Genre: First-Person Shooter
Developer: Turtle Rock Studios
Publisher: Warner Bros. Games

Where the two "Left 4 Dead" titles used Valve's "Source" engine, this de facto third game in the series uses Unreal Engine 4. Unlike a lot of releases using that technology, there is not a stutter or drop from butter-smoothness to be had, to the point where this reviewer checked his television settings to make sure it wasn't a 120 fps title! The texture resolution is very high, and the game makes excellent use of HDR as the contrast between the shadowy and brightly lit areas really pop. Unfortunately, there is a whiff of the nowadays-obligatory "woke" female character designs-- but there are certainly worse offenders elsewhere in the game market.

The first title in the series had amazing B-movie style motifs, and when a "special infected" attacked, the player knew it. Then in the sequel the aural direction got watered down, and now in this third game it is watered down even more, to the point where it's difficult to even remember the audio cues. On the flip side, the gun sound effects are awesome, and the crystal clear voice acting gives the game a very polished, high-production feel.

The big change in this third title is the addition of "card decks". In between missions, points can be spent to buy cards, which can be assembled into decks. During gameplay, a selection of those cards is drawn and put into play, altering game rules or adding cool abilities to the player character, or even the player's whole team. Unfortunately, sometimes the game feels overly complicated due to this system, as the AI "orchestrator" is also putting cards into play to add difficulty to the proceedings. Unlike the more limited stage setups of the first two releases, this title has a full campaign with multiple dozens of levels!

As this reviewer wrote a gazillion years ago regarding the second game, there were "new, character-less 'special' infected, which means that you're essentially getting attacked by a 'special' zombie continuously, further disturbing the pacing." This third release doubles down on that approach, with sometimes three or four "special" zombies on the screen all at once! In fact, the game really lacks personality period, especially when compared to the first title in the series. Still, Back 4 Blood is a mechanically sound game with good art direction, and is probably a lot of fun when played with four people who all know the levels well.