While Back 4 Blood is definitely its own game, it will always be compared to Left 4 Dead because of Turtle Rock Studios’ former work on that series and the similarities they share. Both have campaigns that focus on a team of four players working and communicating to get past the hordes of undead enemies in their way. They also both feature competitive modes in Versus in Left 4 Dead and Swarm Mode in Back 4 Blood. So what is Swarm Mode exactly?
Swarm Mode in Back 4 Blood is the game’s version of a PvP mode, or a competitive mode. Two teams of four players take turns playing as a team of Cleaners and Mutated Ridden to see how long they can survive as the humans. The team with the longer survive time wins the round before moving on to the next map. Essentially, you are playing a competitive timed survival mode.
The experience on the Cleaners side is pretty standard compared to the Campaign. Before you start, you choose your character and card deck to play with. As the round gets longer, a swarm of insects begins to close in on the Survivors, forcing them to move towards a smaller area until they are eventually killed.
On the Ridden side, you choose which of the special enemies you control. As the round goes on, you gain experience and can pay those points to upgrade your monster or the common infected on the field. When killed, you are put on a respawn timer before you can come back.
