In a recent video, Back 4 Blood developer Turtle Rock Studios distanced its new game from its work with Valve on the Left 4 Dead franchise. The team, which was known as Valve South under the publisher's ownership from 2008 to 2010, rose to prominence with its original pair of zombie FPS titles. Both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 were big success stories for all involved, but an internal conflict between Turtle Rock and Valve caused a split. The team then went on to work on Evolve with 2K, which stumbled out of the gate in 2015 and never fully recovered. The team moved on to several VR projects with Oculus following that game's closure before announcing a return to mowing down the undead.
Now set to be published by Warner Bros. Games, Back 4 Blood promises to be an evolution to the co-op shooter formula Turtle Rock introduced with its first two big titles. It's been ten years since Left 4 Dead, and Back 4 Blood showcases that with a distinct graphical upgrade and a new card-based loadout system to keep gameplay fresh. The game was recently sampled by many eager players during a widespread closed alpha preview that garnered heaps of critical praise.
In a new official video, Turtle Rock details its vision for Back 4 Blood, and it's clear that the team wants to move forward from where Left 4 Dead started. The game's survivors are described as hardened veterans of the undead outbreak, with some of them being immune to infection. This makes the game tuned more towards mowing down hordes than finding a safe house, with at least one team member saying that the game was all about "kicking zombie ass." This doesn't preclude letting players playing as mutated infected such as the human bashing Tall Boy and the bile spitting Retch.
The new special infected aren't the only thing that Turtle Rock is trying to improve upon from its Left 4 Dead roots. Despite wanting to create a wholly new experience, everything from the co-op action to the acclaimed AI director is returning in this improved spiritual sequel. The big difference is the conceit of cards, which both the director and players will use to assign perks and modifiers to each session. While the director will alert players as to what kind of infected await them in the level, players will gain special abilities to take on their enemies and other perks to make them better zombie killing machines.
Talk is cheap, and those who played Back 4 Blood during its closed alpha are well aware that this is indeed a very close cousin to Turtle Rock's Left 4 Dead duology. It's understandable why the company would want to keep the games separated considering that Valve owns the Left 4 Dead franchise, but the developer also seems to want to stick with what brought it to prominence in its new game. Evolve got a raw deal on the marketplace, but it was an outright failure, and the team at Turtle Rock may want to play it safe and prove to fans that it's still got it when it comes to co-op shooters. Whether that actually proves to be the case will be seen when their new game hits in June, but it certainly looks promising in the lead-up to release.
Back 4 Blood is planned for release on June 22, 2021 on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
