Back 4 Blood

As someone who missed out on the old Left 4 Dead games from Valve (this was before I owned an Xbox and was #TeamPlayStation4Lyfe), I was pretty excited to get my hands on its new spiritual successor, Back 4 Blood. Even better is that it's part of Gamepass - the almost too-good-to-be-true subscription from Microsoft that allows you to play its exclusives (and many other games) day 1 for a monthly payment. 

That's important for a game like Back 4 Blood specifically because it's an instance where the pain of a potential purchase was avoided for a game that - while fun - is ultimately just aggressively "good". This is thanks to a lack of modes and, quite frankly, getting passed up by competitors who have better ideas in their zombie games...not to mention those games also feature a fully fledged multiplayer, battle royale, and campaign mode. In this day and age of gaming, it's perfectly fair to compare the quality and quantity of content of a title and, put simplest, Back 4 Blood just doesn't have enough of either. 

Building off the hype of its long-ago predecessors, Back 4 Blood seems to not change much from the formula, which is both a good and bad thing. Its primary mode is making your way through a lengthy campaign with a team of 4 other hunters. Within the campaign there are various levels of challenge and likely lots of room for replay value for those that get hooked. Each level sees you able to shop for some basic supplies beforehand, while selecting "cards" that act as powerups or benefits (more on these later) and then starting your "run" which exists for as long as the chapter is; chapters are split into a handful of levels. If this all sounds pretty straightforward, its because it is which makes Back 4 Blood very easy to pick up and play, but lacking much depth where players like it. 

My, my. That's...uh...quite the pile of bodies there.

Many other first person shooters offer tons of customization, particularly in weaponry and loadouts, but Back 4 Blood lacks most of this, and/or its locked behind some annoying "Supply Run" walls. Sure, this pushes you to use different weapons and amps up tension if you find a weapon that you may not necessarily want to use, but something about the lack of building a loadout just feels...archaic. Comparing directly to Call of Duty's zombie mode - which has gotten far better in recent installments - there's not even really an option to roll a dice for a good weapon or purchase certain weapons from a specific area of the map. This may be my first gripe and it's not that big of a deal, but it's an easy example of a host of "old" ideas that hold Back 4 Blood back. 

You can guarantee one of the characters is
saying a silly, not funny line here

The campaign itself is quite long, which is a benefit, but even as someone who played only 2-3 missions at a time, it felt like it bled together. There are some highlights, and definitely some challenging parts, even on "Recruit" difficulty, but it reminded me of The Walking Dead in a lot of ways where their locales are always changing, but never really feel like they are. There's not too many big setpieces, and by and large you're in and out of cities and forests. There are missions where you have to trigger a hoard and run to a broken down ferry that are quite intense, but others where walking through one field/pack of trees feels just like the last. And the story struggles to be interesting outside of being a cast of mildly zany (and not very funny) characters trying to survive.

From a content perspective, outside of the campaign there's a PvP mode called Swarm that is massively disappointing, especially because I waited until last to play it simply because I thought it would either be A) a horde mode or B) similar to COD's zombie mode with a horde+story-esque approach. Instead it's a 4 vs. 4 mode where 4 players control zombies (who are rather weak, difficult to control, and not very fun) while 4 other players try to hold them off for as long as possible. Now...I play a lot of different videogames and particularly during the holiday season there's always a ton to get through. So suffice it to say this was a mode I sunk ~ 20 minutes into and will never need to go back to again; it was a waste of time. 

Back 4 Blood isn't all "average" though. For starters, there's something satisfying about killing a ton of zombies, particularly with friends. There is fun to be had here and that's thanks to some solid shooting mechanics that balances challenge with zippy firing that we're accustomed to in 2021. Even better (and probably the game's best aspect) is the enemy variety you'll encounter throughout. Your basic zombies are here, but there's also ones that leap from afar, shriek to alert hordes, vomit acid at you, or use their gigantic arm to smash you, just to name a few. Because of this good mix in variety, the challenge is always there, even on most "recruit" levels, and they're randomly generated so you always have to be on your toes. 

Cards are also an interesting aspect of the game, one that I can't say I fully love but nor do I fully hate. At the beginning, you won't have many cards at your disposal - almost requiring you to play the campaign on "recruit" to start, but as you collect certain cards, you can build custom decks. Cards include specific skills and power-ups that help you and/or your team...some of which are very powerful. Before each round, you're able to select a random group of cards from your pre-determined deck meaning that you have some control in the cards you'll select from, but then the game throws a degree of randomness into your loadout by only allowing you to select a certain few. I liked this element because it keeps your skills fresh rather than just anchoring on a specific loadout, but it's also barely explained to you in the game AND it feels limiting to fit all the cards you'd want into a single deck. But in a game that doesn't push the envelope with new ideas much, this is one area it at least tries and it may be on to something, but it's not perfected here. 

Despite not having played the Left 4 Dead games, I'm fairly confident I can say that Back 4 Blood doesn't recapture their former glory. And to be frank, that's likely because those games are old and competitors have done a lot in this space over the years. Back 4 Blood wants to stick to the basics and is okay/good because of it. I had enough fun throughout its campaign, but I would definitely be frustrated if I'd paid for it because of a lack of worthwhile content outside of the story. 

CONS

• Swarm is a useless mode. I hope some like it, but I found it to be a waste of time
• For this being a Series X "enhanced" game the graphics are...fine
• Campaign can start to bleed together due to a lack of variety with the locales
• Story itself is generic and features forgettable characters who aren't funny even though they try to be
• Feels like a certain level of customization is missing and what I want conflicts with the approach to weapons they chose
• Lack of content. There should be a COD-esque zombies mode in here or a PvP multiplayer that features classic game modes, but with zombies thrown in
• As of this writing, the develops have removed the "Solo Campaign" option and says it will be back "soon" so...yeah that's weird to remove even more content

PROS

• Still lots of fun to play with 4 friends (or even strangers or bots) and kill a bunch of zombies
• Excellent weapon variety
• Even better enemy variety which is the high point of the game
• Campaign is lengthy and features some memorable, intense moments
• Gunplay/gameplay is solid
• Card/deck concept is new and interesting. Even if it doesn't work perfect, it keeps things fresh

Rath's Review Score | 6.5/10