Back 4 Blood, the co-op zombie shooter by Turtle Rock Studios, continues to grow and evolve with its third expansion River of Blood, which released on December 6. The latest act in Back 4 Blood's narrative introduces new weapons, supply and corruption cards, an additional Ridden mutation with three variants, and a brand-new Cleaner with fresh mechanics. The story of Fort Hope also continues to evolve with tenuous alliances, meditations on trust, and a bloody quest for vengeance.
Game ZXC spoke with Back 4 Blood's senior writer Spencer McCurnin, and other members of the Turtle Rock Studios team about the themes that shape the latest expansion's narrative. While River of Blood may not reinvent the wheel of zombie apocalypse narratives, it covers many genre mainstays including revenge, trust, and found family.
Fragile Alliances in River of Blood
The prior Back 4 Blood expansion, Children of the Worm, introduced new fanatical human/Ridden hybrid foes; a doomsday cult who answers the call of The Mother with a narrative focus on faith. But in River of Blood, McCurnin introduces a Tala; a new Cleaner who further blurs the lines between the Fort Hope survivors, Ridden and Cultists.
"The theme of faith is once again present in River of Blood. However, this time, we look at it in a different light. The Cleaners’ faith will be tested when they team up with a former cult member, Tala, and it will be tested again when they’re forced to go behind enemy lines in hopes of finding her brother, Derek."
Tala is the youngest Cleaner to join Fort Hope's crew of zombie killers, but she is also the most precocious, developing a device to essentially domesticate a Tallboy Ridden she names Jeff. After playing Tala, who is always quick to take action and answer other cleaners with witty retorts, it is easy to see how she could see through the Cult of the Worm's promises of paradise. But her experience with cultists has left her slow to trust new allies, and skeptical of almost everything.
Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold
The second major theme in River of Blood is bloody, righteous vengeance. Tala is not only on a quest to rescue her kidnaped brother, but to extract her pounds of flesh from the creeps who took him. But McCurnin warns that the Cultist's leader, the Mother, is also out to strike back at the Cleaners who trounced her in Cult of the Worm:
"The Children of the Worm lied to Tala and now, worst of all, they’re holding her brother captive. She’ll stop at nothing until they pay for what they’ve done. But she’s not the only one that’s out for revenge—after her last encounter with the Cleaners, The Mother of Worms is eager to dish out some righteous justice."
Revenge is a classic narrative trope in grim and gritty stories, but is sparingly used in zombie apocalypse games. Usually, the shambling, brain-eating antagonists are framed as forces of nature, so when a survivor shoots a Ridden there is rarely anything personal behind the kill. If anything, slaying former humans is seen as an act of mercy. Similarly, when zombies devour survivors, there is no real malice behind the deed; they are merely acting on infested instinct.
However, the cultists - who have willingly embraced the Ridden apocalypse - represent a third faction of villains who are even more evil and loathsome than the haplessly infected humans-turned-monsters players must mow down. The Mother condones humanity's subjugation by the Ridden, and holds a grudge against the Fort Hope Cleaners who have frustrated her efforts. Tala is determined to make her former "brothers and sisters" pay for keeping Derek prisoner.
In Back 4 Blood, Family is Thicker Than Water
The human core of River of Blood is the theme of family. As Tala fights to recover Derek, her own flesh and blood brother, she comes to recognize the survivors of Fort Hope as reliable allies. For Tala, Fort Hope gradually evolves from a means to an end to a genuine refuge, and a place to carve out a future.
McCurnin states that this growth reflects the true strength of the Cleaners. In addition to becoming a more formidable combat force, they also become a stronger family unit with more to live for together than they do on their own.
Back 4 Blood: River of Blood is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
