Back 4 Blood, the spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead, heads into early access today and we're getting very hyped! The Beta periods are all in the past and it's kinda surreal for release to be so near.
Here's the latest on what we know about Back 4 Blood...
Latest - Early Access is Live!
You can now lay Back 4 Blood if you pre-ordered the Ultimate or Deluxe editions of the game! For those of you who are playing via Steam or the Epic Games Store, the wait continues as servers will be live at 08:00 PST / 16:00 BST
Early Access begins today!
For those of you who have pre-ordered the Ultimate or Deluxe editions of the game, you can start playing from 16:00 BST on Thursday, 7 October!
Campaign Trailer Released
We have what is likely our first and only official campaign trailer for Back 4 Blood. It teases the backstory behind the ridden and how the infection started.
We also see some of the cleaners in action but the focus is less on them and more on the general story. We already reiceved a 'Meet the Cleaners' trailer a few months ago.
Back 4 Blood BETA Starts Next Week
You dont't have long to secure your early access to the Back 4 Blood beta that starts on Thursday, 5 August. In order to gain access you will need to pre-order any edition of the game before this date.
Intel Gaming are also offering the chance to grab a beta key if you sign into theier service. If you want to try the beta before comitting to a purchase, you can wait for the open beta which starts on Thursday, 12 August.
New PVP and GamePass Launch
At the Xbox E3 event, tonnes of big news was revealed. You can check out our coverage on the site now. In that, we had some interesting news of Back 4 Blood.
At the very end, it was revealed that Back 4 Blood would be a day one release on Xbox Game Pass, their fantastic subscription service. A new PVP mode that has players take control of zombies was also announced, a nice addition to the game.
Back 4 Blood Release Date
Back 4 Blood will release on 12 October 2021. This is a delayed date as the game was originally due to launch on 22 June 2021. As a knock-on effect of the Covid-19 pandemic and the affect it has had on game development, the game was delayed to October.
Since the initial announcement back in December, the game has held an open alpha which was well received by those who participated. Here's hoping to no more delays but if it does happen, we'll have you covered with the news here.
Back 4 Blood Gameplay
As the game has already been played through a closed alpha, we already have a good look at gameplay. Again, fans of the Left 4 Dead games will see a lot of similarities in the HUD and overall style.
Back 4 Blood does appear to have a much darker tone than expect, though. Not quite horror but certainly more atmospheric than Left 4 Dead.
This could just be down to the progression of game development over time and the tools available to developers allow for more depth in design.
Will There Be Another Back 4 Blood Beta?
Yes! Announced at the Summer Games Fest over E3 2021, a new open beta period was announced. The beta will be split into two waves of access across August 2021.
First off is the early access open beta for those who have pre-ordered the game already. This takes place between 5-9 August 2021. The general open beta then takes place later in the month between 12-16 August 2021.
Will Back 4 Blood Be Cross-Play?
Turtle Rock intend to have both cross-gen and cross-play support at launch. This will mean regardless of what platform you are on, you can party up and play with friends.
Bare in mind the use of 'intended' in the tweet, as this may excuse the feature not being available at launch.
Cross-play is usually a feature that has to be approved by the platform developer and not the developer of the game.