Left 4 Dead successor Back 4 Blood gameplay revealed and the alpha's coming next week

The studio behind Left 4 Dead has finally revealed gameplay for Back 4 Blood, its new zombie-slaying co-op shooter, and you could start playing as early as next week.

Turtle Rock Studios debuted Back 4 Blood gameplay at the The Game Awards, along with a cinematic trailer that teases the origins of the zombie plague that has devastated the world. These zombies have gross caterpillar worm things in their heads, and the parasites aren't just content to turn their victims into shambling corpses.

Both trailers showed off looks at special zombies which assume terrifying new forms, whether it's a loogie-launching six-limbed monstrosity, a club-armed giant that looks like it came straight from the Umbrella Corporation's Tyrant program, and a truly gigantic titan who digs up from the earth, tunnels through the ground, and tears down giant gates like they were made out of paper.

The gameplay itself will look very familiar if you've played a few rounds of Left 4 Dead, which will be welcome news for fans who have been waiting on a new entry in the series for over a decade. Four survivors run through levels that are jam-packed with zombies, covering for each other when one gets caught in a mucus bomb and barking back and forth about ammo and whatever else is on their mind.

The Back 4 Blood closed alpha is set to begin on December 17, and you can sign up for the closed alpha on the game's official site right now.

Find even more to look forward to in our big guide to new games 2020 and beyond. 

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.