Back in 2008, the game Left 4 Dead was released from the creators of Turtle Rock Studios. The game quickly burst into the top ranks and found its niche of popularity among fans of cooperative first-person shooters. Of course, I don’t dare to say that the game was a success, just like the ideal dream of all gamers, since I didn’t play it much myself in those years. But I won’t deny the phenomenon of this game appearing like a bolt from a clear January sky. I know people who have spent hundreds of hours in this game and are still happy with it to this day. But time, as we know, is merciless to everything and everyone. Over these many years, a new generation of gamers has already grown up. Gamers are becoming more and more spoiled, they have already seen a lot of cooperative shooters, of different tailoring and quality. And in general, give us all the “next gene”. And it’s no wonder. Computers develop with the times, gaining more and more power, and the development of games sometimes outstrips not only the development of computers, but also time in general. Be that as it may, any berry becomes boring over time, but a new one is always twice as juicy. That’s what the guys from Turtle Rock Studios thought, having long since left Valve’s wing and developing mostly unknown games. Of everything they have done, I can only remember the now closed Evolve. Something needs to be done, everyone wants money, and the developers just take and make the same game as 13 years ago, only in a new wrapper, called Back 4 Blood. But will the game manage to occupy the same niche in the hearts of gamers?? Let’s try to figure it out.
Back 4 Blood – Legacy? | Video review
The game Back 4 Blood is conceptually no different from its predecessor Left 4 Dead; it is still a cooperative session first-person shooter in a zombie post-apocalypse setting. That is, the general model and idea remained the same, at the fundamental level of the game. But the devil is in the details. The game can still amuse four friends, a meat fight with upright walking enemies of their own kind. Hit, smash, break the skulls of zombies, set them on fire, blow them up with grenades, and all this, and more, and without stopping – this is the main thing in the game. All other details, like the plot, or elaborate lore, it all remains in the background as an unnecessary element. But be that as it may, there is a story in the game, no matter what, but there is. Another thing is that no one will need it, since it is presented either in short videos (which 90% of users stupidly skip), or in radio messages in English right during the battle. In moments of calm, no one tells us anything, and in these rare moments we are usually in control of ourselves, and at this time we do anything but think about the plot. We will not see any high existential flight of thought, and by definition it could not be here. Why, they don’t always remember about logic, let alone the deep plot. Well then, this game is not about the plot.
We are given eight survivors to choose from, at the beginning there will be only four of them, but don’t worry, after an hour of play, four more characters will open up for you. This time the survivors differ not only in their skin. Each survivor has passive bonuses, or rather, three bonuses per survivor. Two bonuses that give positive effects to you personally, and one team bonus. This makes the characters truly unique. If you want to play as a healer, take the character Doc. Anyone can heal or heal in the game, but Doc is the best at this task. There is also Mother, who is also very close to support, but she is more about saving lives than healing damage. Or here’s Jim, best suited for playing as a sniper. He, like all other characters, can handle any weapon or any task, but he is the best sniper thanks to his bonuses. And cute redhead Holly is the best mile fighter in the game. Again, every survivor can run around with a melee weapon, but Holly’s passive effects give her near-infinite stamina, which with the right build and weapon can make her less than crushable as a melee fighter. Each survivor in the game is unique in their own way. That already at the difficulty level a veteran will have a very large role. It is better to approach the choice of characters wisely, this is important, especially at high difficulty levels. And also, they don’t change horses at the crossing. If you took Holly for example, please play as her until the end of the Act. Well, or until the sortie fails. And this can happen. Oh yes, now you can fail the forays.
For a more interesting pastime while searching for a game, or recruiting party members, we have a camp. This is a hub location where you can shuffle with friends if you play in a squad. Test any weapon at the shooting range, or try on skins for it, if you have any, of course. There is enough goodness in the game for every color and taste. By the way, survivors can also be changed. Again, if you have discovered new pants or a jacket on your alter ego. Everything opens right there in the camp. Just play, earn resources, and periodically stop by the supply channels table. Choose a supplier and use resources to open cards that will drop both skins and various graffiti or cards with perks. The game is not indifferent to cards, since we now have builds from random perks, and they are collected right there, just at a different table. Click create deck and throw in the cards with the perks that you would like to see in it, then you can assign a name to the deck for ease of use. And when you go on a sortie, don’t forget to take a suitable deck. Everything is simple and clear. The table for registration of the outing is located right there.
In fact, there is https://7sultans-casino.uk/bonus/ nothing else to do in the camp. Which means it’s time to go on a sortie. We approach the desired table, choose either a quick game or a company. For the first playthrough, I would still recommend going through the game in company mode. Since progress in the game, and the discovery of a new difficulty, directly depends on completing the company at a certain difficulty level. That is, in order for new acts to become available to you on Veteran difficulty, you need to complete the previous act, at Recruit difficulty level. And so on. I don’t know if it’s possible to break this system with the help of pumped-up friends, I haven’t checked. And I don’t see the point in this, since if you get to high difficulty levels, without a build with good perks, you will have nothing to do there. The game has a huge gap in difficulty. If you just completed recruit difficulty, almost with your eyes closed, you will quickly be put in your place on veteran difficulty. Also, don’t forget about friendly damage, the higher the difficulty level, the more damage you deal to your comrades. There are four acts in the game, three of which contain about ten cards. Apart from the fourth, there is generally one map on which the last “bossfight” takes place. But what! There were no bosses like this in the old Left 4 Dead.
Still, no matter how the game tried to seem fresh, by modern standards the maps turned out to be small, but literally they all try to seem as diverse as possible. No, we still need to get from point A to point B. Even the safe rooms at the end of the map remain. But in almost each of them, in the process of passing, we will perform some kind of task. Either free the hostages, or destroy the evidence of the infected, or God knows what else. Or here’s my favorite – with cheerful music in a bar, defending waves of enemies while other survivors board a bus on the street. The infected will crowd into the bar at the sound of the music machine, and we will fight back and restart the device if they finally got to it and broke it. The first time I came here, I really liked it, I must say the music is excellent. The variety of levels is pleasantly surprising, but the size of the maps is not. In general, there is decent content, and there are enough unique staged situations, but since the game almost involves playing in one run, there is a high chance of getting tired after just a couple of hours of unsuccessful failures. The check point system is trying to save the situation, but it works a little strangely. One way or another, you are offered to go through three or even four maps in one forced march; if you fail, you will have to go through them again. Personally I didn’t like it.
But the enemies don’t try very hard to be diverse. In addition to the crowd of ordinary zombies, there are three more elite enemies (and their subspecies) and three bosses. And they are not endowed with intelligence. Of course, they are not bots with KS, as they were before, but they don’t look like intellectuals either. They usually take quantity, not quality. And sometimes dishonest attacks through the wall, as they say, not a bug but a feature. There are bugs in the game, not so often that they actually interfere with the game, but they exist. Some bosses may appear randomly during playthrough. Except for some places where they appear at the behest of the script. And they will bother you more than once. As a rule, when a certain amount of damage is dealt, the boss understands that it’s time for him to leave and he runs away, only to appear again and continue the conversation with you. But not everyone acts this way, for example, the Destroyer fights, as they say, until the thaw. Either he or you. This is where you’ll have to push yourself. In addition to surprises with bosses, there are often surprises with traps on the map, which, when activated, can invite a horde on yourself. Now not only a car with an alarm can be hit. You often come across doors with alarms, or flocks of birds, or unique “snitches” mobs that scream at the top of their lungs and call for a horde of friends. Be careful, because this way you can set up the team and fail the raid. If on recruit difficulty this is not so dangerous, then on veteran difficulty you can easily ruin the skating rink for your friends.
