During the 2020 Game Awards, players were given their first look at the newest game from Turtle Rock Studios, Back 4 Blood. Meant as the spiritual successor to Valve’s classic Left 4 Dead franchise (which Turtle Rock originally developed for Valve), the game showed off both a cinematic and gameplay trailer during the Game Awards which seemed to set the tone for players looking for that intense co-operative experience created by its predecessors. However, considering Turtle Rock Studios’ track record, Back 4 Blood seems poised to surpass Left 4 Dead‘s legacy with gamers.
While it’s certainly been a while since Turtle Rock Studios has worked on the original Left 4 Dead, that doesn’t mean the developer has been sitting in silence. In 2015, the studio released Evolve on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. While the game released to mixed reactions from fans and critics, perhaps one of the game’s biggest strengths lied in Turtle Rock Studios’ dedication to consistent updates with new content, such as additional Monsters, Hunters, and maps.
And this is where Turtle Rock Studios could excel in order to escalate Back 4 Blood to new heights: by bringing consistent and new content to the game. While Evolve saw a dramatic drop off not long after launch, the developer made the decision to switch the game to a free-to-play model, causing a major boost in its PC player base. In addition to this, Evolve was being supported by Turtle Rock with content along the way. This seems to show that the studio is heavily invested in creating a game that players will love and is flexible with how it reaches this goal.
Valve and Turtle Rock Studios seem to have different approaches to how they handle new and evolving content within their games. In the case of Left 4 Dead 2, Valve released three major pieces of DLC through various new campaigns for players to play through with two of them releasing within the first year of the game’s launch. However, the game’s Cold Stream DLC is perhaps the most peculiar. This paid expansion on consoles released two years after launch, and gave players access to the previous campaigns from the original Left 4 Dead as well as a new campaign titled Cold Stream, which was crafted by passionate members of the community.
This trend of community created content deemed official by Valve has continued now into 2020 with the release of a new update called The Last Stand. While this trend of Valve allowing players to create official expansions for its games isn’t necessarily a bad one, it does show an area of development where Turtle Rock Studios could pull ahead. It seems clear that there is still an impassioned fanbase for these types of games, and if Turtle Rock can figure out a way to support Back 4 Blood with consistent new content rather than relying on gamers, it could surpass its predecessor.
Back 4 Blood is set to release on June 22, 2021, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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