Back 4 Blood, a Left 4 Dead clone created by the same company that created Left 4 Dead, is fantastic—arguably our most excellent co-op game of 2021. And there’s more on the way: The first expansion, Tunnels of Terror, will be released on April 12th, according to developer Turtle Rock Studios.
According to Turtle Rock, Back 4 Blood has racked up over 10 million players since its October 2021 release, making it the best-selling new gaming property of the year. Because Back 4 Blood is the only Back 4 Blood game, it’s safe to say that almost everything linked to it is “historic”—talk of turning it into a “franchise” didn’t indeed appear until December 2021, when Chinese gaming company Tencent acquired turtle Rock. Still, the numbers are significant, and with the debut of the Tunnels of Terror expansion in April, they may get a new boost.
Tunnels of Terror will feature two new characters—Sharice, an axe-wielding firefighter, and Heng, a tough-as-nails restaurateur—as well as a new co-op activity called Ridden Hives, which is set across seven different dungeons beneath Evansburgh and filled with a new type of enemy known as Warped Ridden. Back 4 Blood refers to zombies as “ridden.” Eight new character skins, seven legendary weapons, 12 new weapon skins, new cards, and more will be included in the expansion.
Tunnels of Terror will be accompanied by a free update for all gamers, including a new difficulty setting called No Hope—details about the environment isn’t offered. Still, you can probably figure out what it’s about from the name alone.
According to Turtle Rock’s launch release, all players in a Back 4 Blood group will have access to the material in Tunnels of Terror as long as at least one person has purchased it. “No microtransactions of any type, cosmetic or otherwise, will be added to the game as part of this expansion or any subsequent content update,” the studio noted.
