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Turtle Rock returns to its Left 4 Dead roots with Back 4 Blood

But don't call it Left 4 Dead 3.

Turtle Rock has announced its next game: Back 4 Blood.

Back 4 Blood is a co-op first-person zombie shooter and, with a name like that, rekindles memories of Left 4 Dead. That's no surprise: Turtle Rock is the development team behind Left 4 Dead, which it made for Valve before moving on to Evolve for 2K.

"It's hard to overstate what an awesome opportunity this is," said Chris Ashton, co-founder and design director of Turtle Rock.

"We get to return to a genre that was born in our studio with over 10 years of additional experience and zombie ideas racked up in our brains."

"We are not resting on any past laurels," added co-founder and creative director Phil Robb.

"Our goal is to take all we've learned and push forward. We know that's a tall order. We're growing the team considerably because we're stepping up to the biggest challenge in this studio's history. We know this title has to stand out and we fully intend to make that happen."

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It all sounds a bit like Back 4 Blood is basically Left 4 Dead 3, doesn't it? In a FAQ, Turtle Rock distanced the game from that label.

"Back 4 Blood is our own brand new, original IP. You'll be able to shoot up a lot of zombies like in Left 4 Dead, but there's a whole lot of new stuff in Back 4 Blood which makes it unique."

Back 4 Blood is published by Warner Bros. There's no release window (it's described as early in development) but we do know the game is set for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. "More possibilities aren't out of the question though," Turtle rock said. Could Back 4 Blood end up as a cross-gen title?

Meanwhile, Turtle Rock stressed this isn't a battle royale, it does indeed have PVP and there is a campaign. Oh, and it's a "premium" title, so that rules out free-to-play at launch.

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