Back 4 Blood - new co-op zombie shooter from Left 4 Dead developer

[Curratum]

Harthwain

KF2 is now basically Fortnite survival with zombies. They've been adding ridiculous costumes, colorful bullshit and crappy maps to the game for years now. The game is now this, basically, and if you remember and have played enough KF1, you will spot the difference easily:

 

[Reever]

Harthwain

KF2 is now basically Fortnite survival with zombies. They've been adding ridiculous costumes, colorful bullshit and crappy maps to the game for years now. The game is now this, basically, and if you remember and have played enough KF1, you will spot the difference easily:

Also more recently, paid weapon dlc. When they specifically promised they won't do it in KF2. Their reasoning was that they needed to fund future updates and they don't get enough from lootboxes. But than the updates are like 1 shitty map, 5 lootboxes with items from the workshop, 2 reskin guns and 2 guns that cost 10$ and some balance changes. What the fuck do they need money for? They barely do anything.
The gunplay is still great but Tripwire are such greedy cunts that it's not worth it.

 

[Curratum]

I don't even particularly care about the paid guns, not mad about it. I was happy with the launch weapon set, I am not too tickled by many new guns, I like what I like and I use it.

But the direction the game has been going towards since launch, the lack of the KF1 grime and grunge, the spit-shined maps, the colorful bullshit and tons of retarded skins and costumes and weapons, I can't stomach that.

 

[Latelistener]

The game is an absolute irredeemable dogshit. It's an L4D clone made by zoomers for zoomers. Terrible characters, retarded weapon customization, simplified gameplay (automatic flashlight, you can use melee attack AND reload, etc.) and whatever it tries to add on top of L4D formula just doesn't work (like cards). You have to scout maps for weapons with different grade levels like it's some kind of battle royale, except the progression is linear.

The production value is also at the very bottom. Visuals are nothing to write home about and animations are somewhere between bad and mediocre. Maps are small. Remember how impressive it was throwing a pipe bomb in a crowd in L4D? It fails even at that, because for starters there is no such dismemberment system (yet the characters are all covered in blood after a few seconds of fight that just looks plain stupid). They're must be insane to ask $60 for that. It's a $20 game at max and even then I wouldn't play it because you can't buy time.

Basically as someone said here, Dead 1 Arrival.

 

[ferratilis]

It's funny how people online are outraged by the lack of Versus campaign mode. Everyone has already forgotten Evolve it seems. These guys would gladly sell you the .exe file as a DLC, if they could get away with it. That's how greedy they are. Judging from the quality of the preview, they are fully aware it's dogshit and are probably just hoping to get as much cash as possible day 1 and quietly disappear again. Apparently, it's also coming to game pass so more money for them. Tbh it's hard to hate these devs, it almost makes you respect their ability to cash in something that smells like shit from a mile away.

But then again, some people will never learn no matter how many times they get burned. Case in point:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Back4Blood/comments/oyvj5j/yall_are_a_bunch_of_whinies/

 

[cyborgboy95]

Despite being in beta, the performance of the game on PC is encouraging, which is more than what I can say about some released titles nowadays.

 

[Tyranicon]

zoomers

I already hate it. Where can I submit my complaint letter?

 

[Ghulgothas]

Meh, I can see the nucleus of a good standalone game under it all. Strip out the vestigial PvP, replace the weapon lootification with a static but varied arsenal (with mods) and trim the card bullshit to a handful of hot-swappable perks. You'd end up with a game that's roughly on par with KF2 in terms of gameplay quality, more polished than NMRiH but still below L4D2 in content scope. Hell, throw-in workshop support and you might even have a level of good user-made content on-par with Killing Floor 1 at it's heyday, never gonna match L4D2 in that regard though.

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://nichegamer.com/2021/08/07/back-4-blood-hands-on-preview/

Back 4 Blood Hands-on Preview​

by Cwb on August 7, 2021 at 11:40 AM, EDT

I recall the first time I saw the game poster for Left 4 Dead at my local Hollywood Video rental store (yes I am that old), and being unbelievably hyped about trying it. I’ve had a soft spot for zombie horde type games for a long time along with a lot of people, hence the popularly of the genre.

Said genre only became more explosively popular when the TV show The Walking Dead on AMC further cemented it into the lexicon. Surviving a zombie apocalypse however was not pioneered by that one show. Zombie-centric content has been in greater media form and awareness since the 1968 when Night of the Living Dead first hit the theater.

I went ahead and preordered Back 4 Blood on my Xbox One S, and I’m here now to tell you if the slaughter holds up during the Open Beta.

Back 4 Blood
Developer: Turtle Rock Studios
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Platform: Windows PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One (Reviewed), Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: October 12th, 2021
Players: 4
Price: $49.99 USD

The 14 gig download didn’t take long to load up, and the accessibility settings screen is the you land on after it loads up. It gives you options for text to speech, crossplay settings, video and audio defaults etc. Y’know, the basics.

