Back 4 Blood held a short showcase today highlighting what is new with its latest game mode, called Swarm. While the showcase itself was only about 10 minutes long, it gave us extensive details on what we can expect with this new game mode.
Swarm is a player-vs-player game mode that pits two teams of four against each other in a Cleaners versus The Ridden matchup. The game mode is a best-of-three with the teams switching roles of Cleaners and The Ridden after each round. The main objective for the Cleaners, the human side, is to gather as many resources as they can before hunkering down in a position on the map and trying to survive for as long as they can.
On the flip side, the goal for the Ridden, the parasite-afflicted entities, is to try and kill the Cleaners as fast as possible. Whichever team wins two rounds out of the three is declared the winner of the match.
The Cleaners are pretty straightforward in their character selection. They are humans with personalities and different weapon loadouts. The Ridden, on the other hand, are a little different. They technically have nine playable classes. There are three main classes with three different variants. For example, the largest Ridden is broken down to Reeker, Retch, and Exploder. The Reeker moves fast and assaults the Cleaners with quick melee attacks, the Retch has a long-range vomit ability that can slow opponents down, and the Exploder has the coveted ability that allows them to walk up to the Cleaners and fulfill their name by exploding.
Both sides of the game mode can customize their weapons and attacks. The Cleaners get a basic array such as pistols, shotguns, and automatic weapons. Throughout the level, there are upgrades that the Cleaners can find so players can customize their arsenal to their liking. The same goes for the Ridden and their abilities and attacks.
Back 4 Blood is releasing on October 12 of this year, and an open beta begins on August 5. The game is coming to Xbox Game Pass on launch day.
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