In an interview with Game Rant, Turtle Rock Studios Executive Producer Lianne Papp elaborated on achieving a balance between the long-form main gameplay of Back 4 Blood’s campaign, and the short-form PvP of Swarm. Traditional survivors vs. zombies is the main offering of Turtle Rock Studios’ latest, but the Swarm PvP mode is a surprising departure from what players might expect. Matches are fast-paced and designed to be overwhelming, and teams who are able to coordinate and synergize on attack and defense will succeed. Back 4 Blood’s Swarm PvP mode does function as a solid break from the PvE action, in a way that’s short-lived and and fast-paced.
RELATED: Back 4 Blood: How to Get Cards
Crafting a Unique PvP Mode for Back 4 Blood
Considering Left 4 Dead’s version of versus isn’t planned to be added to Back 4 Blood, Turtle Rock Studios is putting all its PvP efforts into Swarm: A 4v4 time-based survival mode that pits Cleaners vs. Ridden in an overwhelming assault. Swarm takes place on standalone maps, outside of the typical campaign levels in PvE, with an encircling playable area similar to a battle royale. Ridden spawns function based on the Cleaner’s line of sight, so as the playable area narrows and sight lines are harder to cover, the idea is to have the intensity of Swarm ramp up progressively throughout the match.
Given the fast-paced nature of the mode, the Swarm gameplay experience is far different compared to the typical PvE experience in Back 4 Blood’s campaign. Both involve high stakes and intense gameplay with their own flavors, but according to Back 4 Blood’s executive producer, Swarm is meant to be comparatively less time-intensive:
That being said, based on Papp’s description of Swarm’s replayability, the PvP in Black 4 Blood is still meant to be a competitively angled experience. That much was seen in previews for Back 4 Blood, where both Cleaner and Ridden teams experimented and found proper team compositions that synergized quite well. While the Ridden team is a bit more class-based compared to the flexibility in Cleaner teams, proper coordination on both sides can edge out the competition.
RELATED: Back 4 Blood’s Game Pass Release is a Long-Awaited Gift to Left 4 Dead Fans
Balancing Back 4 Blood’s Swarm Mode
Of course, with the brevity of game time being brought into consideration, the development of Back 4 Blood’s PvP mode seemingly becomes more complex. Having to balance the power of each team’s abilities, alongside a shorter game time, is a struggle that numerous other games as a service experience. Games like Destiny 2 have also had some growing pains with weighing balance changes between PvE and PvP. Back 4 Blood is largely keeping things separate; cards and decks are organized separately between PvE and PvP, and Papp points out how cards wouldn’t make sense as a method of cross-progression for the whole game.
Papp also mentions that balancing Ridden classes and abilities in particular was especially important for PvP balance. The time-to-kill, cooldown and recovery between Ridden-specific abilities (like the Tallboy arm slam, or Stinger’s fire rate of ranged attacks) were all important considerations in balancing Cleaners vs. Ridden abilities. Additionally, fun factor and player experience was an important consideration for Papp and the development team, of which there were several different factors the team was looking at to determine what made Swarm mode fun.
Back 4 Blood releases on October 12, 2021, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
MORE: Every Left 4 Dead-Inspired Game Coming Soon
