Turtle Rock Studios surprised the gaming populace with the reveal of its upcoming gameBack 4 Bloodreleasing this year.Back 4 Bloodwasannounced during the Game Awards 2020this past December, and shares plenty in common with the creators' previous experience developingLeft 4 Deadgames.
Being a spiritual successor,Back 4 Bloodwill be incorporating several features from Valve’s popular co-op zombie shooter series. Some features carrying over include a cast of four survivors as playable characters facing undead hordes. Players will face a range of enemies from common to special infected, andBack 4 Bloodwill apparently add the “game director” feature from theLeft 4 Deadseries as well.
RELATED:Back 4 Blood is Missing The Most Popular Left 4 Dead Zombie Archetype
Left 4 Dead’sgame director feature utilized an artificial intelligence nicknamed “the Director” to manage level-pacing, item placements, and enemy spawn rates. Allowing the game director to spawn enemies and items in different areas instead of at fixed locations mixes things up for each level. The game director added a lot of replayability toLeft 4 Dead,and Turtle Rock is bringing that intoBack 4 Blood’sfamiliar gameplay.
Turtle Rock will be expanding on the game director idea by adding a new mechanic called Corruption Cards. The Corruption Cards will be used at the beginning of each level by the director to either buff up infected enemies or add more obstacles for the players to deal with. The cards can also change the map’s atmosphere by affecting visibility and making the environment foggy, or it can add new zombie enemies to the mix, whether it’s regular zombies or the large Ogre fromBack 4 Blood’scinematic trailer.
Players will get their own deck of cards to counter the game director’s Corruption Cards, which can affect their health, damage, and stamina. They can mix and match their cards and try various combinations, and Turtle Rock Studios says it plans to expand upon thecore game mechanics fromLeft 4 DeadforBack 4 Blood.
This is part of Turtle Rock Studio’s efforts to haveBack 4 Bloodevolve as a title over time. Turtle Rock said it intends to do more with this new game and continue to push the genre forward, which includes bringing back some features from past games like the game director.
For example, players can control theBack 4 Blood’snew zombies, specifically the special mutated zombies, similar toLeft 4 Dead’sVersus Mode. This includes the lumbering Bruisers, the four-armed pouncing Hockers, or the acid-spitting Retches that can each impact gameplay differently. Overall, Turtle Rock’s goal is to ensure no player’s experience inBack 4 Bloodis ever the same.
Back 4 Bloodis set to release Aug 10, 2025 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
