Zombie survival shooter Back 4 Blood looks to inject some randomness into the formula established by Left 4 Dead by way of its unique deckbuilding system. The game is clearly a spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead, which some of its developers at Turtle Rock Studios previously worked on, but it has some key differences to set it apart. These include tweaks to gunplay and the addition of an in-game store, but chief among them is Back 4 Blood’s cards system, which can add a host of modifiers to gameplay.
For starters, each of Back 4 Blood‘s playable characters, called Cleaners, has a unique trait that gives a buff to the entire team and shows up as a card when deckbuilding before each round. Outside of this, players can unlock more cards through playing the game that grant various other bonuses. Once enough cards have been earned, players can create their own custom decks, though a starter deck is available from the beginning. Cards can also be found in the midst of a round, though these are not added to the player’s deck but activated immediately for that game.
At the beginning of each round, a Corruption card will be played by the game’s AI Director. Corruption cards do the opposite of player cards, either making the round more difficult or offering up a new challenge in exchange for a reward. After the Corruption card, players choose their own card to play for that round from a selection of five randomly drawn from their deck. Players also have a starter card – the first card in the deck – that gets played automatically at the beginning of the game.
Back 4 Blood Card Decks Affect Both Campaign & Versus
As players progress through each game, the active cards will grow, both in Back 4 Blood‘s PvP and PvE modes, making both friendlies and enemies stronger. In the PvE Campaign, a new card is played every time a safehouse is reached. At the beginning of each round, everyone chooses a card, then shops for weapons and gear before opening the safe house door. Most cards – at least in the starting decks – feature cards that give minor stat buffs, like more ammo carrying capacity or faster reload speed.
Versus works much the same way, but more cards are played at once. Before beginning the match, five cards are dealt to each player, and each player chooses four. When one is chosen, another is drawn to replace it in the hand, so there are always five to choose from. This process is done before all three Versus rounds so that each player’s deck accumulates by round three. Back 4 Blood has an open beta with early access running for a few days in August, so anyone looking to get a hands-on look at the card system before launch will be able to when the full beta starts August 12.
Back 4 Blood comes to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on October 12.
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