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2019/03

Left 4 Dead Team Announces New Zombie Shooter, Back 4 Blood

The team at Turtle Rock Studios is partnering with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to bring a new multiplayer zombie shooter to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. It’s called Back 4 Blood and, yes, it sounds a hell of a lot like a spiritual successor to the team’s previous series, Left 4 Dead. Given the fact Valve doesn’t seem to be doing anything with the latter, I take Turtle Rock’s big reveal as very good news for fans of the genre.

As noted above, Turtle Rock Studios spun out of Valve South and were the driving force behind the Left 4 Dead games. They went on to make the asymmetrical cooperative/competitive shooter, Evolve, but that one never really found much of an audience.

Over on the Turtle Rock blog, the team has now announced Back 4 Blood, which sounds like a return to form given the focus on cooperative play and hordes of zombies to shoot your way through. The game’s FAQ is still pretty vague at this point, but it sure sounds like the team is passionate about what they’re working on.

There’s even a bit of brilliant humor thrown in for good measure. Various bits of the FAQ talk about how the team is looking to reinvent the zombie shooting genre while combining the team’s years’ worth of knowledge with innovative new ideas.

They note that this is planned as a big AAA project, though a price point and the possibility of microtransactions has not been decided just yet. They also say that there will be PVP. Roll all of that together, and my first thought was, “Is this going to be a squad-based zombie shooter battle royale?” Then I come upon a FAQ item that answers that exact question with a resounding “No.” Honestly, a squad-based zombie shooter battle royale might be a decent enough evolution of the genre to grab some attention, but I’m also happy the team has no desire to head in that direction.

There’s nothing resembling a release date yet and the FAQ notes that there will be some sort of campaign so, again, if you’ve had a Left 4 Dead-shaped hole in your heart these last few years, maybe Back 4 Blood will cure what ails you.

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