Back 4 Blood

About Back 4 Blood

Back 4 Blood is a cooperative first-person shooter by Turtle Rock Studios, the team behind Left 4 Dead, published by Warner Bros. Games. It came out on 12 October 2021 on Windows, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X|S, and three paid expansions followed in 2022: Tunnels of Terror in April, Children of the Worm in August and River of Blood in December, the last of them. The expansions added new Cleaners, more of the campaign and new enemies.

A parasite has turned most of humanity into the Ridden, once-human hosts bent on devouring what is left. You play one of eight Cleaners, survivors immune to the infection, and with up to three friends (or bots when playing alone) you take the fight to them across a story campaign, moving from mission to mission and from safe room to safe room.

The horror is being swarmed. The Ridden come in hordes, and among them are mutated Ridden built to break up a team, with boss types up to 20 feet tall. A Game Director watches what the players do and adjusts the fights, and its Corruption cards can add extra enemies, fog or larger hordes to a level.

What sets it apart from Left 4 Dead is the card system: before each level you build a deck of cards that change health, damage, stamina and more, so a run can play differently each time. It also has Swarm, a player-versus-player mode where four players are Cleaners and four play as the Ridden.

The base campaign has four acts, each split into chapters, and takes most players around six and a half hours to finish the first time; the cards and the difficulty levels are what bring you back. It is rated M by the ESRB for intense violence, blood and gore, strong language and drug references.

It is a loud, gory action game rather than a slow fright, and best with friends. It suits players who liked Left 4 Dead and want a newer team shooter with more to build between levels.

How to play Back 4 Blood

1. Choose a campaign act and a difficulty, and start a game with up to three other players or bots.
2. Pick a Cleaner and build a deck of cards that will be drawn as you play.
3. Move through each level together toward the next safe room, picking up weapons, ammunition and items.
4. Stay close to the team and focus fire on mutated Ridden before they can split you apart.
5. Revive downed teammates and reach the end of the level before the hordes wear you down.

Tips

• Read the Corruption cards at the start of a level; they tell you what the Game Director is adding, such as fog or bigger hordes.
• Build your deck around one role, such as healing, damage or stamina, rather than a little of everything.
• Keep a melee weapon or a quick weapon for when the horde reaches you.
• Start on the lowest difficulty to learn the levels before trying the harder ones.

Questions