In the meantime, the developer is working on a new game, and it’s not big enough to also keep making content for Back 4 Blood. It won’t offer many details in the short term, but it promises to be “Back, bigger, bolder and better than ever!”

Released in 2021 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC, Back 4 Blood was touted as a spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead. It features multiple playable characters, each with unique abilities, and cards which could activate different benefits in levels. Three paid expansions were released last year – Tunnels of Terror, Children of the Worm and River of Blood, adding new weapons, content and characters.

Reviews ranged from average to good, though some balancing updates drew criticism from fans. Check out our review here. Time will tell where the studio goes from here, especially since its parent company, Slamfire, was acquired by Tencent in 2021. Stay tuned for more updates in the future.

Titled River of Blood, the new chunk of content brings plenty for players to dive into. That includes the addition of Act 6 to the campaign, as well as a new playable Cleaner, the bow-wielding former Cultist Tala (who, interestingly, also comes with a sidekick in the friendly Tallboy named Jeff). In addition to that, the expansion also adds eight exclusive character skins, 12 exclusive weapon skins, new weapons, accessories, and cards.

Meanwhile, going along with the launch of the new paid expansion, Back 4 Blood’s latest update has also added new PvE mode Trial of the Worm for free.

Back 4 Blood is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

The story will continue in River of Blood with the addition of act 6 of the campaign. Players will also be joined by new friendly ally Jeff, and new cleaner Tala as they take on new Ridden as well as 2 new variants. As for skins, players can expect 8 new character skins, as well as 12 new weapon skins.

Back 4 Blood saw the release of its second expansion—Children of the Worm—back in August, which continued the story with act 5 of the campaign at the time. Other updates to the game since its release a year ago include new features, more content, as well as quality-of-life features.

Back 4 Blood is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Check out our full review.

Let's see where the River of Blood takes us. Here's what to expect for Expansion 3, available December 6th, 2022. pic.twitter.com/SnSBYvKcSN

— Back 4 Blood (@back4blood) November 8, 2022

Of course, as indicated in the earlier tease, Children of the Worm offers a new threat in the form of humans. Four different types are showcased, including a sniper and acid-throwing goon to a bow-and-arrow wielding hunter and claw-using melee fighter. These enemies appear to be part of a cult, judging from the symbols on their masks.

Children of the Worm also offers eight exclusive character skins from casual wear to a baseball uniform. New 8-bit weapon skins are also coming. In addition to the new content, there should also be balance changes for all owners of the game. Stay tuned for more details and gameplay in the coming weeks.

New Cleaner, new Act, new enemies. Who knew? Here's a little sneak peek of what to expect for Expansion 2: Children of the Worm. pic.twitter.com/x9GhgrCJKu

— Back 4 Blood (@back4blood) August 4, 2022

The developer addressed the same on its official Twitter, noting that it needed more time. “We’d love to confirm the release date for our Expansion 2, but we need a bit more time. It’s an exciting update and we’re so pumped, it’s been like a cult around these parts – some of us are so giddy that we Act like we’re 5.” The attached image seems to indicate a cult of sorts, so it should be interesting to see what kinds of new enemies appear.

But perhaps most interesting is the inclusion of “Act 5” in the last sentence. This seemingly hints that Act 5 is coming with Expansion 2, thus continuing the story (and likely adding new weapons and characters). Time will tell though, so stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Back 4 Blood is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. You can check out our review for the base game here.

We'd love to confirm the release date for our Expansion 2, but we need a bit more time. It's an exciting update and we're so pumped, it's been like a cult around these parts – some of us are so giddy that we Act like we're 5.

Stay tuned and thanks for the continued support! pic.twitter.com/MGA0jZbFLr

— Back 4 Blood (@back4blood) July 15, 2022

Another new feature with this update is Player Kicking. If a player is idle for too long or shoots their teammates too much, then the system will kick them. It’s not currently final but will be monitored closely in its current state. Other new content in this update includes new banners, sprays and emblems.

Twelve new Burn Cards, Warped Chest Corruption Cards, Cleaner skins, and Legendary Accessories have also been added. Check out some of the patch notes below with full notes here. Back 4 Blood is currently available for Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC and Xbox Series X/S. Stay tuned for more details on further updates and its second paid expansion.

