Developer Turtle Rock Studios has continued pulling back the curtain on its hotly anticipated new titleBack 4 Bloodas part of this year’s E3. The studio became popular after working on theLeft 4 Deadseries, andBack 4 Bloodsees the studio returning to its roots in a new game that sees players teaming up with up to three friends to take on hordes of zombies. Turtle Rock Studios remained quiet on the full scope of what players could expect from the game for a while, but it has shared a lot more information recently.
Comparisons betweenBack 4 BloodandLeft 4 Deadare everywhere. EvenBack 4 Blood’s title references the studio’s return to the genre. However, Turtle Rock Studios has made a clear effort to highlight what aboutBack 4 Bloodis different and new.Back 4 Bloodhas proven its efforts to improveon the series it is a spiritual successor of. For example, at E3,Back 4 Bloodrevealed its new PvP mode called Swarm. While it may initially seem similar toLeft 4 Dead’s versus mode, it has also made a number of important changes.
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Left 4 Dead 2released in 2009, but its impact can still be felt across the industry. Even thenewest DLC forWatch Dogs: Legionseems to take some notes fromLeft 4 Dead. The versus mode inLeft 4 Deadwas popular, seeing four players playing through one of the game’s campaigns while four other players control special zombies to try and kill them all. A match in the mode was played out over two rounds, with players switching sides between rounds, and whichever team made it further in the mission wins.
Back 4 Blood’s Swarm mode mixes the formula up quite a bit. Not only doesBack 4 Bloodfeature more special enemiesfor players to take advantage of, it moves the mode to a best-of-three format. Swarm pits two teams of four against one another, but each round plays out quite differently. Instead of playing through one of the game’s missions, survivors instead are given time to gather supplies and choose a place to make a stand on the map. Once players have found what position they want to defend, they have to survive as long as possible against the other team. Then, the teams switch sides, and whichever team survives the longest wins the round. Whichever team wins two rounds first takes the match.
Overall,Back 4 Blood’s new spin on PvP seems to be a step in the right direction. Turtle Rock Studios looks to be expanding the experience of their games, and improving the multiplayer mode is a great way to do that. WithBack 4 Bloodlaunching day one on Xbox Game Pass, the mode should have a sizable playerbase at launch as well, which will be great for players who want to check out the new Swarm mode.
Back 4 Bloodreleases on October 12 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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