Back 4 Blood, the preview of the Game Awards 2020
It's been over ten years since the release of the original Left 4 Dead and its sequel, Left 4 Dead 2, and it's absurd to think that Valve hasn't reworked that intellectual property. That is, in fact it is not absurd, if we consider that the company that controls Steam has in fact abandoned the development of games, although officially the opposite has been said.
We were saying: more than ten years have passed, and yet still many users try their hand at the two titles in question and desperately ask for the creation of a new chapter, in the meantime trying to pass the wait with the still discreet World War Z and with other productions that try, but without succeeding, to make their own that formula.
Back 4 Blood is therefore a clear and eloquent answer to that pressing question. The game does not seek excuses or try to shuffle the cards on the table, and the presentation a few hours ago proves it unequivocally: we are faced with the same zombie-based shooter that we know well, only more aesthetically refined.
Characters and enemies
The cinematic trailer for Back 4 Blood, made in CG, certainly succeeds in the task of introducing the characters of the new title of Turtle Rock Studios and the key situations that will characterize its cooperative-based campaign for four participants. In a world ravaged by the spread of a parasite that turns people into Infested, a handful of heroes must try to stem the threat posed by the endless hordes of undead.The four protagonists of Back 4 Blood do not yet have a name, but the presentation video already frames them very well. In fact, we have a shrewd and resolute woman, with some Harley Quinn nuances, who moves along with three men: a middle-aged dude who seems to be the expert of the group and two others younger but no less determined.
This is a cast perfectly in line with those of the two Left 4 Dead, which in these cinematic sequences faces the inevitable wave of zombies, taking up assault rifles, pistols, Molotov cocktails and spiked clubs: a respectable arsenal, even this widely already seen. It is therefore not too surprising that the enemies correspond to the mini bosses of the shooter produced by Valve.
In the trailer we see a variant of the Hunter, which awaits the heroes from above and traps one of them in a kind of resistant resin, then a large zombie that acts as a Boomer and in fact explodes into a thousand pieces when the characters dump everything they have on him. Of course there is no shortage of Tanks, represented in Back 4 Blood by creatures six meters high, very powerful and resistant.
Gameplay
In addition to the cinematic trailer, Back 4 Blood was also presented with a gameplay video showing the actual in-game action and confirming all the similarities of the case with Left 4 Dead. The sequences, taken from a pre-alpha version and therefore certainly subject to improvements and refinements from now to launch, start from the classic safe room reachable at the end of each stage, where our group can refuel before returning to the field. br>Once in the street, the characters find themselves immediately surrounded by the Infested, which they take down using all the weapons available. A Boomer is detonated in a few moments, but before entering an old station there is another major threat looming on the horizon: a Tank emerges from the ground and the group tries to escape by entering the facility.
At this point we see another special enemy, equipped with a large arm that he uses to crush his opponents and that we must of course target to eliminate him. There are many zombies and the goal is to access an antechamber that can create distance between us and the Tank, but things don't go as planned and chaos breaks out.
What follows is a quick rundown of different situations and scenarios, which seems to testify to a certain variety of settings but a gameplay that will hardly take different paths compared to the premises. Not that it's an absolute evil, mind you, but after ten years maybe some news could certainly help refresh the formula, even if so well tested and fun, of Left 4 Dead 2.
Sensations preliminary
To meet these needs we will probably find the elements that are not seen in the video, in this case of the cards that, once equipped, can modify the abilities of the characters giving life to very different builds; and a dynamic difficulty level, which adapts to our abilities thus increasing or decreasing the amount of enemies and their strength.It will be very interesting to find out what Turtle Rock Studios has in store with Back 4 Blood. After the disappointment of Evolve, the team is undoubtedly looking for an opportunity for redemption and it is clear that reviving a classic like this can only be an excellent starting point. As for the point of arrival, well, we can get an idea already this month thanks to the closed alpha program on PC.
There is no doubt that the many orphaned users of the Turtle Rock Studios classics will be happy to know that the team is preparing for them a visually modern product but linked to that structure and to those mechanics that have determined the extraordinary success of Left 4 Dead. In short, the formula is the one we know well, but there also seems to be some innovations that we hope will help to modernize a bit of a system that is certainly tested and fun, but which could substantially benefit from a pinch of freshness.
