The new trailer for the co-op shooter Back 4 Blood talks about the card system and the AI director
Studio Turtle Rock, which created the Left 4 Dead dilogy, has unveiled a new trailer for the co-op shooter Back 4 Blood. In the video, the developers talked in detail about the card system, which is responsible for the variability of the gameplay.
Back 4 Blood will add an AI director (Game Director), familiar to fans of Left 4 Dead. The system will monitor players’ actions, health indicators, and decisions made and, following the situation, change the environment using modifiers. Thanks to this, each new race will not be similar to the previous one. According to the developers, this system will reach an unprecedented level in the shooter and make the gameplay as varied as possible.
Changes will be made using the card system. At the start of the mission, the AI director will play cards that complicate the gameplay and change the environment (Corruption Cards). Among the possible effects are fog, complete darkness, a huge crowd of zombies, the attack of specially reinforced monsters, a reduced amount of ammunition, and poisonous corpses of opponents.
Users can build their own decks (or use ready-made ones) to simplify the process of cards. At the beginning of the match, the team will receive several random cards from their deck (users decide which ones to play). For example, they can increase stamina or damage from weapons of a certain type, activate health regeneration, or expand inventory. There will also be non-standard effects: for example, when killing an enemy from a distance of more than 20 meters, the health of allies who are no more than five meters from the target is restored. Another example – each hit increases the target’s damage taken by 1% for 3 seconds (the effect stacks up to 50%).
Some cards also have punishments: for example, one makes secondary weapon ammunition infinite, but at the same time reduces its reload speed by 20%, another increases damage resistance by 25%, but disables shooting through a telescopic sight, and the third increases stamina by 40% but reduces damage resistance by 10%.
Cards can be bought for in-game currency, which is awarded for completing tasks and challenges. The authors do not plan to sell them for real money.
Back 4 Blood was announced in March 2019. Initially, the release was scheduled for June 22, 2021, but in March, the creators announced the postponement of the premiere on October 12. The shooter will be released on PC ( Steam, Epic Games Store ), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and S. In the summer, the developers will conduct an open beta test. The timing of the trial has not been announced, but registration is already open.
