Back 4 Blood - Left 4 Dead's spiritual successor

[A Friendly Hoovy]

Back 4 Blood is an upcoming game from Turtle Rock Studios, the team behind the original Left 4 Dead.

It features new infected (now called Ridden), new guns, new survivors, more weapon/character customization, all wrapped in the familiar L4D gameplay.

The game releases worldwide June 22, 2021.

Game Awards reveal trailer:

Alpha gameplay footage:

Website: back4blood.com
Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/924970/Back_4_Blood/

 

[A Weddell Seal]

I cannot wait to play this with you!

 

[JuanButNotForgotten]

All I can say after looking at the gameplay.

But on the brighter side, they aren't trying to sell Evolve again.

 

[WhoBusTank69]

Kinda worried they're cramming so much into such a simple concept, being similar to Vermintide that people will drop it due to how much work it takes to make new maps and keep things interesting.

 

[Michael Wade]

You can play as the monsters right? Otherwise yeah, this wont last long.

 

[Dumpster dived waifu]

Loves me some L4D, and I'd love to play some more, but the fact that his is made by the same guys that made Evolve has me worried. Gonna remain healthy skepticism, and wait for reviews and word of mouth.

 

[A Cardboard Box]

Loves me some L4D, and I'd love to play some more, but the fact that his is made by the same guys that made Evolve has me worried. Gonna remain healthy skepticism, and wait for reviews and word of mouth.

Evolve wasn't really their fault. That was 2k trying to be fucking kikes. I can assure you the game that TRS made and the game 2k released were not the same game. This time they are releasing it through Warner Bros which, from my understanding, has not demanded any changes to B4B.

 

[Anchors-Away]

Much as I love L4D, I loath the look and general talk between the four characters in B4B. Mixed-race dude is the "quirky" type which I loath. Don't get me started on how the old dude looks like a sex-offender.

From what I watched on stream last night, I ain't sold on the "card" bullshit either. Warner is gonna pull so much content out to nickel and dime

 

[crocodilian]

1. Zombies stop being horrifying when they are twenty feet tall and barely recognizable as human. The Left4Dead infected are clearly humans mutated by a fictional disease; even the largest one, the Tank, looks like he was once human. With the exception of spider-lady (who doesn't seem like a good idea from a gameplay standpoint; why does a zombie have a long-ranged snare trap?) all of the creatures in Back4Blood look more like the result of magic (in this case magic worms) than an outbreak of super-rabies, or anything that could feasibly exist. They don't look like they were ever human, which is especially problematic in the zombie genre.

2. The playable character designs look confused as well. I don't even need to explain this, just do a basic visual comparison.

Spoiler: Back4Blood

Spoiler: Left4Dead

Left4Dead has four playable designs that are simplistic, yet tell the audience exactly what they want to know at a glance.

• Ex-military Boomer
• "The girl"
• Productive Civilian (also black)
• Manly Biker

Let voice acting color the designs a little more thoroughly and you have a solid cast. There is no instance of "that character nobody wants to play." Back4Blood has about four characters I don't want to associate with in comparison, chiefly because three of them look like obnoxious millennials wearing kneepads and satchels. Someone's dad also showed up, for some reason. How difficult could it have been to come up with basic archetypes like "police officer", "EMT", "day trader", "struggling actor", "priest", etcetera?

 

[JuanButNotForgotten]

Back4Blood has about four characters I don't want to associate with in comparison, chiefly because three of them look like obnoxious millennials wearing kneepads and satchels.

Yep, pretty much, very uninspired. I also like how despite dozens of infected and monsters in the trailer, there is little to no tension, main characters shout something about "there are too many of them", yet they stand still, don't hurry and don't even seem to care all that much. Like they know they're gonna make it anyway.

 

[Michael Wade]

L4D2 characters are weaker then 1, but even then they have a much better looking and more interesting cast then this.

At least I can confirm there is zombie pvp, that will make it worthwhile to play on ps4 at least.

