By now, many gamers have likely been playing and enjoying the open beta for the upcoming Left 4 Dead spiritual successor, Back 4 Blood. With Turtle Rock Studios' zombie shoot-em-up being one of the most anticipated games of the year, there doesn't seem to be much the development team can do wrong, particularly given how it hearkens back to a much-beloved series. However, some information has come to light which may upset some fans regarding a feature that is unlikely to be coming to the game.
In a recent conversation on Discord, Turtle Rock co-founder Chris Ashton was asked whether Back 4 Blood will be getting a game mode that was popular in the L4D franchise. Specifically, fans were wondering whether the game would have a Versus Campaign mode added to it. Ashton did say that the team had no plans to add this feature, adding that the game was simply not built for that mode.
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The answers to the questions were captured and uploaded to a Reddit thread. One of the responses captured shows Ashton saying that the reason there will be no Versus Campaign mode is because B4B has a lot of "defensive equipment" suggesting that Turtle Rock's game works best when defending an area against a horde, rather than players running from one end of the map to the other. Given that Back 4 Blood is basically Left 4 Dead 3, some fans may be disappointed that such a feature will not be making a return, however logical the studios' reason for not doing so is.
While Back 4 Blood does have a Versus mode, it's not the same as the one from the Left 4 Dead games which this entry is clearly inspired by. In the original Valve team FPS series, players could fight against each other, with some taking on the role of the survivors, while others controlled the special infected zombies. In these scenarios, the survivors would still fight their way through the horde in order to make it to the safe room at the end of each level.
However, this mode is different in Back 4 Blood. Players can still play against each other, but in this case, it's more of a skirmish in which the survivors, or Cleaners as they're called, take on a horde of infected who are being controlled by players, but with no level end goal. This makes it sound more like the skirmish mode from the 1999 Alien Vs Predator adaptation. That said, there is still plenty to enjoy in the open beta, and the decision to not add a Versus Campaign mode may put some people off down the line, but many fans are currently enjoying what the game has to offer so far.
Back 4 Blood is currently in open beta and is slated to hit PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on October 12.