Turtle Rock’s Back 4 Blood is a more complex Left 4 Dead spiritual sequel

It’s been over a decade since we got a new Left 4 Dead game from Valve, and while other shooters have tried to fill the void of zombie shooting – World war Z, Overkill’s The Walking Dead – nothing has managed to satisfactorily scratch that particular itch since then.

Turtle Rock Studios, the original developer from 2008 Left 4 Dead, gives it one more chance with a spiritual sequel, Back 4 Blood, which is playable from today in a closed alpha test. Back 4 Blood closely follows the Left 4 Dead formula – four human survivors smash through hordes of zombies in search of safe rooms, while an AI-powered ‘director’ responds to players in real time – but it adds new complexity in the form of player progression and character customization based on the deck.

Different, Back 4 Blood feels incredibly familiar, like Left 4 Dead 3 from an alternate universe. I played a level earlier this week as one of the four ‘Cleaners’, fighting my way through swarms of undead called ‘the Ridden’.

According to Turtle Rock, the survivors here are more than just survivors. They are capable, confident, and wise zombie killers, not the lovable all-man and everywoman archetypes of Left 4 Dead’s characters.

“You’re one of the few survivors who were either resilient enough to endure a year of complete chaos, or you’re actually immune,” said Phil Robb, co-founder and creative director at Turtle Rock in a video presentation. gives the main characters a sense of bravado and confidence that normal people don’t have You no longer try to find a safe place, you try to create safe places. “

The cleaners, said Robb, achieve that “by firing guns and killing as many infected as you can.”

Image: Turtle Rock Studios / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Chris Ashton, co-founder and design director of Turtle Rock, told Polygon that the studio wanted to “change the attitude of the zombie genre,” to focus not only on the nasty feeling of the apocalypse, but also what comes next.

“The popularity of zombie stuff has skyrocketed, especially in the last few years, be it television or movies, streaming services and other games,” Ashton said. ‘If you look at it a lot, at some point you get to a point where you are a bit tired of it, because there is never hope for the future. And there’s never a way out, it’s just the end of civilization. You’re just witnessing the candle blowing out, so we really wanted to fight that. “

Some of that is reflected in the dialogue between cleaners, who sound less scared about their situation and more businesslike, more tactical.

Turtle Rock said it wanted to modernize, give somewhere else Back 4 Blood players a sense of progress through perks that can be earned through gameplay. Those benefits are structured as cards and stacks that can be earned in the game. They give players bonuses such as fire resistance or the ability to heal themselves when they heal others. For example, an advantage can give you a health boost for a melee kill. More powerful perks are unlocked as players take on more difficult challenges, and some challenges require equipment of strategic skills.

“A big question for us was, ‘how do we build a progression system based on cooperatives?’” Said Ashton. “Because most games don’t really have to do with that – it’s all about you as a player, your own progression. But we found that the progression system can be a big dividing line between players, so we really wanted it to bring players together rather than tear them apart. “

Ashton said that Back 4 BloodThe alpha features are basically “starting decks” of benefits, which will give players some insight into the game’s customization system.

“You can build a character that is more about healing or more tanky or that has more stamina for melee combat,” he explained. So you can customize your character and also control what things in the world spawn. […] But the idea is that you play the game, and whether it’s completing levels or killing a certain number of zombies, or playing on a certain difficulty or playing PvP or whatever, you will have different cards to earn. […] The cards make you stronger and allow you to play later missions and higher difficulty levels. That’s where you have to go with a little more strategy. “

Image: Turtle Rock Studios / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

For players who prefer not to interact with special cards and “just have fun and not worry about it”, Turtle Rock offers a “Classic Mode” with basic maps.

“One of the things we wanted to do with the game was make it very approachable and easy to play: if you just want to have fun with your friends, it’s super easy to do in classic mode,” said Ashton. “But if you really enjoy digging in the game and want to experience tougher enemies, you can get into the card system. We want to reward people for spending hundreds and hundreds of hours. The game changes over time as you play it. You unlock new cards, the director can play different cards, you go into higher difficulties, you face different enemies or enemies who have a higher status than before. Hopefully the game is very accessible, but it has a lot of depth. “

Outside of the card system, a lot of it Back 4 Blood feels structured like Left 4 Dead. In addition to hurling Ridden hordes, players will face tougher enemies with ‘special mutations’. There is the Tallboy, a towering zombie with a powerful arm; the Retch, which spits goo on players that obscures players’ view and attracts common zombies; and the Stinger, a climbing jumper. And of course there is the Ogre, the gigantic zombie who feels ripped out of Turtle Rock’s Evolve in size. Most of those special mutations feel like remixed riffs on Left 4 Dead’s Special Infected, but Turtle Rock says players will encounter a larger cast of zombie types throughout the full game.

Image: Turtle Rock Studios / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Players take control of those special mutations Back 4 Blood‘s player vs player mode, and the riders will have their own set of extra cards designed to keep the action fresh and keep cleaners guessing.

What remains to be seen is how good Back 4 Blood will balance all these new systems, as well as the more complex weapon system. Players can purchase or purchase weapons and upgrade them later by spending a currency called copper, which is found in all levels. Add weapon accessories and extra player upgrades, such as the ability to carry extra healing items or extra ammo, and Turtle Rock has another delicate balancing act on its hands.

Back 4 Blood is now in closed alpha, scheduled through December 21 on Windows PC. Turtle Rock and publisher Warner Bros. Interactive plan to release the game on June 22, 2021 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.