Back 4 Blood -the spirit of Left 4 Dead ?
Let’s be clear: Back 4 Blood, while not Left 4 Dead 3, is actually Left 4 Dead 3. And even then, it’s trying to be subtle. It’s not surprising that Turtle Rock Studios, the developer of Left 4 Dead, isn’t surprised. It’s not surprising, then, that the studio is back to the cooperative zombie-slaying mode that first put it on top. Although there are many similarities between the original game, and its spiritual successor, Back 4 Blood’s most intriguing part is the apparent differences. It retains all the classic Left 4 Dead features, but it is interwoven with contemporary ideas appropriate to the modern era. The result is a game that captures what one might expect from a reanimated Left 4 Dead of 2021.
Back 4 Blood’s chaotic model may be the most similar to the games. Your group of friends and you are given the task of surviving the zombie plague. As you race from one safe place to another, you must also survive. The campaign is broken into four parts, each with a different number of chapters. The longest act, at 13 chapters, is the first. The final act, however, consists of one boss fight. It will take around six to seven hours to complete the campaign on the regular (and easiest), difficulty. But Back 4 Blood has plenty of replayability, especially when you add in the two most difficult difficulty levels as well as the game’s inherent variety. The AI Game director, which decides where and when enemies will spawn, returns to Left 4 Dead. Each chapter is unique because hazard placements, weapon availability, zombie frequency, and weapon availability all change with every playthrough.
You also have the same types of objectives throughout the campaign. These include surviving to the next safe room, alerting the Horde to remove an obstruction and moving forward, or protecting a location until you can escape. If you’ve played Left 4 Dead before, this is familiar territory. Back 4 Blood wins when it starts to deviate from the exact formula. You find the safe-room almost instantly, but instead of running away, you need to rescue others. Other interesting chapters include one in which you find a decrepit police station and must rescue a group of survivors. You not only have to find a corpsed man’s severed arm in order to unlock it but you will also be forced to use it as a weapon for your escape. Review Provided By Vex 7.
You have to place explosives on ships and escape the ship before it explodes. Back 4 Blood’s best moments occur in bars, where you are assigned to create a distraction for another group of survivors. The sound of Lemmy Kilmister’s gravelly rasp from a tired old Jukebox is what zombies listen to in order to create a distraction that allows another group of survivors to escape. Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” provides the energetic soundtrack for a barroom massacre. But not all objectives are as exciting. There are too many situations where you must destroy the pulsating nodes of zombies before you can progress. Also, the last chapters in the three acts are frustratingly slow and boring.
You can still have fun caving in craniums or filling zombies with lead. Your arsenal of weapons includes the usual assault rifles, SMGs shotguns, snipers and melee tools. Gunplay is more like Left 4 Dead than modern shooters. Instead of aiming down sights to fire headshots, you will spend your time focusing fire on the glowing weak spots and aiming down. The weapons are sharp and zombies will react in satisfying ways to your shots, slowly coating everything in a thick layer crimson blood. Other modern features include color-coded weapon rarities and other modern touches. Each of the eight playable characters has a primary and a secondary weapon. You’ll get more guns as you go through abandoned houses, spend copper to buy new guns from the safe room’s shop, and you’ll also acquire additional firearms. There are also weapon attachments you can purchase that will increase your accuracy and firepower. These don’t transfer over to other weapons so it feels strangely restricting.
Back 4 Blood’s most important draw is its campaign. However, it is better to have a group of people to truly enjoy it. This game is the spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead. It ticks most of the right boxes. Modern additions increase the game’s variety, making each run different. While the intense gunplay is thrilling and incredibly satisfying, the moment-to–moment gunplay makes it a very enjoyable and rewarding experience. The high frequency of the special infections and their disappointing blandness is a problem. Additionally, playing with strangers can be more frustrating than necessary, especially when you are penalized for playing solo. In the last 12 years, the world of cooperative shooters has changed drastically and Back 4 Blood might not reach the same heights as Left 4 Dead. Turtle Rock’s return in the same genre that it started is still great fun, as long as you have others to join the zombie-bashing.