected, but they were replaced with the Riot Infected.
 * During the finale, the bridge itself was going to be bombed by the military.
 * The beta version of this campaign combined the first two levels (The Waterfront and The Park) together.
 * The crescendo of the second level was somewhat changed. Instead of entering a simplistic CEDA trailer, the Survivors entered a sanitation center, which would spray them with disinfection gas, and sound an alarm as the doors open. The map is still in the game files and is playable through the "map c5m1_waterfront_sndscape" command in the console.
 * The Bridge was at first called "The Table Bridge" and then "The Lift Bridge" before being changed to simply "The Bridge"
 * "The Quarter" was originally called "The Condos."
 * The Quarter was going to be a Survival map, but was cut for unknown reasons.
 * Originally, The Bridge was created with no cars or anything other than the Infected in the way. Valve changed this later, as described in the Developer's Commentary for this chapter.
 * The original name for The Waterfront was "The French Quarter."
 * "The Park" was at first called "The Quarantine Camp."
 * In early testing, the alarm sound file for The Park was high-pitched, longer-lasting noise similar to the alarm used in Half-Life 2: Episode 2at the White Forest base if any Striders were to get too close to the silo.
 * During development, The Park was conceived as a procedurally generated maze. However, in testing, this was found to be too distracting from gameplay and difficult for players who often got lost in the area. However, the concept was salvaged in the The Cemetery wherein The Director chooses from four alternative layouts and navigation pathways.
 * Also, during development for The Park, there was no trailer; rather there was a small concrete hut that did not have to be entered next to a fence and that would trigger the alarm once players reached the fence. In addition, there was a Heavy Machine Gun facing the direction from which the the Survivors came.

Other

 * Valve did consider calling Left 4 Dead 2 "Back 4 More."
 * People believed there was going to be a "Miracle Pack" and an "Apocalypse Pack". However, Valve's Chet Faliszek later responded that it was testing code for getting through Microsoft's certification.