Upon start, the game dumps you into a free-roam ‘hub’ type area where you can purchase upgrades and perks for your character. Said perks include stamina, health, melee, reload speed, heavy attacks and the like.

The perk and upgrade system reminds me of Fallout 4‘s card perk system. You can customize different loadouts that you can pick from for each match; and so far in the open beta, they haven’t locked the card perk system behind a paywall. Hopefully this feature stays, as microtransactions suck and aren’t welcome far as I’m concerned.

The game is an online server-based deal, where you can start a game playing with bots, but they will eventually eventually be replaced with real people as you play the game, sort of like how World War Z operates. So far I haven’t had too much trouble starting runs into the stages. The wait times aren’t horrendous at all, even on my older console model.

Gameplay is fast and fun. The pace and speed is at Doom (2016) levels sometimes. The weapons run the range from automatic rifles, light machine guns, pistols, revolvers, shotguns, machetes, barb wire bats, grenades; all kinds of zombie killing essentials.

I haven’t had anything bug out graphically, and it plays very smoothly. The gunshots sound nice and crisp, and melee is fluid and not too janky at all. The audio sort of bugs out if there’s too any zombies onscreen however, the sound gets garbled and distorted for brief periods. I imagine the devs are aware of such a glaring audio bug, and will work on fixing it before official release.

There’s not much of a story, and the main focus is on gameplay and the action therein. Each area has three or four main areas to clear, and range from cleaning up hordes, to gathering samples from the zombies to destroying nests. Here’s hoping they’ll expand upon it and build some sort of a universe that you can immerse into.

There’s different kinds of freaks too. The four armed Stinger jumps around buildings and walls with ease, while spitting spiderweb at you along with caustic acid. The Crushers are mutated freaks with a a giant arm that means almost certain death if it grabs you. Their weak spot is accentuated for easy bullet placement, but it’s easier said than done in middle of a horde crawl.

The Bloaters love to spit bile at you from afar, and won’t hesitate to charge and blow up with a suicide attack. Said bile affects the zombies similar to the Boomers from the previous games, whereas they run after you in a frenzy.

The fun ones and my personal favorite are The Ogres. Giant zombies that can attack from far away with a ball of congealed blood, and smack the shit out of you if you get too close. Their weak spots easy to see so they go down fairly easily as long as you keep moving.

There’s also a versus mode available where you can play as the zombies and fight against humans in special designated arenas. Said mode allows you to spec out your characters with a separate perk card system similar to the campaign mode.

The action is just as fast paced as campaign too, depending on the players themselves being the only difference. The matches are timed, and the winner being declared if they survive for a longer time.

In closing, Back 4 Blood still needs polishing since it’s in beta, but so far it’s a lot of fun. I’ve been busy running and gunning down hordes of the undead with my shotgun and machete. I’m looking forward to how the game develops further, and what the final product will be. Personally I’d like to see a more fleshed out story if at all possible. Mindless action packed carnage is fun but gets boring over time.

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[Baron Dupek]

Almost a week before release they added Denuvo

 

[Ghulgothas]

Die 4 DRM.

 

[GhostCow]

What the fuck is the point of denuvo in a multiplayer game?

 

[SharkClub]

What the fuck is the point of denuvo in a multiplayer game?

To ruin everyone's performance as (further) punishment for buying the game.

 

[Infinitron]

Released:

 

[toughasnails]

Surprisingly positive user reviews. I saw a lot of negativity about this and the youtubers like Gman and WAB were p cold about beta.

 

[HeyCheckOutHowHardICanPee]

It's catering to a market that has been pretty dry for a very long time now, people are generally going to overlook most flaws.

The pricetag for a game that you're generally meant to play with 4 people is pretty insane though.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Played for a bit yesterday (got it on Gamepass - I would have never bought it at the current prices) and it seemed alright. The maps are nice and atmospheric, with lots of places to explore and interesting progression (at least the first time through). Game looks pretty good to me, and people comparing it to l4d2 probably need a refresher on how the latter looks. I don't have the patience for this sort of coop game anymore, though (higher difficulties being pretty much impossible with randoms/bots). If you have 3 other mates that you can spend a few nights with I can see it being a lot of fun. Only played the campaign mode, though, by all accounts vs. mode is shit.

I didn't think the card system was too egregious, it was just kind of there but then again, I didn't play more than a couple of hours.

I think the game would've been fine for 20-30$. At its current asking price it's an absolute joke. Will probably flop.

