Returning to the zombie gaming scene are the same developers that brought us the Left 4 Dead series. This time Turtle Rock Studios is teaming up with Warner Bros in order to launch Back 4 Blood, which was originally announced during The Game Awards 2020. Their announcement gave us the release date set for June 22, 2021 on PC via Steam, PlayStation 4 and 5, as well as Xbox One and Series, but it also was partnered with the sign-up for their closed alpha. After getting my invite and putting a few hours into the first day of the alpha, I have to say that I am very happy with what I experienced!

Gameplay

Bringing back the 4-player cooperative experience, the alpha was set up with only one level that contained four chapters within Act 1. They also had both Campaign and Quick Play mode, but both of them seemed to work the same from my experience; likely due to there only being one mission set up for the closed alpha. There were three difficulties to choose from, but unless you are extremely experienced with the zombie horde style game these developers are known for and have a team of friends, not randoms, to work with, I don’t suggest going above the lowest difficulty because they did not make an easy game!

Traverse through Edensburgh, which provides a set pathway for each chapter’s completion but not always the same findings and experience each time. Thanks to the mixture of layout RNG and their new card system, no two playthroughs will be exactly the same. After experience three consecutive playthroughs with different teams of random players, I can definitely confirm that the only thing that remained consistent was the pathway from start to finish in each chapter. When it comes to finding loot, unlockable doors, coming across specific enemies, horde traps, and anything else, I never knew what to expect.

While they have announced that they plan to have up to 8 different playable characters, the alpha includes only 4 to choose from. This alone lets us see and experience how each character comes with their own abilities and starting weapon set up. As a handgun-over-melee player, I found myself choosing to play as Hoffman or Walker which meant that I would have to find my main weapon out in the map itself. Typically, I am only able to find a main weapon to use in chapter 2, which I didn’t care for too much, but there is too much use with a handgun for me to switch up my style; especially considering some of the perks you can get from the cards.

The way the card system works is pretty straightforward. When you first load in, there is a default deck made for you in case you want to just see the game before making your own deck, but there is always the option to make a custom deck or two. The game director, which is not an actual player but rather the game’s own form of perk RNG, will have their own cards selected in order to make the map full of enemies for you to fight through. These monsters can change and will have an update at the beginning of each chapter. For the players, you will get to pick three cards at the beginning of chapter 1 and then can pick one card for every time your team reaches the next chapter or ends up restarting the chapter due to team death. To select cards, three cards will be chosen at one time from your deck and you get to pick one of the three options. After you select the option, if another card can be chosen, a new set of three cards from the deck will be chosen for you to pick one card from. This makes it so that you have a little bit of selection of what cards are used for this run all while making sure that you can’t just pick the perks outright, making for a bit of RNG in your perk system. On top of the cards that you choose, which only work for your character specifically unless stated otherwise on the card, you will come across random cards in the chapters which automatically go into effect once collected, so keep your eye out for those as well.

As you get kills and scavenge through the chapters, you will earn and collect copper. This copper is used at the orange box at the beginning of each chapter in order for you to purchase items such as grenades and healing, as well as get upgrades for your weapons, restock your ammo, and upgrade your weapons. It’s a rather straightforward system, but I do feel it is missing some options such as purchasing main weapons if you don’t find the one that you want to use out in the field.

Expectations

Along with them adding more maps, characters, and likely zombies to fight against, I would like to see them increase the variety of options when it comes to the card system. While they had quite a diverse set of options to choose from in the alpha, there are sure to be unlockable cards that provide better perks than the base cards you start with and just a wider variety of options to create the most versatile and unique deck builds for different play styles.

I really didn’t care for the fact that I didn’t start out with a main weapon just because I wanted to be one of the pistol users. The very first game I played I ended up starting with an assault rifle, but the other matches thereafter I didn’t, so I believe that was a fluke or glitch because it seems the standard is for me to not have a main gun at the start. They should do what they did in Left 4 Dead and provide a set of gun options for players to choose from so they can start out with a good weapon or at the very least add main weapons to the orange box for a range of copper prices. Just make sure if you go with the latter option to make at least one gun available for purchase at the cost of the starting copper amount.

Above all, I loved that the Game Director role wasn’t played by another player and was rather just an alternative way for the game to add RNG to each chapter while giving players the heads up on what they can expect to fight inside of the levels. I can see them adding a versus mode of kind where a player can be the Game Director, but don’t remove the AI function to let the co-op or solo players able to enjoy the system that is currently in place.

Conclusion

Back 4 Blood has one of the most solid alpha versions I have ever played of any early access game and provides an amazing gameplay experience right off the bat! It’s enthralling, unique, and challenging all while being entertaining! If this is what they have to offer with just one level and at an early access level, then the full game is going to be a must-have title without a doubt. As long as they don’t remove anything that they have already, this game’s development has nowhere to go but up.