It's been out for a little while now, and available to play on PC and Console as part of Xbox Game Pass. The co-op zombie shooter (psst. they're called Ridden here) from developer Turtle Rock, the same studio behind the original Left 4 Dead. Using that as a foundation you'd think this would be a can't lose. Well... it's not great.

Which we found out in our review.

Getting a moment to catch your breath, to take stock of your surroundings, to explore whilst expecting something might happen. These are all variations of the same thing. The act of building up tension... and then letting it subside. The quiet before the storm. There's an art to it, a style; the panic, the dramatic tweaking of the player's nerves and expectations. The surprise.

Back 4 Blood doesn’t have any of these qualities, at least not in a way that makes the action feel like anything more than the same thing over and over and over. A title with roots in the horror genre should be aware of pacing.

Shooting the undead (or ‘Ridden’ in the case of Turtle Rock’s Back 4 Blood) is an exercise in repetition, that much has always been true. The “over and over and over” here is in reference to the action lacking meaningful variation. Even when Corruption Cards and the so-called Game Director spice things up in ways the original Left 4 Dead didn’t advertise -- you’ll barely notice any difference outside of maybe some (admittedly good looking) fog or that the regular zombies look like they’re wearing glow-in-the-dark Stackhats.

Our Full Back 4 Blood Review