JUNE 2022 UPDATE

New Features

Full Deck Draw

• Play all 15 cards from your deck at the start of a Campaign for all difficulties.

Developer Note: We felt like the 15 card draw in No Hope went over well with the community, and wanted to roll out this option to all difficulties. In the future we are considering adding multiple deck styles like ordered draw and full random decks. Some difficulties have been rebalanced to work better with this feature.

Player Kicking

• The new Player Kicking system identifies and allows kicking from a Mission when a Cleaner is idle for too long or deals too much friendly fire damage.

Developer Note: We discussed this feature at length to try and do what’s best for the community, so we want to try this conditional kick feature that will only trigger if someone is playing outside the bounds of the game. We also feel that the traditional Vote to Kick can be exploitable and toxic. This feature is not final and we will be monitoring it closely.

• New banners, sprays, and emblems
• 12 New Burn Cards
• New Warped Chest Corruption Cards
• New Cleaner skins
• Legendary Accessories
• A more detailed breakdown of Supply Points, Copper, and Skull Totems is now present on the post-round screen.

But that success, as we now know, was awfully short-lived. Things progressively got worse and worse for Evolve once it had released, and in spite of the best efforts of Turtle Rock and publisher 2K, ultimately, nothing could save it from dying an untimely death. Evolve is little more than a memory now, not even playable (unless you’re looking for peer-to-peer matches). All that promise, all that potential- all of it, gone to waste. But how did we get to this? How did one of the most exciting new releases of its time end up being the failure that Evolve is now known to be?

Turtle Rock Studios was re-established as an independent studio by some of its original staff after Valve shut them down, and for their first project, they decided to swing for the fences. With their experience on properties like Counter-Strike and Left 4 Dead, they knew they had the experience and pedigree to make another big multiplayer game, but this time, they wanted to do something new and different. Evolve was a concept that the studio had finalized way back in 2005, putting it on the back-burner at the time because they felt the technology of the time couldn’t do it justice. But with the advent of the PS4 and Xbox One, the newly reformed Turtle Rock decided that Evolve could be the perfect debut game for the studio.

Development was- let’s call it eventful. Turtle Rock had a hard time finding a publishing partner who would help fund and distribute their game. In spite of the studio’s pedigree, the 4v1 concept of Evolve was viewed as too niche and ambitious. Sure, asymmetrical multiplayer titles have become quite common in today’s day and age, but that was far from true back when Evolve was starting development (or even when it first launched), and there weren’t too many publishers who wanted to take a chance on it. The developer did eventually strike a deal with THQ- but THQ, of course, ended up going bankrupt. Thankfully for Evolve and for its developers, Take-Two Interactive ended up picking up the property, and 2K was assigned as the game’s publisher.

Officially unveiled in 2014, for a year until it came out, Evolve generated plenty of buzz and even more hype. A unique new multiplayer game offering an experience that can’t be found in many other games, all of it coming from the people who created Left 4 Dead no less- how could one not be excited by that elevator pitch? Its showings at events and showcases drew plenty of excitement as well, and pre-launch alphas and playtests suggested that the game was shaping up to be something special. 2K, too, put its whole weight behind the project, and decided to hype it up as its next big franchise. The stage was set for Evolve to take the world by storm.

Everything after the game’s launch was more complicated than its pre-release hype would have suggested. Evolve had plenty going for it, of course. The 4v1 framework, the tense atmosphere of its multiplayer matches, the uniquely atmospheric and excellently realized setting- all of these were just a few of the game’s highlights, and Evolve was rightly praised by no few people for all of these reasons. But it wasn’t perfect, of course- far from it. Its maps were too samey in their visual design and aesthetic, and playing as the monsters, disappointingly enough, quickly got repetitive.

The game’s balancing across its many maps and characters was also criticized. Most flagrant among its flaws was its progression system- new characters were unlocked at a torturously slow pace, and since the little morsels of the game’s story were tied to playing as new characters, that, too, felt slow as molasses to most who played the game. Like so many online games have done over the years, Evolve tried to artificially pad out its content by making its progression incredibly grindy, which led to repetition, and in turn, boredom. Unsurprisingly, plenty of criticism was reserved for this aspect of the game when it released.

