As October draws ever closer, the wait for Back 4 Blood steadily begins to diminish and fans couldn't be more excited. The title has been one of 2021's most anticipated releases ever since its first look was shown at the 2020 Game Awards. Each subsequent trailer and developer update has given fans more to look forward to and the game is starting to really shape up into something worthy of being a spiritual successor to the Left 4 Dead series.

Comparisons between Left 4 Dead and Back 4 Blood make a lot of sense as much of the team that worked on the Valve series is working on Back 4 Blood. It's because of the shared team and the many extended trailers rife with developer commentary that many fans feel like they know what to expect from the game, both good and bad. One thing that Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 got very right back in the day were the excellent, memorable casts of characters that players controlled while attempting to survive the zombie apocalypse. While there have been plenty of Back 4 Blood trailers highlighting the many zombie variants in the game, it's likely that the real star of the show will be its cast.

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If movies and video games are to be trusted, the zombie apocalypse brings together even the most mismatched crews of people. The two casts that populated Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2's saferooms are some of the most memorable elements of those games and for good reason: each character was vastly different than the next, but each was believable in their own right. Because of how diverse the two casts were, most players were able to find at least one character that they connected with. The banter between survivors was well written, but each crew didn't talk so much that they overstayed their welcome making each interaction an interesting look into the crazy situation that they found themselves in.

If Back 4 Blood's cast can capture a similar feeling as Left 4 Dead's then the game will already be leagues ahead of the many upcoming co-op zombie shooters that have been announced for the rest of 2021 and 2022. There are eight different "cleaners" that players can choose from in Back 4 Blood, four more than each crew in Left 4 Dead, so hopefully, the game will be able to balance that many survivors. Part of L4D's charm was that each character seemed to really know the rest of their crew by the end of each game's campaign, so if the cast rotates depending on who each player chooses, those dynamics might be something of a hurdle. That said, if any studio is up to the task of creating likable groups of characters in the face of overwhelming odds, it's Turtle Rock.

A lot of special attention has been paid to the many different special zombie classes and their sub-classes leading up to Back 4 Blood's release. While they do sound interesting in their own regards, at this point, plenty of zombie games have tried their hand at making interesting special zombie variants, so if Back 4 Blood can't steal the show with interesting zombies, the game will hopefully leave an impact with its cast of cleaners. As mentioned above, Back 4 Blood has some big shoes to fill as a successor to Left 4 Dead, but Turtle Rock Studios is competent in making believable characters work when put together.

The zombie variants will certainly be an interesting part of the game, but if Back 4 Blood can really nail its characters with their interactions and dialogue, then it's likely to be remembered in the same high regard as the Left 4 Dead series. If the game can do that, then it's likely to have a strong player base for many years to come.

Back 4 Blood releases on October 12, 2021, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S

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