Anybody who has played some of Valve’s most famous franchises knows that Valve can’t seem to count to three. While the company frequently delivers strong sequels to its most famous games, it never follows them up with a third game. One of these franchises isLeft 4 Dead,which got two blockbuster games before suddenly falling off the radar.Left 4 Deadhas no shortage of fans to this day, and many of them still hold out hope that Valve willmakeLeft 4 Dead 3someday. In the meantime, though, Turtle Rock Studios is making the next best thing toLeft 4 Dead 3,and that’sBack 4 Blood.
Back 4 Bloodis the next best thing toLeft 4 Dead 3,and that’s not a coincidence. On the contrary, it’s completely intentional. Turtle Rock is the studio that was responsible for developing theLeft 4 Deadfranchise before it parted ways with Valve.Left 4 Dead’s fans are surely going to flock toBack 4 Bloodto finally get their filling of its long dormant parent franchise. However, that doesn’t mean everything is looking rosy for Turtle Rock. It’s actually under an unbelievable amount of pressure.Back 4 Bloodneeds to cut through a game market thick with zombie games while also being a successor toLeft 4 Deadthat’s worthy of a decade of silence.
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Back 4 Blood’s Burdens
Even though the last game in the franchise came out in 2009,Left 4 Dead’s fan communityis very much alive. Some fans are so dedicated that in 2020 Valve allowed the release ofThe Last Stand,an expansion toLeft 4 Dead 2made completely by fans, as an official DLC.Back 4 Bloodhas to live up to the high hopes of fans, whose imaginations are sure to be racing now thatBack 4 Bloodis coming out in a few months. A spiritual successor like this has to somehow live up to the mountain of nostalgia thatLeft 4 Dead’s image evokes while also being new and interesting enough in its own right to convince fans to play it instead of just playingLeft 4 Deadagain. It won’t be easy for Turtle Rock to give fans everything they want.
It also can’t be denied thatBack 4 Bloodis hardly short on competitors right now. There are a ton of zombie games both in development and already on the market.The Last of Usalone has been taking the franchise by storm, setting new bars for telling gripping narratives in the zombie apocalypse. Other zombie franchises that fans are hoping to see continued soon includeState of Decay,Dying Light,andDead Island. There’s also zombie modes in games likeCall of Dutyand evenCivilizationthat show how commonplace zombie media is.Back 4 Bloodwon’t shine if it’s just an imitation of the things that madeLeft 4 Deadwork. It has to be innovative and unique, even while trying to revive theLeft 4 Deadmodel.
RELATED:Back 4 Blood is Missing the Most Popular Left 4 Dead Zombie Archetype
Making Back 4 Blood Work
Even with these major sources ofpressure onBack 4 Blood’s performance, neither fans nor Turtle Rock should despair. There’s a few reasons thatBack 4 Bloodcan get past some of these challenges. For one thing, it’s probably going to beat many other zombie games to the punch as far as release dates are concerned.Back 4 Bloodonly has three months to go before release. For another thing, it’s a unique type of zombie game compared to what else is on the market. It’ll be a multiplayer-focused zombie game coming out well before anything similar is ready to ship. It might even be out beforeThe Last of Us 2gets its much anticipated multiplayer mode.
Back 4 Blood’s future isn’t all gloom and doom. All the excitement around the game is ultimately a positive. It would be terrible for Turtle Rock to deliver a great game that didn’t get any attention. It seems like Turtle Rock has already taken some measures to mitigate stress on itself, too. Fans have knownBack 4 Bloodexists for two years now, but for the vast majority of that time, Turtle Rock has worked on the game quietly. In other words,Back 4 Bloodhas spent most of its life working without the weight of the public eye and coming together behind closed doors. That’s cause for optimism. Even if the pressure is mountingasBack 4 Blood’s release approaches, hopefully Turtle Rock has given itself the necessary time and privacy to get the game right.
Back 4 Bloodreleases on Jun 28, 2025 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