Another major thing working against the game was its ridiculous DLC model. Coming out at a time when most developers and publishers still hadn’t found the right balance for how to structure post-launch support for their games, Evolve took things a little bit too far. Several characters and monsters were locked as DLC behind paywalls, even though the maps were all free. Even at launch, the game had well over 40 – yes, four-zero – paid DLC packs available. Predictably enough, Evolve was lambasted by a large number of players upon launch for its ridiculous DLC model, and in hindsight, it’s clear that that was one of the biggest factors leading to the game’s downfall.

Commercially, too, the game failed to make the kind of mark that many had thought it would. Oh, things looked more than a little rosy in the days and weeks immediately following Evolve’s release, with Take-Two Interactive saying that the game had enjoyed an incredibly successful launch, and lauding the 2.5 million copies it had managed to ship within just a couple months of launch. The company even famously said at the time that it now considered Evolve to be one of its flagship franchises, right up there with the likes of Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. It’s fair to say that that comment hasn’t aged too well.

That initial burst of sales fizzled out very quickly. Evolve bled players like a faucet, criticisms for its balancing and progression and its DLC model (among other things) coming together to quickly turn the tide against the game’s favour. Before its release, Turtle Rock had said that Evolve would have the best and most consistent post-launch support for a game ever, but by October 2016, less than two years after release, things had turned so sour for the game that 2K and Turtle Rock ended up announcing that they would no longer support it with new content.

Briefly, the game even experimented with the free-to-play model, but that, too, enjoyed little more than initial success. When it transitioned to becoming a free-to-play game, dubbed Evolve: Stage 2, it attracted over a million new players- but that success was also short-lived. People didn’t stick around for long, and in September 2018, 2K shut down the game’s dedicated servers, officially calling time of death.

Evolve is unequivocally dead now. Its fate is a far cry from the lofty promises that were made in the lead-up to its launch. There was a good idea in there, and even a good game, but some bafflingly bad decisions buried it all, and now, what had once been proclaimed to be a new flagship franchise for Take-Two, is barely even something that people think about. It’s hard to imagine Evolve ever having a future even in the most far-flung and optimistic scenario- and sadly, Turtle Rock and 2K only have themselves to blame.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Ridden Hives are essentially maze-like caverns that players can encounter in the middle of different missions. There are new Warped Ridden to deal with (like the Shredder) along with normal Ridden emerging from the ceiling and walls. New cars are available to unlock along 12 new weapon skins. There are also eight premium skins that provide different colored Hazmat suits.

For non-expansion owners, there’s “No Hope” difficulty which provides even more of a challenge than before. Back 4 Blood is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. Check out our review for the base game here.

New PvE areas called Ridden Hives are being introduced and there will be seven to explore. These are sprawling underground mazes where Ridden can emerge from the walls, the ceiling and so on. Some of the new Warped Ridden include Urchin, Shredder and Ripper, each with their own unique attacks. The Ripper, for instance, can send out a line of spikes upon smashing the ground.

Players will have new cards to even the odds though. Non-expansion owners can also partake of the new content as long as at least one person in the party owns it. In terms of free content, a new difficulty called “No Hope” is also being added and should provide some additional challenge for long-time players.

Back 4 Blood is currently available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. Check out our review for the base game here.

Meanwhile, it’s also been confirmed that the game’s first expansion, called Tunnels of Terror, will launch on April 12, and it’s promising to bring quite the meaty chunk of new content. For starters, players will be able to play as two new Cleaners– axe-wielding firefighter Sharice and “tough as nails” restauranteur Heng. Three new varieties of Warped Ridden are also being added with the Shredders, the landmine-doting Urchins, and the damage-specialist Rippers.

Another major new addition is a new PvE activity in the form of Ridden Hives. These will task a team of up to four Cleaners with exploring seven different dungeons below Evansburgh, each teeming with the aforementioned Warped Ridden (which will also be available in the PvP Swarm mode). As you’d expect, Ridden Hives will also have exclusive rewards and loot.

Plenty of other additions are also included in the expansion, including eight new character skins, twelve weapon skins, seven new legendary weapons, and new cards. Meanwhile, for those of you who want Back 4 Blood to put up even more of a challenge, a free update launching at the same time will also add the new “No Hope” difficulty option.

Back 4 Blood is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Tunnels of Terror will be coming to Fort Hope on April 12th, 2022. Here's a little sneak peek on what to look forward to! pic.twitter.com/AOrigv2UuK

— Back 4 Blood (@back4blood) March 1, 2022