Back 4 Blood, like its spiritual predecessor Left 4 Dead, is going to give players ample opportunity to test their skills against one another when it arrives later this year.
For those not aware, Turtle Rock Studios’ first major project since the now sadly defunct (officially, at least) Evolve kits out a team of four human survivors before giving them an encouraging nudge out of the safe room to battle the Ridden, or zombies, as almost everyone colloquially refers to them as. The job from here is simple: do everything in your power to endure wave after wave of mutant monstrosities in order to reach a faraway checkpoint then rinse and repeat until the final objective is complete. To spice things up, Turtle Rock has peppered various objectives around the map and an unseen force, referred to only as the Director, will dynamically adjust difficulty to keep gameplay feeling fresh on repeat playthroughs.
If, however, you eventually tire of that admittedly addictive PvE loop, there’s an alternative in the form of Swarm, a competitive 4v4 mode which works similarly to campaigns but with a twist. While rank-and-file Ridden in this playlist will still be AI-controlled, Special infected units such as the Blood Ogre will have an opposing player behind the wheel, so to speak, upping their deadly factor considerably.
Each match of Swarm will last for two rounds (survivors will become the infected and vice versa), with the overall victor being determined by performance. Arsenal upgrades can be earned by racking up kills, though it remains to be seen if the title’s unique card-based progression system will be available here. It’s also currently unknown how each individual will choose their infected type or if the game will simply work on a lottery model.
Expect more details on both fronts to surface ahead of Back 4 Blood‘s open beta on August 12th.
