Tens of thousands still play Left 4 Dead daily ten years after launch. Yet, despite attempts, nothing else has come close to capturing the frantic, team-based gameplay Turtle Rock Studios pioneered. At least that was the case until now. We got an opportunity to take an early look at the open beta for Back 4 Blood, and it’s shaping up to be exactly what L4D fans have wanted for years.
PvP finally revealed
The big highlight of the play session was the PvP mode. In it, two teams of four take turns competing as the Cleaners (the humans) and the Ridden (the zombies). The Cleaners get one life and set the bar during the first round, by seeing how long they can withstand a horde of AI-controlled zombies and four player-controlled monsters, who can continue to respawn after death. After that, the teams swap, and the second team tries to beat the first one’s time.
I really enjoyed this kind of asymmetric gameplay. Of course, the undead will eventually take down the humans, but the low amount of downtime doesn’t make that eventuality feel as penalizing as some other games. Rounds went by quickly, and the maps we played were varied enough that we had to switch up strategies each time.
While the game will inevitably get more balancing passes, we found no strategy that’s overwhelmingly effective compared to anything else. The only thing we found to be a sure death sentence was standing still. Back 4 Blood heavily encourages movement and has several mechanisms to discourage any camping. For example, during one of our rounds playing as The Ridden, we were on a map featuring several park cabins. Our human opponents decided to shelter together and fortify a structure that didn’t work out well. Using a combo of one Hocker, a creature who can stick a human in one place with a loogie, and three Retches, who are similar to L4D’s Boomers, we were able to annihilate the whole team quickly.
To also encourage movement, Back 4 Blood’s PvP borrows a mechanic from battle royales. A swarm of infectious insects circles each map. If human players enter this zone, they start to take damage. As the match goes on, this circle closes, which also helps to prevent camping.
Back 2 Left 4 Dead
I also had a chance to play the PvE mode in the Back 4 Blood alpha test late last year, and it returns in the open beta. I didn’t notice many significant changes since then besides some polish, but it’s still a blast. The PvE campaign plays out exactly like those in Left 4 Dead. It’s made up of acts, which themselves consist of four chapters. The main goal is simple: make it to the safe room. However, there are some new concepts that Back 4 Blood introduces that make the experience more dynamic and gives it more replayability.
The biggest change that comes with Back 4 Blood is the card system. Players can earn and build decks of cards that are drawn at random before a mission. These can do things like modify your base health or help you reload faster. Counterbalancing these are Corruption cards. These are inactive on the easiest difficulty (Classic), but on medium (Survivor) and hard (Nightmare), several of them might be drawn. Corruption cards can do things like add random armored zombies or increase the frequency of stronger Ridden.
Along with the card system, a Dynamic Game Director AI constantly adjusts the game’s parameters in reaction to the player’s actions. Having no problem mowing down legions of the undead? In that case, the director might start throwing weaker weapon pickups, stronger enemies, or larger hordes. Left 4 Dead has a similar system, but this director looks to be more complex and capable than its previous iteration.
One thing we did all comment on concerning the campaign mode is that we wish difficult options were more granular. At higher settings, players have to deal with vastly stronger and larger hordes and friendly fire. It would be nice to get some sliders to customize difficulty instead. For example, when we tried Nightmare, we didn’t really enjoy 60% friendly fire damage, but we did like the challenge brought on by the stronger enemies.
Before the Review: Thoughts so far
Back 4 Blood is shaping up to be a big success for Turtle Rock Studios if this beta is any indicator. The big question for us is how the studio will keep the game alive. As a multiplayer game, it lives and dies based on how many people keep playing.
Regardless, we’re looking forward to trying out more of the beta in the coming days and the full game itself when it debuts on October 12, 2021.
