When Back 4 Blood launched almost one year ago, whether you loved it, hated it, or landed somewhere in between, what was never in doubt was where the idea came from. Turtle Rock birthed the co-op horde shooter genre that, these days, gets about one or two new games added to it annually. Even its name, Back 4 Blood, is an obvious callback to Left 4 Dead, the common ancestor of the many games like it. But with its newly launched Act 5 expansion included in the game’s Annual Pass, Back 4 Blood is shedding itself of its lineage in a way that only its rogue-ish card system previously attempted.
New human-like enemies have come to the campaign as part of a mysterious cult that takes center stage in the storyline for Act 5. The Children of the Worm have a backstory that players will need to uncover through environmental clues, as usual in games like this, though the newest Cleaner, Prophet Dan, seems to be intimately familiar with them in a way that brings conflict to the otherwise close-knit group.
Though I’ve not yet finished the new expansion, I’ve so far enjoyed the novel mixing of the game’s common undead, its specially mutated mini-bosses, and these new human-like enemies. That’s something Left 4 Dead and most games it inspired never tried. The new Act 5 levels are more intimidating as a result, because players need to manage the hordes while also dodging snipers, hunters, and other classes of new smarter-than-your-average-zombie enemies. Speaking to the game’s executive producer, Lianne Papp, I was surprised to learn these Children of the Worm are not truly human after all, but neither are they quite like the monsters already in the game.
Back 4 Blood has, for me, remained a confounding game this past year. Flawed but strangely irresistible, I keep coming back to it to experience its run system when it all clicks, which it does at least some of the time. Alongside continuing quality-of-life changes, I’m hoping Act 5 can be the start of a new era for the game where it can better stand out from what’s come before it. You can read GameSpot’s full interview with Papp below, and find Act 5 now available in Back 4 Blood on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.