Turtle Rock Studios took the stage at the Future Games Show today with a new trailer for its upcoming co-op zombie shooter Back 4 Blood. The video, which you can also see on YouTube, shows the same gameplay we saw last December with new voiceover that goes into detail on the game's card-based roguelite elements and "game director."
We've said previously that Back 4 Blood is Left 4 Dead 3 in all but name, and this video really drives that point home. It's been a long time since I've played any L4D, but if I didn’t know better I’d swear this is a direct sequel: Four players emerge from a safe room, guns in hand, and proceed to blast hordes of the undead—"the Ridden," in this case—into sticky bits. Challenges come along every so often in the form of bigger, badder zombies with special powers, which players deal with while dropping pithy one-liners. The mighty Ogres, meanwhile, look a lot like L4D's Tanks—big, angry, and incredibly powerful.
One aspect of Back 4 Blood that promises to change things up a bit is the card-based roguelite system that can impact stats like health, reload speed, and ammo capacity. There will also be "corruption cards," played by the AI-powered game director, that modify the zombies and obstacles you'll face in each area. Players will get a look at all the potential cards in play before they move into new areas.
"After you see those cards, you're then going to be given a hand from a deck that you've built, and you need to decide what cards you're going to play," executive producer Lianne Papp says in the video. "Coordination with your team is going to be super key here, as you can do things like improving the quality of weapons and items that are found in the world, you can make it so your team can carry more Molotovs or medkits ... We're really excited to see what you and your friends will do with your cards."
Roguelite variations aside, it really does look like Left 4 Dead 3, and so as we said in our December preview, the big question is whether that will be enough, or if, 12 years on from Left 4 Dead 2, players are going to expect more. Unfortunately, we're going to have to wait a little longer than expected to find out: Warner Bros. announced earlier today that Back 4 Blood has been delayed from its scheduled release in June to October 12, although an open beta is still planned for the summer.
