Back 4 Blood gets solo campaign progression with December free update

Turtle Rock Studios will give Back 4 Blood a solo offline mode that includes campaign progression, according to a post-launch content roadmap the studio revealed on Monday. The mode will come in a free update by the end of 2021.

Although we found solo play in the PvE zombie shooter to be not as foreboding as its loading screen warns, players felt warned off by its lack of stat tracking and progress toward the in-game Accomplishments. Their not-unfounded assumption was that the restrictions were Turtle Rock’s way of driving folks to multiplayer as the intended experience.

The solo offline mode will come in December’s free update, along with new supply lines, new cards, and more. November will also see a free Back 4 Blood patch that vaguely promises “quality of life improvements” and “major bug fixes.” For free content in 2022, Turtle Rock Studios is eyeing a new difficulty mode, a new co-op mode, and more cards, among other improvement.

Back 4 Blood also has three premium expansions for the game’s annual pass buyers. The first one will be called Tunnels of Terror. It and the other two untitled expansions all have 2022 launch windows, nothing more specific. They will offer new Cleaners, new Ridden enemies, new weapons and cards, and exclusive skins.

Turtle Rock’s Twitter account posted this visual overview of the studio’s post-launch plans:

Back 4 Blood’s annual pass is $39.99 separately; those who bought either the $89.99 or $99.99 Deluxe and Ultimate editions got the pass included. No word whether Turtle Rock and Warner Bros. Games will sell the expansions a la carte. Back 4 Blood launched the same day on Xbox Game Pass, and is available to PC and console subscribers there.

The PvE cooperative zombie shooter is the third game from Turtle Rock, which started the zombie shooter craze 13 years ago with the original Left 4 Dead for Valve. Our review found their winning formula updated with a few nods to modern gameplay, including weapon attachments and gear rarity, a ping-callout system, and deck building.