According to Turtle Rock Studios, Back 4 Blood is not going to be an imitation of another game – the team explained their vision in a video.

Left 4 Dead 3 (like many other Valve games…) will likely not going to happen. However, Turtle Rock Studios explains in the video below how they want to take what makes the zombie co-op shooter experience fun, and infuse it with modern visuals and technology, giving them a chance to redefine the genre instead of creating a Left 4 Dead clone.

Instead of trying to survive (as in Left 4 Dead), Back 4 Blood’s characters (called cleaners) are willingly fighting back. They are either immune to the infection, or they have been resilient enough to survive a year of chaos. The immunity makes the cleaners brave, and they push back to create their safe places, clean of the infected zombies called the Ridden.

The team wants the whole game to feel bigger. The characters will be stronger, and the weapons will be better, which meant the Ridden had to be given a boost too to be different from regular zombies, but there will also be some mutated versions. There are a few enemy types confirmed: the Boomer-like Retches vomit on you and explode; the Hockers crawl up walls for higher positions before pouncing on you (Hunters have done the same); and nine-foot-tall Bruiser has a giant arm, which can send the cleaners flying with a successful hit.

The main difference lies within the card system, including some corruption cards add gameplay mutations. For example, the world can be darker or foggier for limited visibility, or there might be more of the mutated zombies. The players have their cards to switch the situation back in their favour (increased health, increased stamina, fire resistance, healing bonuses, better reload speed, better melee damage, increased gold rewards).

Back 4 Blood launches on June 22 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. A card RNG system doesn’t make this game that different from Left 4 Dead, though.

Source: PSL