The Left 4 Dead games were a phenomenon in the 2000s, and they helped launch a whole new wave of co-op shooters. Unfortunately, fans have been left wanting since 2009 and the release of Left 4 Dead 2, but Turtle Rock Studios, the developers of Left 4 Dead, are finally giving fans what they want with a spiritual successor named Back 4 Blood.
Back 4 Blood allows players to team up in groups of four, battle hordes of zombies, and race against time to finish objectives that aid in survival. While map progression and level setup will be familiar to those who have played the Left 4 Dead series, Turtle Rock introduces a number of new mechanics to spice up the game.
Although it’s clearly still a way out, Turtle Rock Studios has detailed a bit of information about its new game. Here’s everything we know about Back 4 Blood.
Back 4 Blood’s Release Date
Back 4 Blood is planned for release October 12, 2021, for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.. Turtle Rock is aiming for a simultaneous worldwide release on all consoles. The game just recently held an open Back 4 Blood beta preview, with more coming before the game officially launches later this year.
Back 4 Blood’s Gameplay
Back 4 Blood’s gameplay feels like a sequel to Left 4 Dead in every way, as it takes the same co-operative systems from Turtle Rock’s previous games. Players can choose to go with three AI teammates or three other players, as they make their way through levels trying to reach a safe room. Back 4 Blood will also feature eight-player PVP, and will have both guns and melee weapons like axes and machetes. Just like Left 4 Dead, Back 4 Blood will also have special infected types on top of normal zombies. So far the special infected include some kind of long-ranged vomiter, a “Hocker” that can freeze players in place like the Smoker, and a giant Bruiser that looks a lot like Left 4 Dead’s Charger.
The biggest change in Back 4 Blood, however, is its rogue-lite card system. This adds a degree of unpredictability into each match, as these cards will decide what players go up against as well as what perks they’ll have. When a match starts the Game Director will pick cards that players will be going against, including special types of infected and different weather effects. Players, on the other hand, will be able to choose three cards from a deck of fifteen to play. These cards can have wildly different effects, from boosting melee damage, to healing players after every kill they get. It’s not clear how much variety there will be to the cards at launch, but judging from the recent Back 4 Blood beta deckbuilding will be vitally important to gameplay.
Back 4 Blood’s Story Details
Like Left 4 Dead it doesn’t seem like Back 4 Blood will be an intensely story-heavy game, but focus more on environmental storytelling. In Back 4 Blood most of the world has been killed by a parasite called the Devil Worm. The four main characters are immune to the parasite, and the remnants of humanity have created a group called The Cleaners to take on the undead, which are known as the Ridden. During Turtle Rock’s gameplay reveal, the studio emphasized that Back 4 Blood isn’t about simply surviving the zombie apocalypse, but fighting it and carving out a new place to live.
The first four characters Back 4 Blood introduced were Walker, Holly, Evangelo, and Hoffman, who each have a unique personality and secondary weapon. The characters constantly banter during gameplay, and like Left 4 Dead there’s sure to be plenty of character development done this way. There are (so far) seven characters revealed for Back 4 Blood, but three were locked during the game’s beta preview.
