The open beta goes live today at 8pm BST (12pm PT), and you can download it on Steam and the Epic Games Store, as well as PlayStation and Xbox. The beta will end on August 16th at 8pm BST (12pm PT), so you have a nice few days over the weekend to get stuck in. I’ve really enjoyed my time with Back 4 Blood so far. I forgot how nice it was to have a more chilled PvE game to hop on with my pals, usually we just play Valorant and stress each other out. Not that zombies are particularly chill, mind you. In Alice, Ed and Katharine’s Back 4 Blood preview, they reckon it’s everything you’d want from a spiritual Left 4 Dead successor. They talk about the spooky areas you’ll visit, as well as the difficulty spikes when fending off the horde in later levels. “Despite the seemingly rapid increase in difficulty in the church, it was still one of the highlights of our entire campaign session for me, as it showed that even the game’s safehouses weren’t always a sure-fire haven,” Katharine wrote. If you’re interested in a bit of dev chat, Alice interviewed the folks at Turtle Rock Studios about how they’re reinventing the zombie co-op shooter, and not trying to “rehash” something they’ve already done. They also chastise her for getting got by zombies that are specifically designed to catch out players who don’t stick with their teams. Tut tut.
