Developer Turtle Rock Studios has continued pulling back the curtain on its hotly anticipated new title Back 4 Blood as part of this year's E3. The studio became popular after working on the Left 4 Dead series, and Back 4 Blood sees the studio returning to its roots in a new game that sees players teaming up with up to three friends to take on hordes of zombies. Turtle Rock Studios remained quiet on the full scope of what players could expect from the game for a while, but it has shared a lot more information recently.
Comparisons between Back 4 Blood and Left 4 Dead are everywhere. Even Back 4 Blood's title references the studio's return to the genre. However, Turtle Rock Studios has made a clear effort to highlight what about Back 4 Blood is different and new. Back 4 Blood has proven its efforts to improve on the series it is a spiritual successor of. For example, at E3, Back 4 Blood revealed its new PvP mode called Swarm. While it may initially seem similar to Left 4 Dead's versus mode, it has also made a number of important changes.
How Left 4 Dead's PvP Works
Left 4 Dead 2 released in 2009, but its impact can still be felt across the industry. Even the newest DLC for Watch Dogs: Legion seems to take some notes from Left 4 Dead. The versus mode in Left 4 Dead was popular, seeing four players playing through one of the game's campaigns while four other players control special zombies to try and kill them all. A match in the mode was played out over two rounds, with players switching sides between rounds, and whichever team made it further in the mission wins.
How Back 4 Blood's PvP is Different From Left 4 Dead's
Back 4 Blood's Swarm mode mixes the formula up quite a bit. Not only does Back 4 Blood feature more special enemies for players to take advantage of, it moves the mode to a best-of-three format. Swarm pits two teams of four against one another, but each round plays out quite differently. Instead of playing through one of the game's missions, survivors instead are given time to gather supplies and choose a place to make a stand on the map. Once players have found what position they want to defend, they have to survive as long as possible against the other team. Then, the teams switch sides, and whichever team survives the longest wins the round. Whichever team wins two rounds first takes the match.
Overall, Back 4 Blood's new spin on PvP seems to be a step in the right direction. Turtle Rock Studios looks to be expanding the experience of their games, and improving the multiplayer mode is a great way to do that. With Back 4 Blood launching day one on Xbox Game Pass, the mode should have a sizable playerbase at launch as well, which will be great for players who want to check out the new Swarm mode.
Back 4 Blood releases on October 12 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
