Massive rumors have recently cropped up that point towards the development of Back 4 Blood 2, a sequel to the fast-paced 2021 zombie title from Turtle Rock Studios. While there was a huge amount of hype surrounding the original game prior to launch, the project struggled to match the expectations of many fans, making the recently surfaced evidence of a sequel all the more of a surprise to some.
Despite the high-profile rumors surrounding this alleged sequel to Back 4 Blood, a lot of the finer details around what the game might actually entail are still largely unknown, with fans only being able to assume that the game will adopt the same co-op-centric zombie survival mechanics as its predecessor. Having said this, there is some evidence to suggest that Back 4 Blood 2 could be set around Los Angeles and wider parts of California, with some fans already debating how this might impact the rumored project. If true, this Los Angeles setting could end up being quite a misstep for Back 4 Blood 2, primarily due to the huge amount of zombie gaming content that has also used L.A. as its primary location in recent years.
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Back 4 Blood 2’s Rumored Setting Might Not Be Unique Enough
The expectations around 2021’s Back 4 Blood were so high due to the way it heavily marketed itself as a spiritual successor to the Left 4 Dead franchise, which has been dormant for 15 years despite producing some of the best zombie survival gaming experiences that the industry has ever seen. A handful of developers from the original Left 4 Dead games worked on Back 4 Blood through Turtle Rock Studios. In its final form, the title adopted the same fast-paced survival, largely co-operative gameplay, zombie threat mechanics, and safe rooms as the Left 4 Dead series.
With the name of the project even being a nod to the Left 4 Dead franchise, huge expectations quickly grew around Back 4 Blood as the modern extension of L4D that many fans had been waiting for, putting pressure on the game to match a titan of the genre. Ultimately, these inevitable hopes and comparisons were too much for the game to deliver on, with Back 4 Blood‘s launch being quite a controversial disappointment in the eyes of some players.
Turtle Rock announced that continued major support for Back 4 Blood was ending in early 2023, with attention instead being placed on the next big release for the studio, and some recent developments indicate that this next project could be Back 4 Blood 2. References to a project titled “Gobi2” have been found online; Gobi was the internal title for the original Back 4 Blood during its early development.
Back 4 Blood 2 Needs a Unique Setting to Pave its Own Way Forward
This seems like a pretty big clue towards a Back 4 Blood sequel surfacing in the near future, which raises questions about its premise. Turtle Rock has been quite vocal in the past about using the studio’s California home as inspiration for its next title’s setting. If Back 4 Blood 2 is to use a California setting as its primary location, then the game will face a huge amount of competition within zombie gaming media.
For example, the recently released Dead Island 2 leaned into its Los Angeles setting with lots of satirical takes on the city and its iconic locations. Dead Island 2‘s April 2023 release is still fresh in the minds of zombie gaming fans, but older titles like Dead Rising 3 have also delivered stories massively inspired by L.A. in the past. It seems clear that the next Back 4 Blood title will need to do a lot to truly shape its own identity, and using a core location that is already so heavily associated with other major zombie releases could make this an even tougher task for the rumored project.
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