Turtle Rock Studio’s first-person shooter co-op game, Back 4 Blood, now has a new story expansion. Children of the Worm brings a brand new act that takes place just after the main story of the core game, with several new locations across this 6 part act. Offering players a new cutscene when picking to start act 5, they will be introduced to the new playable character, Prophet Dan, as he describes his past with his former group of survivors.

Act 5 will have players assisting in saving survivors from a cult that has captured and wiped out Dan’s group. New enemy types have been added, such as the Cultist that replaces the special infected within act 5, or the Snipers that take the high ground and do massive damage but are given away by their laser sights.

The Slasher is a new rusher enemy type; a hulk-framed character armed with sharp metal claws that can cause bleed damage if they slash you, or the Pusflinger, an enemy that will avoid directly attacking as they throw a new item called a Bait Jar at the players, attracting the infected in the area to rush and attack targets covered in the fluid. Lastly, we have the Crone. They are a midrange threat armed with a bow, with the added danger of setting their target on fire.

In addition to the new enemy types, we have new weapons to use that are taken straight from the arsenal of the Cultist.

First up, players can now have a stealthy way to snipe with the bow, and for the players that want to run in and use melee weapons, you can use the Slashers Claws, so prepare to cosplay Wolverine as you cut down infected in your path. New items include Bear Traps and Bait Jars, which can be bought at the Buy Stations at the start of a chapter.

Food has also been introduced, with cans and boxes of cereal randomly scattered across locations. These will give random buffs to health and stamina, and being used on interaction, they will not take up an item slot. In contrast, the Swarm mode didn’t seem to get much love.

It is still a boring and empty PvP mode for the game, but for lovers of the Tunnels of Terror DLC, this new chapter also has the chance for random tunnels to spawn, so there is even more to explore.

New cards have also been added into the game that can be earned at the Supply Run Table in the HQ, or randomly bought or found while out on a mission, but I personally found the Supply Run Table was an easier method of earning the new cards. Most characters have also been given a new outfit in the cosmetic tab, titled Pre-Collapse, where characters will generally be younger in appearance, though some will just be rocking another style, with the majority of the new outfits seeming to be punk themed.

Having a whole new act is great to give players more areas to explore and secrets to find. As we know from the core story of Back 4 Blood, there were many easter eggs in the levels paying respect to horror movies. I didn’t see any that jumped out at me with this expansion, but I’m sure they are there.

Children of the Worm is a fun, action-packed experience, and within the first 24 hours of release, I was already rehooked into the game and finished it three times over. Sadly, my only downside was there was no big bad to fight at the end of the new act. I was hoping for an epic boss fight to wrap it up.

Written by: Shane Walsh