It’s surprisingly easy to turn Left 4 Dead 2 into Overwatch

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We put D.Va, Genji, Reaper, Tracer, and more into Left 4 Dead 2.

Seven years later, you can still rely that a popular game will find its way into Left 4 Dead 2. You can mod Fallout’s 10mm pistol, scoped rifle, or holy frag grenade into the zombie shooter, among other gear. There are two separate, equally elaborate GoldenEye campaigns. There are 132 Undertale mods. You can even swap L4D2’s credits music with a No Man’s Sky song.

Overwatch is no exception, and four months after launch, 51 Overwatch asset rips and mods have made their way onto the Steam Workshop, from D.Va’s pistol to Torbjörn’s hammer. I downloaded as many as I could and dove in.

The mods didn’t necessarily have a transformative effect on my Left 4 Dead experience, but they do inject little moments of novelty. Each time you equip Soldier 76’s Heavy Pulse Rifle (M16), he does a salute gesture toward his visor and a portion of his ult sound effect plays. Ana’s Biotic Rifle is a neat swap for the hunting rifle that makes it sound like a toy air gun.

The mods don’t gel perfectly together: when I equipped Genji’s katana, it created an issue with the Reaper model I was using in place of Coach, blocking part of the screen. The flashlight mod I used was comically bad, casting a barely-transparent projection of Widowmaker’s face into the map.

What would really tie these mods together is if someone took a page from this TF2 mod and imported one of Overwatch’s maps into Left 4 Dead 2—Route 66 seems like it could work pretty well, if some obstacles were added.

Check out the various Overwatch mods for Left 4 Dead 2 on the Steam Workshop.

Evan Lahti
Evan Lahti
Strategic Director

Evan's a hardcore FPS enthusiast who joined PC Gamer way back in 2008. After an era spent publishing reviews, news, and cover features, he now oversees editorial operations for PC Gamer worldwide, including setting policy, training, and editing stories written by the wider team. His most-played FPSes are Hunt: Showdown, Team Fortress 2, Team Fortress Classic, Rainbow Six Siege, and Counter-Strike. His first multiplayer FPS was Quake 2, played on serial LAN in his uncle's basement, the ideal conditions for instilling a lifelong fondness for fragging.