 

[illuknisaa]

I played the open beta and I was very disappointed. The game felt like a l4d map pack and not very good one. Sure you could say that the graphics are better but the gameplay is nearly identical. You have a boomer variant, hunter variant spitter variant etc. Even the consumables function the same. The one campaign that was available wasn't bad but it didn't impress either. The finale was copy pasted dead center finale but worse.

B4B tries to compete with a over decade old game with very minor iterations on gameplay. L4D2 is like under 10 bucks and they give free sometimes.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

I've playing this since the game came out. The only thing that I can say is that, at it's current state, the game is poorly balanced in a lot of aspects, which works in detriment of the whole experience. One of the reasons L4D is so good is because it's very polished in terms of mechanics. B4B, at this moment, it's not.

In summary:

- Bad pacing. Too much hordes, too much elite zombies. It's hard to appreciate the design when the game just shoves enemies in your face.
- Incredibly poor friends AI when playing solo, to the point they can't even defend against certain enemies like the Ogre in an efficient way.
- The matchmaking system is garbage.
- The difficulties are poorly balanced.

Some positives:

- Gunplay is good in general.
- The card system it's interesting
- Each survivor has his own advantages and disadvantages.
- Some cool moments and ideas in the scenarios

Just wait until it gets cheaper. If it not dies like Evolve, it will get patched in the future. There's some potential here, but it's hard to enjoy it as it is now.

 

[Dexter]

I played the open beta and I was very disappointed. The game felt like a l4d map pack and not very good one. Sure you could say that the graphics are better but the gameplay is nearly identical. You have a boomer variant, hunter variant spitter variant etc. Even the consumables function the same. The one campaign that was available wasn't bad but it didn't impress either. The finale was copy pasted dead center finale but worse.

B4B tries to compete with a over decade old game with very minor iterations on gameplay. L4D2 is like under 10 bucks and they give free sometimes.

If it actually was a "L4D map pack" it could have actually been good, but it isn't. The new special infected are kinda shitty and don't work together as well as in L4D, nor do the hordes. The way weapons work with the Levels and Upgrades is kind of shit and decline compared to L4D where it was pretty simple with Shotgun/Autoshotgun, SMG/Assault Rifle and Hunting Rifle that all worked well. The new maps in the Open Beta played worse and are boring, I was surprised to find out in the recent Beta that the first 2 parts of the Evansburgh Campaign was actually the "GOOD" part and the latter two maps are a boring corridor where nothing happens and a scripted/cinematic map that's over within a few minutes. Difficulties are also unbalanced compared to L4D and the maps feel incredibly repetitive while in L4D with the "AI director" and the different ways weapons and hordes/infected spawned always managed to feel new and different enough an experience. Supposedly they get even shittier later in the game. The "cleaners" have no personality and their dialogue is annoying and unmemorable. Also there is no Campaign Versus and the new "Versus" sucks dick, since it takes like 1-2 minutes to set up/"prepare" with having to choose the card shit and whatnot and it's over in like 2-4 minutes because for some reason they implemented Battle Royale elements where the playable area gets smaller and time runs out.

 

[Latelistener]

30% off in just about a month and already has less people playing it than L4D2. Also, has Mixed rating with only 63% positive reviews. As someone already said, Dead 1 Arrival.

 

[Mary Sue Leigh]

A shame but yeah - best to wait and see. I didn't even play Evolve, but I remember that fiasco regardless. Loved L4D to death though (2, not so much but w/e).. Dun wanna go back to that though as was mentioned, is old.
KF2 was trash. Too consolified with much tinier maps than 1 and much less personality in turn for all the obnoxious cosmetics and cash grabs. Maybe that's just me but when a controller was connected to the PC I couldn't even use the mouse until I either unplugged or disabled it.
Still I'm really wanting for some similar co-op horde shoot game and I simply can't find any good semi-current ones.
I know Vermintide 2 has been mentioned, and while it is good and still gets content, I don't like to play it a lot because it's a co-op horde melee game, with the shoot guns being deliberately only your backups. A lot of people like that, I don't.
So what else is there? Maybe "GTFO" is worth a damn? I'm not touching any of those "World War Z" games, mostly due to at least the latest one having been tainted due being a year long Epic exclusive.

 

[udm]

Deep Rock Galactic.

 

[Dexter]

I know Vermintide 2 has been mentioned, and while it is good and still gets content, I don't like to play it a lot because it's a co-op horde melee game, with the shoot guns being deliberately only your backups. A lot of people like that, I don't.

That's not necessarily true. It depends on character chosen and class. Kerillian is mainly a bowbitch char, Sienna is mostly a ranged magic char, Saltzpyre has the Bounty Hunter class that's mostly ranged, the Dwarf has the Outcast Engineer DLC/Prestige class with the Minigun and Kruber has the Huntsman.

Other than that I guess waiting for Darktide and hoping it'll be good: