WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT ANDTURTLE ROCK STUDIOS ANNOUNCE “BACK 4 BLOOD”
Next-gen Co-operative FPS from Zombie Video game Visionaries toPropel Beloved Genre Forward
BURBANK, CA – March 14, 2019 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Turtle Rock Studios today announced Back 4 Blood, from the creators and development team behind the critically acclaimed, co-op phenomenon Left 4 Dead. Back 4 Blood is designed from the ground-up as an original, premium title and marries the best of what made the co-op zombie shooter so successful with new features and state-of-the-art technology.
“We are thrilled to partner with the proven Turtle Rock Studios team on Back 4 Blood to advance the co-op zombie genre forward with innovative multiplayer gameplay,” said David Haddad, President, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “The talented team at Turtle Rock has been developing amazing games together for a long time, and this is a great opportunity to work with them to create a new gaming universe built specifically with the large co-op zombie shooter community in mind.”
“It’s hard to overstate what an awesome opportunity this is. We get to return to a genre that was born in our studio with over ten years of additional experience and zombie ideas racked up in our brains,” said Chris Ashton, Co-founder and Design Director, Turtle Rock Studios. “We also have some of the best teammates in the business at WBIE who understand our development process and are equally committed to our player-first mentality. We love being able to announce, so we can start working with the community right away.”
“We are not resting on any past laurels. Our goal is to take all we’ve learned and push forward. We know that’s a tall order,” said Phil Robb, Co-founder and Creative Director, Turtle Rock Studios. “We’re growing the team considerably because we’re stepping up to the biggest challenge in this studio’s history. We know this title has to stand out and we fully intend to make that happen.”
It drove me crazy that you couldn’t look down the sights with the assault rifles in L4D. Hopefully they’ll allow it in B4B. That would automatically take it from a 2 star experience to a 4 star experience for me.
That was never my concern, I was just happy a developer had the skill to make a MP game that built in game design that made players work together and be rewarded for it. That and an interesting ability to mix calm moments with utter chaos.
Easily one of the best MP games I’ve ever played, ranking right up there with Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory.
It really is. It might be the best co-op game ever made. I honestly can’t think of another game that requires you watch your teammates back on the same level.
These games gave us a lot, unique zombies, actually having to go back for stragglers else be kind of screwed the rest of the game and that odd guilty feeling of being the one that made it. Here’s to hoping.
L4D also has no loot, customisation, XP, currency or leveling, crafting, collectibles, unlocks or any other typical staple of modern multiplayer games. To me, L4D is proof that all that is (still) fluff. We still play L4D2 and it’s aged beautifully. Hard Rain is one hell of a campaign and the character barks are consistently entertaining.
Vermintide is brilliant because it follows this design so closely. However, I’m not a fan of all the loot and crafting and how that impacts your relationship with difficulty and level selection (Horn of Magnus runs forever!) as well as lower or higher level friends joining you. The end of level stats weren’t quite the same when everyone was so different too. In L4D that was some kind of friendly competitive byproduct, and you were all exactly the same so it meant more. I do love the Vermintide grimoire game though. The risk/reward of that was always fun as you debated whether to grab the second or not…
Turtle Rock will have learnt a lot from Evolve and, as I suspected, I didn’t think they’d do another PvP focused game. I hope they understand what made L4D so enduring and why Vermintide has been such a success too.
I was watching someone streaming the technical alpha last night and I agree with that article. It’s just like the Left 4 Dead games, down to the little details like seeing the white silhouette of your teammates in the distance if they wander off. I feel like I played so much of the first two games that I burned out pretty hard, wonder if I’m up for another go.
I thought this was a pretty good rundown on the game with a brief overview video, a longer closed alpha playthrough, and a cinematic trailer that’s very reminiscent of L4D’s intro.
