Also available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Windows Have you ever wanted Left 4 Dead but on modern consoles and just slightly less memorable? Congrats, that's Back 4 Blood. To be clear, this game is a TON of fun. To be clear, this game is not as good as Left 4 Dead. What makes it worse? No clue. It's one of those subjective, intangible things that is impossible to really put into words but that just "feels off." Still, though, since Left 4 Dead is pretty old at this point and isn't up to par visually anymore, Back 4 Blood is a pretty solid next best thing. The basic premise is that you're part of a group of survivors called "Cleaners" who try to mop up groups of zombies infected with an alien parasite worm and help whomever you can from your base of operations in Pennsylvania. Early on, the game suffered from bugged difficulty making some of the levels significantly - unfairly so sometimes - more difficult than the developers intended, but now that that's been fixed, the game is very doable both solo and with a team. The characters, in my opinion, aren't nearly as memorable as those in Left 4 Dead (I just wanna hear someone shout "Pills here!"), but they're still cool enough, especially Mom who's a total badass. As far as gameplay goes, it's almost exactly like what you would imagine Left 4 Dead being with another decade or so of graphics technology. You've got a solid array of guns, and the missions are varied enough to keep it from getting stale. The coolest part, and what really makes it stand out, is the card system. You can build a deck of cards that add certain perks to your character. Things like more health, more ammo, better hip fire but can't aim down sights, heal when using melee, etc. They let you really custom tailor your character to suit your playstyle, and that's something that I very much welcomed. It's probably not fair to judge Back 4 Blood up against Left 4 Dead 2 since that's considered to be one of the best zombie shooters of all time, but it's hard not to compare them; Back 4 Blood is a spiritual successor in the most obvious way. What it does, it does extremely well. It's just that it doesn't do quite enough to set itself apart from Left 4 Dead, and that makes comparisons that don't favor Back 4 Blood inevitable. The deck system is definitely awesome, and they get major props for that, but aside from that, it really does play and feel like a slightly worse Left 4 Dead with better graphics. Should you play Back 4 Blood? Absolutely; it's a ton of fun. Just go in with tempered expectations and know that it's definitely not Left 4 Dead 3. My Rating - B |
I'm a teacher.And I like to play video games. I like to collect video games. I like to talk about video games, and I like to write about video games. During the day, I teach high school history; during the night, I spend my spare time gaming. Then I write about it. Archives
May 2024
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