Back 4 Blood

Play your bloody cards right

FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 12 OCT / PUB WARNER BROS GAMES DEV TURTLE ROCK STUDIOS / PLAYERS 1-8

Ever wonder what happened to Left 4 Dead? Well, here it is. Back 4 Blood might not have the license, but Turtle Rock Studios is made up of the same devs who kicked off a zombie horde of imitators back in 2008.

And it’s a good job it’s the same team, otherwise we’d feel a little short-changed. There are differences here, but the bones feel like they were ripped right from that first game, from the safe rooms that act as checkpoints throughout a campaign to the different types of Special Ridden Mutations which fit similar archetypes to Left 4 Dead’s Special Infected zombies.

Thanks to a nasty parasite, these aren’t zombies in the truest sense (though they are zombies in effect). These waves of Ridden are, in Left 4 Dead fashion, organised by the Game Director, an AI which decides the best moments to send foes at a player team, and ensures multiple playthroughs feel quite different.

This is coupled with a card system that alters the parameters of a match, the Game Director setting corruption cards that can result in more powerful Ridden, or things like darker environments or a time limit. You can then respond with your own cards that provide boons like extra weapons or even unlimited ammunition. You can customise what’s in your deck over time, or just use a premade one if you want to hop into games quickly.

HEART OF THE CARDS

The deck-wielding, gun-toting characters aren’t simply survivors this time, they’re Cleaners, a special group of volunteers who need to wipe out the parasite in order to bring humanity back from the brink. Different Cleaners have different personalities (and quips aplenty),

but also different specialities. Each of the eight feels different to control, and the four players making up a group will have to keep each other’s strengths in mind. Doc, for instance, is armed with a scalpel, and has both a heal bonus at low health and more healing efficiency, whereas Walker is handy with his Glock and rifles, his accuracy improving with each precision kill.

With different builds and dynamic challenges, things feel like they can get out of hand more quickly than in Left 4 Dead, but the aim is to give Cleaners the tools to manage tricky moments more effectively. And, if you want to become those tricky moments, a competitive multiplayer option allows players to control the Special Ridden, butting heads against a player team. You won’t be able to resist coming back for blood.

“WIPE OUT THE PARASITE TO BRING HUMANITY BACK FROM THE BRINK.”