As more and more information surfaces about Back 4 Blood, it continues to look like a love letter and spiritual successor to the Left 4 Dead series that so many of its developers from Turtle Rock Studios worked on back in the day. While there's already plenty of excitement for the game, the trailers just keep coming, and with Warner Bros. E3 2021 presentation slotted to be devoted solely to the game, the hype for it is at an all-time high.
The comparisons made between Back 4 Blood and Left 4 Dead seem to be welcome by the game's studio. However, it's clear that it won't just be a modern remake and rebranding of the classic Valve games, instead changing and remixing the duology to be a brand new experience. One way that Turtle Rock is seemingly changing things around is by upping the ante from Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 in a few major ways.
Back 4 Blood's Special Ridden Are Getting Bigger
The Ridden are Back 4 Blood's zombies who are infected with a parasitic worm that turns humans into brain-hungry undead. In typical Left 4 Dead fashion, there are the regular people turned-Ridden who make up the majority of the bullet fodder in Back 4 Blood and then there are the specialized, mutated zombies who pose a much bigger threat. While in great numbers, the player needs to be cautious of the average Ridden, but it's the size and number of the mutants that are what's setting Back 4 Blood apart from Left 4 Dead.
The Left 4 Dead games had eight special variants of infected that the survivors had to face during the games. Back 4 Blood, by comparison, has only seven seen so far, but there are multiple variants of most special infected. For example, there are the average Stingers who have four arms and possess the ability to climb walls, and then there are Stalkers who are Stingers that prefer close-range combat as opposed to long distance. The sheer number of new types of special infected will make Back 4 Blood's Ridden feel even more deadly than the zombies from Left 4 Dead because it will take careful consideration on the part of the players to know exactly how to face each variant of special Ridden. Additionally, the special Ridden are much bigger and seem to pack more of a punch than their Left 4 Dead counterparts.
The final seconds of the brief Back 4 Blood teaser shown at today's Summer Game Fest showed a huge Ridden the size of a kaiju. Whether that specific Ridden will be a contextual boss fight in-game or a random encounter is still to be seen, but knowing just how big the infected can grow is upping Back 4 Blood's scale tenfold. If the size of the Ridden continues to grow throughout the game's campaign, it will hopefully create an experience that is constantly ramping up in stakes.
The Heavier Arsenal of Back 4 Blood
While Left 4 Dead certainly had a diverse roster of weapons that the player could choose from, Back 4 Blood seems to be giving players even more freedom in terms of their zombie-killing weapons of choice. Multiple variants of most Left 4 Dead weapons have been shown off in the trailers for Back 4 Blood including shotguns, SMGs, pistols, and rifles. The standout weapon displayed in trailers has definitely been the various LMGs available to the players. Left 4 Dead did feature LMGs, but they were a special weapon with a high damage count that couldn't be restocked. Back 4 Blood seems to be embracing the heavier machine guns by allowing players to select them as a part of their loadouts.
Back 4 Blood's weapon customization also seems to be a big part of each individual player's loadout. The handful of different scopes and sights are the first things most people noticed when watching the gameplay sections of each trailer, but if the player can customize those parts of their weapons, it makes sense that they might also be able to change up things such as the guns' grip, stock, and barrel to personally tailor their loadout for maximum damage. There have also been a handful of melee weapons seen in the trailers, but it's unclear if the different options and modifications on those will be purely cosmetic.
Back 4 Blood's Cleaners vs. Left 4 Dead's Survivors
Instead of being a crew of survivors trying to fight their way to safety, in Back 4 Blood the player takes control of one of the Cleaners, a group of immune humans who are trying to take the world back from the Ridden. Unlike Left 4 Dead, each individual character has their own specialties so players will need to consider their personal playstyle before picking which character to use. Generally, most characters play the same, but who the player chooses can determine their role within their survivor group. This will make Back 4 Blood more strategic than Left 4 Dead allowing for more replayability and variety.
Back 4 Blood's Card System
Along with having different skills be assigned to different characters, each player will possess a deck of game-altering buff cards. At the start of each session, debuff corruption cards will be played by Back 4 Blood's A.I. director to slow down and make the game harder for the Cleaners. The players are then allowed to play their cards which will buff each character for the duration of the level allowing for some crazy and hectic matches. Corruption cards include a "the Dark" card that sets the game in pitch-black darkness and a "Hasty Exit" card that challenges the players to complete the level within a short time frame.
The card system will add another layer of strategy to Back 4 Blood to make for memorable game sessions as well as opening the door for replayability. Left 4 Dead definitely had plenty of replayability, however, it lacked systems that truly make each run of the same level different. Back 4 Blood will hopefully, take the tried and true formula of Left 4 Dead and go wild with it.
Back 4 Blood is set for release on October 12, 2021 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.