Publisher Warner Bros. has just released a new trailer for its multiplayer zombie shooter Back 4 Blood. The new trailer is titled "Meet the Cleaners" and it's narrated by Holly, one of the playable characters in the game. Holly gives interested gamers a short backstory of each playable character in Back 4 Blood, some of their strengths, and also shares some information about a few horrifying iterations of The Ridden.
Fans keeping up with trailers for the shooter will already be familiar with Back 4 Blood's various characters called "cleaners," who basically excel at turning Ridden aberrations into a pulp. There are eight playable cleaners in total, and each of them have different strengths and weaknesses to take into account when creating a team composition. The Meet the Cleaners trailer neatly outlines bonuses teams will receive by including certain characters, but although Holly also talks about each cleaner's role, players will likely discover which cleaners fit certain play styles when they get their hands on the game.
First up is Walker, who seems to be the basic assault rifle user. He gives the team additional damage and health, and the more precise he is killing Back 4 Blood's Ridden, the better his accuracy gets. There's also Doc, who wields knives and pistols in the trailer. She increases team healing efficiency, trauma resistance, and gives a general boost to low health healing. Karlee looks like a scout of sorts wielding an SMG. She can detect hazards before the team gets into trouble, and also provides a few speed-related boosts to the team composition.
Of course, there are also sniper and support roles, taken by Jim and Hoffman respectively. Jim pumps up his damage with precision kills and helps other cleaners maximize damage to Ridden weak spots. Hoffman just wants to keep everyone topped up with ammo and explosives. Combining his abilities with some complimentary buff cards in Back 4 Blood might just keep players from hearing the awful click of an empty magazine.
Rounding out the team of cleaners are Evangelo, a young buck survivalist, Mom, a trash-talking caretaker with a shotgun, and Holly herself, who busts up zombies with a baseball bat full of nails affectionately named "Dottie." Out of these three, Mom may be the most popular pick when the game first launches. She has an instant revive ability and comes with an extra life for any team member that goes down early.
Whichever team of four players choose, they will be up against terrifying Ridden like the Breaker, Ogre, Snitcher, and Hag. These baddies will use different fighting styles for teams to overcome, and players will have to really know their arsenals in order to properly deal with hordes of Snitcher followers or incoming Ogre "meatballs." The good news is that interested players will have some time to understand how all these gameplay parts fit together during Back 4 Blood's open beta period this summer.
Back 4 Blood releases on October 12, 2021, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
