Left 4 Dead marked a huge turn in co-op gaming back in the mid-2000s. With its fun gameplay that required plenty of teamwork, it instantly struck a chord with gamers everywhere. It spawned a very successful sequel and rumors have been swirling of a third game for years but well, we know Valve and their hatred towards threes.
With that said, Turtle Rock Studios, the team behind the successful co-op series, is returning to their roots for their new game: Back 4 Blood. While still in the very early stages, Warner Bros. and Turtle Rock have announced a partnership to publish the game which is a co-op game that’s “designed from the ground-up as an original, premium title”.
As for what it’ll actually be like, it’s quite vague. Turtle Rock seems keen on going back to basics and making a classic co-op zombie game with new features and “state-of-the-art technology”.
“We are thrilled to partner with the proven Turtle Rock Studios team on Back 4 Blood to advance the co-op zombie genre forward with innovative multiplayer gameplay,” said David Haddad, President, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “The talented team at Turtle Rock has been developing amazing games together for a long time, and this is a great opportunity to work with them to create a new gaming universe built specifically with the large co-op zombie shooter community in mind.”
Turtle Rock is happy to have WB’s support after a messy launch with their last game, Evolve, which featured a ton of controversial pieces of DLC/microtransactions which may have been forced by publisher 2K Games. This new partnership also allows them to expand their team to meet their ambitions for Back 4 Blood.
“It’s hard to overstate what an awesome opportunity this is. We get to return to a genre that was born in our studio with over ten years of additional experience and zombie ideas racked up in our brains,” said Chris Ashton, Co-founder and Design Director, Turtle Rock Studios. “We also have some of the best teammates in the business at WBIE who understand our development process and are equally committed to our player-first mentality. We love being able to announce, so we can start working with the community right away.”
“We are not resting on any past laurels. Our goal is to take all we’ve learned and push forward. We know that’s a tall order,” said Phil Robb, Co-founder and Creative Director, Turtle Rock Studios. “We’re growing the team considerably because we’re stepping up to the biggest challenge in this studio’s history. We know this title has to stand out and we fully intend to make that happen.”
In the game’s FAQ, Turtle Rock notes it’ll have PVP, a campaign, but absolutely no battle royale mode. They also seem quite keen on alerting fans that they’re not going to put any microtransactions/paid content that the fans vocally reject, they want an open line of communication with the community during the development.
It’s hard to say when we’ll see Back 4 Blood as it sounds like it’s in very early development, we don’t even have a logo. Could we see it at E3? Possibly but it’ll probably only be a pre-rendered trailer and not actual gameplay.
As of right now, Back 4 Blood is slated to release on Xbox One, PS4, and PC with Turtle Rock open to more platforms (probably next-gen).
