Back 4 Blood Preview: A Deck With Too Many Cards | Screen Rant
Zombie survival is taking a new direction in Turtlerock's upcoming co-op Back 4 Blood. Reminiscent of Left 4 Dead games, Back 4 Blood allows players to team up in groups of four, battle hordes of zombies, and race against time to finish objectives that aid in survival. While map progression and level setup will be familiar to those who have played the Left 4 Dead series, Turtlerock introduces a number of new mechanics to spice up the game. While these concepts are designed to promote replayability, the number of moving pieces needed to successfully pass through each map can be overwhelming, and occasionally detrimental, to gameplay.
Back 4 Blood features 8 playable "Cleaners" for players to select between. Each character has boons, strengths, and abilities to help develop certain playstyles. For example, playing as Evangelo offers a boost to stamina regeneration, an increase in the team's movement speed, and the ability to break out of a Ridden's grab hold, and playing as Doc boosts healing effects for the entire party. The selection is unique for zombie survival, as it allows players to build strategies within their party that aren't solely based on weapon power.
While the gameplay experience will vary depending on character choice, Back 4 Blood has also introduced a "Deck Building" system, adding random elements in each playthrough. The card decks grant special talents, stat boosts, and defense buffs among other options, and are randomly dealt before each game starts. In the campaign mode, players can stack the abilities as each new round begins, and in PVP, players are able to select and stack several options at the start of the round. To use a deck, players can select a pre-built set from their deck menu at the start of a session, or build a unique deck while in Back 4 Blood's lobby. These personally built decks can be designed to boost certain playstyles or offer extra buffs to specific playable characters.
While Back 4 Blood features a linear campaign mode with a story to discover, it also offers a PvP option. Back 4 Blood's PvP takes place on a small map with terrain obstacles like buildings, broken down vehicles, and boarded-up rooftops. Two groups of 4 players each take on a role, with one team playing as the Ridden and the other as Cleaners. At the start of the round, the Cleaners have a chance to collect items, select weapons, and set up gas cans. Once the time is up, the Ridden spawn and begin attacking the Cleaners. Ridden are only able to spawn when fully hidden from view, and after being killed by a Cleaner, there is a brief cooldown period before they can respawn.
At the time of Screen Rant's preview with Back 4 Blood, Cleaners have a clear advantage over the Ridden they are playing against. The small maps make spawn locations difficult to find, most weapons kill the Ridden within just a few shots, and utilizing the upgrades to improve the Ridden's abilities can be frustrating to manage while in the middle of combat.
To add to this, if Cleaners notice where the Ridden are spawning, it is easy to move to a point on the map with clear visibility, allowing Cleaners to bombard the Ridden from a safe distance continuously until the round ends. Because of this, Turtlerock may need to consider balancing PvP gameplay with bigger maps or a less frustrating spawn system.
In Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, weapon upgrades and progression were straightforward. Players started with standard weapons and throughout the course of the campaign, uncommon and rare weapons could be found and traded out. These weapons included a variety of firearms and melee options, offering players a solid variety with fixed stats that didn't slow down gameplay. However, Back 4 Blood has introduced a complex system of firearm types and upgrades. These can be purchased from an in-level store or found while exploring the map. The upgrades in Back 4 Blood improve the weapon's stats but aren't transferable if the player finds a better base weapon down the road. Because players are encouraged to change weapons frequently, this makes truly strategizing with the upgrades difficult to do.
Players must also be on the lookout for piles of in-game currency while trying to rush through the map. Unlike Left 4 Dead, where safe rooms provided a base supply of decent weapons, health kits, and bombs, Back 4 Blood requires players to purchase both personal gear and team upgrades from a shop within the safe room using the "Copper" currency. If the player hasn't amassed enough currency, they may be unable to purchase the required items and must then rely on finding item spawns while exploring the map instead. Unfortunately, due to poor lighting and fast-paced action, finding the Copper hidden around each map can be a frustrating task, and slows progression down to a tedious crawl for those wanting to ensure the ability to purchase items at the start of the next level.
Despite this, those who enjoyed Left 4 Dead, or who like survival horror-style gameplay, will likely find Back 4 Blood's campaign mode satisfying. The intimacy of the 4-player co-op and the beautifully rendered apocalyptic settings create a thrilling and terrifying environment to play in, and the challenges presented in each map keep the gameplay from becoming repetitive after multiple levels. With a few tweaks to the weapon system and better balance in the PvP mode, Back 4 Blood's gameplay as seen in the preview would be more intuitive and engaging for those wanting to take on the new zombie-survival experience, but even as it stands, its well worth checking out.
Back 4 Blood is planned for release October 12, 2021, for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. Screen Rant was invited to an early access open beta for the purpose of this article.