GAMING
CREEPS, CURSES AND COSMIC CRITTERS HAUNT OCTOBER’S GAME LINEUP Turtle Rock Studio's Back 4 Blood leads the ghoulish pack of frightening new games this month By ZACK KOTZER
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houls and ghosts have been with video games from the very start. Nothing gets the blood pumping, or the run button held down, like a good fright. The last year has given us a frightening range of scary games: from the action-packed monster mash Resident Evil Village to the more reserved folk tale Mundaun. Appropriately, October 2021 has some of the most anticipated horror games of the year, filled with space freak-outs, ancient evils and zombies by the droves. There’s a joke that Half-Life, Portal and Team Fortress creator Valve never gets around to making a third in its franchises. Some games don’t die so easily. The creator of the Left 4 Dead series, Turtle Rock Studios, has returned with Back 4 Blood, bringing along an army of undead. Released in 2008, Left 4 Dead saw up to four players make their way across a zombie-riddled
America, safe house to safe house, collecting supplies and keeping corpses at bay. Back 4 Blood reanimates the beloved formula with some twists. Multiplayer games have shifted seismically since 2008, a challenge Turtle Rock is taking on. Back 4 Blood features new ways to play, including a more intricate versus mode in which four players fortify their surroundings while four others attack as supercharged ghoulies known as the Ridden. The main campaign features eight cantankerous survivors and even added deck-building elements. Between safe houses, players can collect and manage cards that can boost their own skills or benefit the entire team. But beware: hands are dealt against squads too, subjecting additional challenges like time limits and larger hordes — making sure those navigating the apocalypse aren’t too comfortable. Back 4 Blood had an extensive open beta over the summer but releases in full on Oct. 12 for PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
ALAN WAKE Left 4 Dead isn’t the only game back from the grave. From 2019, Control was a colossal hit for Remedy, but it also gave us an update on the studio’s previous paranormal investigator, Alan Wake.
