Turtle Rock Studios is Back 4 Blood in a new Left 4 Dead-like game

Turtle Rock Studios has gone back to basics in partnership with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, announcing its brand new title Back 4 Blood. In both name and description, the co-op zombie shooter sounds a lot like a spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead.

It’s no surprise that Turtle Rock would want to revisit the successful brand that established the studio, especially given that 2K’s Evolve was debatably a disaster. The developer stated in a FAQ that “going back to our roots and at the same time innovating on them” would help the studio compete in what is now an oversaturated genre.

“It’s hard to overstate what an awesome opportunity this is. We get to return to a genre that was born in our studio with over ten years of additional experience and zombie ideas racked up in our brains,” announced co-founder and design director Chris Ashton. “We also have some of the best teammates in the business at WBIE who understand our development process and are equally committed to our player-first mentality. We love being able to announce, so we can start working with the community right away.”

Although this sounds a lot like Left 4 Dead 3, the studio explained that the “brand new, original IP” is a means of distancing itself from Valve’s now-dormant title. There will be a campaign and player versus player, but no, it won’t fall into the growing trend of battle royale games.

Despite Back 4 Blood being a long way from completion, Turtle Rock is in need of bolstering its development team and wants to hear from fans of its previous games while crafting this one. “We’re growing the team considerably because we’re stepping up to the biggest challenge in this studio’s history. We know this title has to stand out and we fully intend to make that happen,” said co-founder and creative director Phil Robb.

“We are thrilled to partner with the proven Turtle Rock Studios team on Back 4 Blood to advance the co-op zombie genre forward with innovative multiplayer gameplay,” said David Haddad, President, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “The talented team at Turtle Rock has been developing amazing games together for a long time, and this is a great opportunity to work with them to create a new gaming universe built specifically with the large co-op zombie shooter community in mind.”

There is no release window just yet, but Turtle Rock has already announced that it is focusing on a triple-A price point across PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. “More possibilities aren’t out of the question though.”

KitGuru Says: Personally, I really liked Evolve although the fragmented versions and ridiculous DLC killed it quickly. It would be interesting to see how a modern Left 4 Dead-like game will hold up. What would you like to see in Back 4 Blood?

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