Turtle Rock, the studio behind the original Left 4 Dead is back with what is for all intents and purposes a spiritual successor to the co-op action-survival hit. Albeit, one that feels every bit like a game from 2021 - for better or worse. We went hands on with the Beta to bring you our impressions.

And some sweet 4K 60fps gameplay.

A lot of Back 4 Blood’s design feels modern. Which is a good thing. Other times it can feel as if things were changed just to change them -- like making Safe Rooms devoid of free fill-er-up goodies. Stocking filler stuff like fresh medpacks for everyone and crates full of ammo. Lore-wise there’s the strangeness of no one saying the z-word, they’re The Ridden you see. Then there’s the good stuff, playable characters that not only look diverse but act as classes. Each featuring their own abilities and team passives like extra health or movement speed. Very cool, and kind of expected given we’re now in the Age of the RPG-Stat.

Throw in a setting that’s “10 Years Later” or some such, there’s a hub area/town of survivors that doubles as a place to train, customise, shop, launch a campaign run, or dabble in some PVP.

The class-like setup of characters you control also results in different starting weapons, and cards. Yeah, cards. Back 4 Blood’s card system is integral to both the variety you’ll find in terms of modifiers or mutators, but also for the bonuses and abilities you can take into a run or PVP encounter. Draw a bunch of cards from a deck and then choose a couple, like say, extra life or ammo.

Our Full Back 4 Blood Preview - We Go Hands-On with PVP and PVE