Back 4 Blood players have heavily criticized the absence of a Campaign Versus mode, with many taking to the game’s Reddit community to voice their displeasure. With its beta having been made available in early access, players have got the chance to try it out ahead of its October release date. However, those familiar with developer Turtle Rock’s previous Left 4 Dead series have criticized some changes made to the team’s zombie-killing spiritual successor.
While only in beta mode, it has been confirmed no Campaign Versus mode will be added to Back 4 Blood, at least for the time being. In a message reportedly posted to the game’s official Discord server, Turtle Rock’s co-founder Chris Ashton replied with a succinct “no” to the question of whether the mode would be added, before elaborating: “We have a lot of defensive equipment and our specials are good at ambushing. Defending worked far better for our game than running from A-B.”
Where there’s no Back 4 Blood Campaign Versus mode
For many, Campaign Versus was the highlight of Left 4 Dead’s multiplayer offering. A PvP mode stretching across the game’s several story-based acts, players could either assume the role of humans or zombies, fighting it out across its campaign missions. PvP in Back 4 Blood is limited to Swarm mode, a quick series of up to three rounds where Cleaners and the Ridden duke it out in a shrinking map, similar to a battle royale but on a much smaller scale. Although many — us included, as noted in our preview — enjoy this new mode, there are others who wanted to see this popular L4D mode return.
One of the top-rated posts on the r/Back4Blood subreddit this week discusses the absence of the mode, with comments ranging from “Dude they done f***ed up man” to “rip, games so boring without vs.” Across other threads on the subreddit, players are branding the lack of a Campaign Versus mode a “mistake” that will harm the game’s longevity.
Back 4 Blood is still in its beta stages, so there’s likely set to be plenty more added to the game for its full release, including more maps for the PvP mode and more campaign scenarios for PvE. However, Campaign Versus will remain missing from its line-up of modes, with creative director Phil Robb telling ComicBook that the team “don’t want to just do the same thing [as Left 4 Dead]” and that “campaign PvP is … a really big time commitment” that its developers wanted to steer away from.
While it’s true that L4D saw many players quitting out of PvP campaign sessions due to their length, it’s also true that its Campaign Versus mode was hugely responsible for the games being as replayable as they were, with Left 4 Dead 2 still having an active community to this day. It remains to be seen if Swarm mode will resonate in the same way, but many in the game’s fledgling online community seem to believe this won’t be the case.
