Turtle Rock Studios has announced that they are going back to what “made them” and are going to give us a “spiritual successor” to Left 4 Dead. It’s not Left 4 Dead 3, it is a brand new IP. Valve owns Left 4 Dead.

This game is called Back 4 Blood. 

Hmmm. 

The title makes room for a crossover with the Left 4 Dead series, perhaps even a place in L4D canon. Is Turtle Rock on to something bigger?

Probably not. 

I’m going to say that they are too late to their own party. They made this “genre” and abandoned it. Others have come and gone with their versions of a successor and none of them stick. Most recently Earthfall, which replaces the infected with aliens, and the soon to be cancelled Overkill’s The Walking Dead. 

The genre has been left for dead. 

Our only hope is the World War Z game.  I’m a HUGE L4D fan but WWZ has me more excited than Turtle Rock’s return. 

What do you think? Could TRS revive the 4-player co-op episodic arcade zombie shooter genre?