Back 4 Blood is a first-person co-op zombie shooter developed by Turtle Rock Studios, of Left 4 Dead fame, and published by Warner Bros. Games. After getting a chance to play the beta and writing out my impressions, it’s finally time to dive into the full game and really sink my teeth into the meta, gameplay, and get a chance to enjoy all the aspects of the game that I had enjoyed so much on my first time through. Does Back 4 Blood meet my expectations? Does this attempted revival of a long-gone genre succeed at its necromancy?
Just Another Zombie Game?
One of my favorite things about Back 4 Blood’s presentation is the main menu, or lack thereof. Fort Hope is not only a hub town with different locations and NPCs around, but also acts as an interactive menu, allowing you to visit different NPCs to change your decks, customize your characters, change your weapon skins, and even visit a firing range. Back 4 Blood is also a very nice-looking game, despite the disgusting Ridden corpses and tentacles lying everywhere. It ran well on my relatively budget PC, maintaining a solid frame rate while on reasonably high settings. The UI is also very clean and easy to understand. Mechanics like the trauma system (which reduces your max HP permanently) are clearly visualized on your health bar, stamina is easy to gauge, and the items are all cleanly organized on the right.
Back 4 Blood’s character designs are also top notch. All of the characters have unique designs and personalities and listening to their interactions are so fun. Hearing Holly or Mom berate Walker, a soldier, for accidentally shooting always makes me snicker. Each character also has their own unique traits and gameplay features, all of which build on my favorite part of Back 4 Blood: the gameplay.
Draw Your Last Pathetic Card, Cleaner
The biggest strength of Back 4 Blood, even as early as the beta, was in its gameplay mechanics. Turtle Rock Studios is no stranger to first person shooters and their experience in this genre means Back 4 Blood’s shooting mechanics and feel are top notch. Shotguns feel meaty and powerful, assault rifles shred through zombies (sorry, Ridden) like paper, and sniper rifles deliver that satisfying red mist as your high caliber rounds blast through a Ridden’s infected skull. Recoil is visceral and punchy, and the wide array of attachments only serve to make your weapons feel even better. The only weapons I think might be a tad disappointing are the pistols, but I suppose that’s to be expected of a sidearm. Back 4 Blood also has a variety of melee weapons, all of which feel great to use. However, good feeling weapons only gets you so far…
That’s where Back 4 Blood’s core gameplay feature comes in: the card system. Back 4 Blood has a rogue-lite mechanic where before each run and between each level, players can choose from a random selection of cards from a deck that they choose. These decks can be customized by the player so that only cards that you might want will appear. For example, in my shotgun-focused deck, I would take cards like Buckshot Bruiser (which heals me when I land hits with my shotgun) and Shell Carrier (which increases shotgun damage and shotgun ammo capacity). I would also include cards that increased my reload speed, my health, stamina regeneration, and damage resistance. This, combined with my cleaner of choice, Holly, with her increased damage resistance and starting loadout of a powerful pump action shotgun, meant that the simple choice of what gun and character I use becomes so much deeper and more complex. With tons of cards to unlock and endless combinations to try, Back 4 Blood’s replayability is through the roof.
Uglier than the Ridden
Unfortunately, Back 4 Blood isn’t all sunshine and roses. One of my biggest issues from the beta returns as an underwhelming side option that I think is better off not being in the game. That is the PVP mode, Swarm. I had concerns from the beta regarding the asymmetric nature of Swarm. With the Ridden having a variety of annoying, debilitating abilities and backup from the normal AI Ridden, playing as a survivor, especially solo, can be a nightmare. Swarm is not fun by yourself, and I think can only be played as a 4 stack or at least with a friend or two. Trying to coordinate a long survival as a Cleaner or changing tactics to wipe out the Cleaners as fast as possible is difficult if your entire team is not on comms, communicating with each other.
The other aspect of Back 4 Blood that honestly left me feeling disappointed was the lack of any solo progression. In the standard campaign missions, you can unlock supply points after each level to spend on supply lines. These supply lines act as almost mini battle passes, unlocking little emblems, skins for the characters and weapons, and most importantly, is the main way to unlock new cards for use in your deck. Solo play eliminates this, unlocking every card for use in your solo deck and solo missions not granting supply points on completion. This, combined with the average to below average AI intelligence, means playing solo is basically useless, save for maybe testing out a deck. I personally will not be playing the solo campaign at all and would rather roll the dice on random teammates than play a mode where I have to babysit braindead AI for zero rewards in the end.
Left for Dead?
Back 4 Blood succeeds in a lot of ways, many of which were clear to me as early as the beta. The tight and visceral gunplay, the fun of min-maxing your deck and praying for that perfect draw before every level, and the clear replayable gameplay loop that keep a steady stream of rewards going all help contribute to a really solid package. However, the lack of meaningful gameplay and content outside of online co-op, and the subpar PVP mode means Back 4 Blood is definitely not a perfect game. However, what Back 4 Blood does do, which I’d argue is more important than any perfect score, is bring the co-op zombie shooter genre back. Turtle Rock Studios broke a lot of ground with the Left 4 Dead franchise and this spiritual successor manages to capture the fast-paced action and co-op fun that the originals introduced to gamers back in 2008. If you missed the days of simple zombie shooters, where your only concern was with how much assault rifle ammo you have left and not whether you and your team managed to do step #272 of the map’s Easter Egg right or not, Back 4 Blood is a great game for you.
8/10
For more information on Back 4 Blood visit here: https://back4blood.com/en-us
Related: Back 4 Blood Beta Impressions
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Steam Review
My name is Matt Tran and I have been playing video games since I could remember holding a controller. I've always been a hardcore gamer growing up, from the hectic MW2 and Halo 3 lobbies, my many journeys through several Halo clans and my current exploits with my Destiny 2 clan. I love shooters and RPGs and overanalyzing every component of every game I've played, from weapon stats to ideal perks. When I have time to play other games, I currently play Genshin Impact and Star Wars Squadrons.
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