The Good And The Bad: Back 4 Blood Open Beta
/
I’ve played an unhealthy amount of Back 4 Blood’s Open Beta weekend and during it’s early access, giving me a clear picture on what to expect from the 4-player co-op survival shooter launching this October. And just like in any beta session, it’s not perfect, so here’s a list of the good and the bad from Turtle Rock Studios’ next shooter.
The Good
The card system
Back 4 Blood is equipped with a card system that allows players to build their character to fit a specific role in the game. Each player starts with a card from a deck created by you, which then alters its character stats like maybe faster reload speed or increased damage. As you finish the stage and go on to the next level, you get to choose another card, and so on. It’s a fun system that delivers a series of interesting combinations to change your role in the team.
The banter between characters
Back 4 Blood will launch with nine characters. The open beta featured five and there was a lot of banter going on between each character, more than what I was expecting in a beta that featured only 2 maps. The small talk also depends on who is in your party for the run. It’s Turtle Rock Studios’ way of injecting more flavor to the characters you’ll play while giving you context on the mission they’re currently doing as each of these playable characters are Cleaners, individuals mostly tasked to engage on the Ridden, Turtle Rock’s take in the typical infected creatures we usually see in games like these.
This got me excited to know more about the characters. Evangelo being more optimistic and excited since he’s the newest member of the team, Walker being quiet and more focused on the mission, and Hoffman - he apparently believes aliens are real. It’s great to hear and I can’t wait to hear more banter when the full roster is available to mix and match.
The changes in each run are just like in Left 4 Dead
The whole mission structure in Back 4 Blood is simply Left 4 Dead. A party of four will need to go from point A to point B and will encounter a few tasks that will require them to fend off waves of Ridden to advance. The beauty of the Left 4 Dead formula is that not all runs play the same, and Back 4 Blood does it admirably, making it feel like it’s 2008 again. In one run, you might encounter the Exploder by the starting area, a large creature that explodes and hurts players caught in the blast, leaving acid that slows and hurts anyone that goes through it. The next time you play the level, the Exploder might not be there to greet you and you notice there are less infected crowding the entrance door like last time. What you encounter, even down to where items will be in your run, will be different each time, keeping you on your toes at all times and encouraging exploration because you just might find that one bandage that will keep you alive.
Gun combat feels satisfying and familiar
How the gunplay feels in Back 4 Blood was a concern, especially when the developers officially revealed the game and is one of those games hoping to dethrone the need to reinstall a Left 4 Dead game. The beta quashed all my worries as the movement, and shooting felt great and distinct. I didn't feel weighed down or struggled with the controls as it felt like any other shooter that let’s players aim down their sights and fire.
This is true to either the keyboard and mouse or controller as I tried the beta on the PC and PS5 platforms. Everything felt snappy and fast. Familiar, as I felt comfortable in moving my character to fend off swarms of enemies from all directions. Game felt great and the only technical issues found were random disconnects during a run.
The Bad
How you unlock cards
Supply lines is Back 4 Blood’s way for players to earn cards in order to build specific decks to us in their runs. As you complete a level, you earn supplies which can then be used to unlock cards and profile customizations in a specific Supply line. The problem with this system is that you’re forced to unlock something you’ll likely don’t want, making it feel like a waste of in-game resources. It doesn’t feel good when you’re forced to spend 100 supplies on a profile banner, just to get a card that costs like 30 supplies to unlock.
As it stands, how to unlock cards can be a hit or miss as I feel discouraged at times to go through a supply line because of these cosmetic sprays and background banners that feel out of place in your road to unlocking new ways to play.
The difficulty gap between all 3 difficulty levels
Survivor, Veteran, and Nightmare - better known as Super Easy, Very Hard, and Impossible as I went through the beta. The issue is the large difficulty spike between each difficulty is apparent that it feels like one difficulty is missing in order to cover all types of player skills. Survivor feels you will likely survive with little to no coordination, Veteran needs proper coordination, communication, and knowledge of the game, while Nightmare requires everything to be perfect from headshots to getting lucky to what shows up in your run.
PVP is quick and forgettable
The beta also featured the new Swarm PVP game mode and it’s not Campaign Versus. It’s a quick battle between a team of Cleaners versus player-controller special Ridden. Cleaners are tasks to last as long as possible while the opposition does what they can to take them down quickly. Once the round ends, the teams switch roles and the team that lasted the longest will win a point. A match is a race to three.
The problem with this game mode is that while controlling the special Ridden was cool in like the first 30 minutes, it instantly lost its appeal as the game is being played in an already small map which gets smaller as the round progresses. The effects of the cards don't feel impactful with how short rounds can be and there are a few balancing issues that can make either side easy to do with proper coordination.
Sadly, it didn’t deliver the same amount of fun found in the PvE campaign maps as I felt like I was done with the game mode in just two matches. Unless there are significant changes to the game mode in the full game, it’s likely at the bottom of the to-do list when the game fully launches.
Performance doesn’t matter, only survival
In the beta, the amount of supplies you earn in each level is apparently based on the difficulty and how many players survived the level. At least, that’s how I understand the end result of each run. A bit of a bummer as how you perform in the level doesn’t matter at all. You’re not rewarded by what you did but by how many bodies are there once you close the safe room door. You can be the guy that ran past everything, not killing a single thing and you would be rewarded just as much supplies as long as everyone is alive.
Ally AI literally does one thing - shoot
This is more hilarious than frustrating. I’ve played enough games to expect AI-controlled allies to never be reliable but the ones featured in Back 4 Blood’s beta are probably the worst. Yes, they can accurately shoot whatever Ridden is nearby to cover your back but don’t expect them to do anything else.
They will not pick up new weapons or items to be used in the future and they will certainly not help you when you’re webbed in place by a special infected. They actually just stare down at your feet as your character is struggling to get away. It’s bad. Yes, it’s best played with other players but if someone suddenly drops out, it would be great if the bot would be able to do the basics. This is the beta, after all, but I'll keep an eye if they actually did something about this one in the full release because this is an important factor because not everyone has a full group of reliable friends ready to go and do some runs.
Back 4 Blood felt surprisingly good in the beta and I found myself likely to be in withdrawal for the next couple of weeks as I'll now have to wait until October to play the game again. This is considered as the spiritual successor to the Left 4 Dead series and while it hits all the check marks on what makes a great survival co-op shooter, we’ll see if the final product will have enough replayability to develop a solid community to cater to months after it’s release.
What did you think about the Back 4 Blood beta?
Back 4 Blood will launch on October 12, 2021 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
