Turtle Rock Studios’ long-awaited Back 4 Blood is out now. The studio is best known for their work on the Left 4 Dead series of co-op zombie shooters. With Back 4 Blood carrying that mantle, with even more undead action, fans are wondering whether it is a sequel to a previous game. If you aren’t sure, then fear not. We’ll be exploring whether Back 4 Blood is a sequel.
Is Back 4 Blood a sequel to Left 4 Dead?
No – despite their similarities, Back 4 Blood is not a sequel to any game. Its story stands alone, and doesn’t follow on from any other games. As such, Back 4 Blood is its own zombie-slaying best.
While it may come as shock to some, Back 4 Blood has no narrative ties to any other games, including the Left 4 Dead series. Its story — following a series of survivors in a parasitic zombie apocalypse — isn’t linked to any other media. That’s despite the game’s title clearly riffing on the Left 4 Dead name and branding.
While Turtle Rock Studios may have wanted to make Back 4 Blood a sequel to Left 4 Dead, legal reasons made that impossible. That’s because Turtle Rock is made up of former Valve employees who worked on Left 4 Dead. When they left the company to work on other projects, they waived any rights to the franchise. As such, now they’ve reunited to make Back 4 Blood, they don’t hold the copyright to the Left 4 Dead title. Comparisons are still inevitable, but legally speaking, their stories are separate.
As such, the plots of Back 4 Blood and Left 4 Dead are suitably different. While Back 4 Blood deals with the parasitic Ridden, the earlier franchise used an ambiguous pandemic to explain the zombie infestation. The creatures look plenty different, too – and there are no recurring characters between each franchise.
If you want more on Back 4 Blood, check out how many campaigns there are, as well as how to fix the pesky startup crash.