I liked the process of exterminating zombies. Shooting doesn’t feel bad. Personally, even after more than thirty hours of shooting rotten firebrands, I am not tired of the shooting. Moreover, they also tried to provide variety. There are significantly more trunks. Moreover, a system of modules was attached to them. You can screw on sights, stocks, or change cartridge clips. Each module has its own effect on the characteristics of the weapon. In addition to weapon modules, we didn’t forget about the rarity of barrels. Now the weapon is the same, there may be a difference in characteristics, depending on the color of its rarity. Everything here is classic: gray is ordinary; green – rare; blue – special. As you progress through the story without losing a mission, of course, you accumulate combat power. In case you managed to fail the sortie. You can continue progress from the previous check point, but you will lose your guns. What can’t be said about ability cards?.
At the beginning of each level, the game lays out its random cards, these will be negative effects that affect the progress of the passage. Such as ferocious zombies, for example, having a lot of health and similar effects. Of the really interesting ones that can really affect the passage dramatically, I would like to notice power outages on the map or fog. Fighting at night, with poor visibility, is not so easy. And then there’s the fog, with a monster lurking inside. Overall a cool idea. So, as a counterbalance to these negative effects, at the beginning of each level, you draw one card from a pre-prepared deck. Thus, developing your character, not his equipment. If you fail, these cards will still remain with you, unlike the weapons you have accumulated.
There are three game modes in the game – solo playthrough of the company (I don’t know people who will come here for this mode), network playthrough (this is where all the juice of the game is concentrated, from my point of view) and PvP mode “Swarm”. In the "Swarm" mode, players will have to fight team against team, four people each. One team wins back the survivors and defends against waves of mutants. Another plays for zombies, playing the roles of large (elite enemies). Then the teams, in fairness, switch places. Overall fun, but it also didn’t last me long. Entertainment for the evening, yes and okay. They decided to abandon the old mode in PvP. Decks of ability cards are collected separately for each mode.
This is where the differences between the new Back 4 Blood and the old Left 4 Dead end. As you can see, there are not so many of them, but they exist. Otherwise and in general, this is the same meat slaughter, with modern graphics and a physical model of the behavior of computer dummies. Of course, it is far from ideal, and it is full of controversial issues, like the card system, but it was enough to modernize the old idea. The game was released on Steam and Epic on October 12th, instantly breaking into the top sales on all platforms. And also from the day of release it is available with an Xbox Game pass subscription (even on PC), which further increased the chances of success. If you don’t want to pay the full price of the game, subscribe and play it, I think a month is enough for you to decide. At the moment, there are more than enough people in the game, there will be no problems finding random party members. However, I would highly recommend jumping into it with friends, since among the crowds of these random users, it’s hard to find truly team players, which can significantly spoil the experience. The game is decent and you can really get lost in it for hours, provided you like meaty co-op games. Rush headlong into crowds of rotten creatures, smear yourself with blood, and destroy the enemy without stopping.
In any case, I’m almost sure that we will see a howl of indignation from old fans, shouting that it was better before. It just needs to be stated. I don’t argue, the new product turned out to be a little strange with its system of random cards. Chaotic and in places not fully thought out. Sometimes it happens that at the beginning of a level, the game just throws all the unique mobs at you and simply tramples you, or vice versa, some levels can be stupidly speedrun in one run. And the deck selection system doesn’t work as well as it seems at the beginning of the game. It doesn’t add any depth to the game, you just create builds for certain characters, and throughout the game you gradually pull one card from your skill set. Still, the vast majority of players are unlikely to do this. The developers should have made a fourth mode in which the game would offer to complete the game without any cards.
Well, perhaps my main complaint. Despite the rather rich and cheerful multiplayer, sometimes you have to wait a lot in the game. Sometimes a level can be completed in five minutes, and the wait between rollers is about the same amount of time. Before you have time to warm up, you are forced to stand and wait for other players. What makes the situation even more depressing is that if you, of course, play with random players, you can always reach an agreement with friends.
Be that as it may, fans of Left 4 Dead should not pass up Back 4 Blood. How long will she keep you, I find it difficult to answer. But I have no doubt that she can become the heir to “lefta”. If the developers from Turtle Rock Studios can convince the bosses from WB Games that paid battle passes and other nonsense are not worth adding, and instead concentrate on releasing new free content for an already paid game, then everything could very well be.