Back 4 Blood is the sequel to Left 4 Dead in almost anything but the name. The developer Turtle Rock is behind both games, you will play with 3 other friends and try to survive and fight your way through hordes of enemies.
The game is set to be released in two months, October 12, with an open beta from August 12. We played a few hours with the beta version, where we got to try the first levels of the campaign part of the game.
Unfortunately, the PVP part did not work during the test, so we will come back to it on a later occasion.
Easy start
Mikkjell believes:
Two hours and two levels are hardly to get a proper impression of Back 4 Blood, but my immediate thoughts are that this is a slightly more cartoonish version of Left 4 Dead, only with shooting mechanisms that are more similar to Call of Duty than Counter-Strike . It does not have to be negative.
The core of this type of game is always our fun with friends, and as such, this is a good starting point for creating new memories together with some friends. First and foremost, Back 4 Blood is more of the familiar and beloved, and I think fans of the series will enjoy new enemies, fresh levels and stories. There are some surprises for old trotters in the Left 4 Dead series, but I am not entirely convinced that the new shooting mechanisms are a step forward for the series. Time and more play must show.
In the worst case, this will be perceived as a kind of extension to Left 4 Dead 2 with better graphics and slightly different mechanisms, and that is not wrong.
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Øystein, Mikkjell, the undersigned and a fine started with the first assignment in the campaign part. Here, as in all the other levels we played, we had to get from point A to point B. The first choice on the way was which character we should play. The various heroes in the game have their own secondary weapon unique to that particular person, as well as an ability. One gives faster running speed, another can give another bonus.
After this, you have to choose between different cards. Some are as simple as giving 10 percent more ammunition, while other cards for example may be that you get a deadline on the level, and if you manage this you get extra money to spend along the way.
What we saw of this system worked just fine. We were at the very beginning of the game, and I’m a little excited about how much choice you’ll get eventually, and how the bonuses on the cards will evolve. On the last board we managed to play, I had collected so that I, for example, had 50 percent more ammunition via the cards. With a bit of trial and error along the way, I guess it can be fun to adapt the game round with different cards.
The first round we chose to test the easiest difficulty of the three available. It took about five minutes before we got bored, finished it and increased to “normal” difficulty in other attempts. At the lightest we took almost no damage, there were relatively few enemies, and it was not possible to hurt teammates. The middle one eventually gave us a pretty decent challenge, and here you have to think about location, where the enemies come and take care of the ammunition along the way.
Rough edges
As in Left 4 Dead, there are different types of zombies you encounter along the way. You have the usual enemies in droves, but then you have the type that jumps on you, you have big giants that run straight towards you and then explode. We also met quite quickly an enormous zombie boss who demanded that we think a little about the tactics so as not to kill the whole gang.
Øystein believes:
Back 4 Blood starts where the Left 4 Dead ends, for better or worse. It actually appears to be exactly the same game, albeit in a slightly new, and slightly nicer suit. The developers have added small innovations such as bonus cards you can use to gain one or another advantage, as well as modification of weapons, but it is not really enough to make this appear to be more than just a slightly nicer version of Left 4 Dead.
I would have liked to have seen zombies that are more dynamic than just a stiffly animated corpse coming at you with arms waving in all directions. At least we get fun weapons to whack them with, although the game consistently seems to want to offer ammo to those weapons you do not have. If you liked Left 4 Dead, you will probably find fun here too, just do not expect the big progress.
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The zombie design itself was fine, but nothing to cheer about. They were quite generic and all alike, and although the “special” zombies stood out, both the animations and the movements of the enemies looked quite stiff and uninspired. Area design was slightly better, but graphics and detail were not particularly impressive in the beta version we got to test. I hope there is some fine-tuning here until the release date.
There were also a lot of bugs and errors along the way, and so many of them that I was a little worried. Of course, we will not judge from an unfinished version, but there were many enemies who bugged out, got stuck, teleported around or just disappeared.
But most important of all is whether I had fun? And the answer is just right. Shooting is one of those things that has changed noticeably, and I would also say for the better. Back 4 Blood is much closer to a Call of Duty in shooting sense than Left 4 Dead, which is perhaps a little more Counter Strike. The various weapons you pick up have their own shooting feel, although the slightly more arcade-like shooting leaves no room for the best weapon feel and weight I have known.
It was still fun to work my way from checkpoint to checkpoint with my colleagues. We enjoyed ourselves, we cooperated and we died. The game put us to the test, and you have to be vigilant and cooperate to get through the cooperation part of the game, that’s how we got to experience.
Conclusion
This feels more or less like a refurbished and newer version of Left 4 Dead, and I think those who liked those games will also like Back 4 Blood. New enemies to learn, new areas to fight through and a new story to be experienced with three other friends.
I have no doubt that it is very possible to have fun in the promotional part of the game, despite the obvious weaknesses of this beta. Stiff animations, lots of bugs and little varied zombies are things I worry about, but which I also think you can forget a little in good company with others.
Whether you end up liking or disliking the new shooting feeling I will not judge. I think it was an improvement, and the ability to modify weapons with sights and other improvements worked well.
All in all, I am left with a small feeling of this may be a little at least made, but at the same time it may also be exactly this fans of this type of game are waiting for. You can probably have enough fun, I think.
Do you enjoy playing shooting games with friends? Then we can recommend Outriders. You just want to have fun with one friend at a time maybe It Takes Two Something for you.
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