On December 6th, developer Turtle Rock Studios and publisher Warner Bros. Games have released the 3rd expansion for the thrilling cooperative FPS Back 4 Blood. Titled River of Blood, it adds a brand-new Act 6 story campaign that involves Cleaners attacking a base of the Cult of the Worm.
This new addition introduces a five-map mission, new Cleaner Tala that can call for back-up from her companion Jeff. Additionally, River of Blood introduces a brand-new Trial of the Worm (a co-op PvE mode free to all players), 2 new types of weapons (rocket launcher and flamethrower), new enemy type, 8 exclusive character skins and 12 exclusive weapon skins, new banners, graffiti and emblems, achievements and more.
New Cleaner Tala is quite an interesting character. Previously a Cultist Outcast, she uses a bow that doesn’t need ammo but can still pack quite a punch while also not losing out on attack speed and having a bleed effect. Additionally, the presence of Tala will allow players to find extra chests outside of Hives. Last but not least, having Tala in your team also allows you to find a whistle to call forth a friendly Tallboy Jeff to wreak some havoc. Other Cleaners can use the whistle as well, it doesn’t have to be Tala herself.
The expansion added modifications for the melee weapons, allowing melee Cleaners to build up their game with more comfort. This long-awaited feature makes for a really good addition to the game.
The new campaign allows players to traverse 5 maps, incredibly visually diverse among them and each with their own color scheme and style. The Hives have received a visual make-over, with the new Hive being overwhelming with its grotesqueness. With every map, players get introduced to interesting locations and views as well as a variety of enemies and nifty combinations of zombie hordes.
The developers have also released a free update that introduced a brand-new cooperative PvE mode called Trial of the Worm. In it, party members will travel across four maps, adding various Corruption Modifiers to boost points at the cost of increasing difficulty. Having tried out the Trial for myself, I realized that you will have to get a well-assembled team, preferably with friends or long-time in-game companions. Our group of randoms were made into minced meat quite handily after voting for the maximum difficulty from the beginning. This mode can test your mettle and preparation in ultra-hard conditions. As an endgame option, it can serve as an exam to check your abilities, decks and nerves.
The only real drawback is the game’s online. At the time of writing, the game has a maximum concurrent online of 3-5 thousands players at the peak despite its large potential and replayability. Back 4 Blood is able to deliver many memorable hours filled with intense but enjoyable gameplay, featuring challenges, interesting story and a variety of characters. It is a pity that the online of Left 4 Dead is many times higher than that of its spiritual successor Back 4 Blood.
Note: the Steam key was provided for free for the purposes of covering the game’s content.