 

[Cantercoin]

From the footage I've seen so far the base characters seem to be extremely frail which is bad for a horde shooter and the special infected are somewhat bullet spongy. having to spend "money" for items/weapons/upgrades is kinda stupid because it takes some tension out of the whole trying to survive by the skin of your teeth like L4D 1/2

 

[ZMOT]

Evolve wasn't really their fault. That was 2k trying to be fucking kikes. I can assure you the game that TRS made and the game 2k released were not the same game. This time they are releasing it through Warner Bros which, from my understanding, has not demanded any changes to B4B.

remember 2k bought the IP when thq went under, allegedly paid a million bucks for it and wanted to recoup it by turning it into MUH ESPORTS shit.
evolve was a sound idea which fell flat on it's face with shit execution, but it's not like they didn't try. for example the biggest issue was trying to balance an asymmetric pvp game for both casuals and hardcore, satisfying no one and constantly piss off either one or the other camp.

it's a shame that the game is dead and stuck in 2k's rectum (same as battleborn), offloading some work onto the community with balance and mods would've helped the game a lot, but that doesn't sell "hunting season passes", so...

TLDR: fuck 2k with a glowing hot rake.

 

[crocodilian]

Yep, pretty much, very uninspired. I also like how despite dozens of infected and monsters in the trailer, there is little to no tension, main characters shout something about "there are too many of them", yet they stand still, don't hurry and don't even seem to care all that much. Like they know they're gonna make it anyway.

I noticed that too. The first L4D1 trailer had a frivolous tone very much like the B4B trailer, initially, but the final release version was reworked drastically. The survivors were rewritten to take their situation much more seriously; in my opinion, this trailer was (or is at least very close to) the peak of Valve storytelling. You like the survivors, and you (the audience) treat the infection like the world-ending threat it appears to be. No stupid quips required.

Left4Dead 2's intro cutscene plays up the "badass" elements far more than the first game's trailer, which I see has only gotten worse with time. Back4Blood goes full retard with it.

 

[A Cardboard Box]

remember 2k bought the IP when thq went under, allegedly paid a million bucks for it and wanted to recoup it by turning it into MUH ESPORTS shit.
it was a sound idea which fell flat on it's face with shit execution, but it's not like they didn't try. for example the biggest issue was trying to balance an asymmetric pvp game for both casuals and hardcore, satisfying no one and constantly piss off either one of the other camp.

it's a shame that the game is dead and stuck in 2k's rectum (same as battleborn), offloading some work onto the community with balance and mods would've helped the game a lot, but that doesn't sell "hunting season passes", so...

TLDR: fuck 2k with a glowing hot rake.

I know Phil in passing and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that he's good people, and is just as pissed as we all were with how Evolve turned out. It's rather unfortunate when you have devs that want to make a good game, and are just not allowed to.

 

[ZMOT]

I know Phil in passing and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that he's good people, and is just as pissed as we all were with how Evolve turned out. It's rather unfortunate when you have devs that want to make a good game, and are just not allowed to.

the saddest part for me as an vidya oldfag is that there's no redemption story. with a better company even 10 years ago you could've modded the shit out of it and grow it from the community effort, jfc the most successful games and genres these days pretty much all started as mods at some point, it wasn't some corporate suit in a boardroom having a lightbulb moment. it will be a long while, if ever, till we get into the state again that gave us a thief, deux ex or anachronox.

 

[Mooger Meng]

I noticed that too. The first L4D1 trailer had a frivolous tone very much like the B4B trailer, initially, but the final release version was reworked drastically. The survivors were rewritten to take their situation much more seriously; in my opinion, this trailer was (or is at least very close to) the peak of Valve storytelling. You like the survivors, and you (the audience) treat the infection like the world-ending threat it appears to be. No stupid quips required.

Left4Dead 2's intro cutscene plays up the "badass" elements far more than the first game's trailer, which I see has only gotten worse with time. Back4Blood goes full retard with it.

Amusingly, for all the "power trip" the trailer tries to show, I spent a bit of time watching the gameplay, and you're all made out of paper when things get rolling:
-Rough land speed is a slow waddle
-No downed state, you just fucking die at 0 HP
-All the incidental chatter makes it seem like the characters aren't taking this seriously

I mean, I don't think that shit's going to change, so I don't hold too much hope for this not being sub-par at best, but maybe the four other characters won't make me want to neck myself.

 

[millais]

1. Zombies stop being horrifying when they are twenty feet tall and barely recognizable as human. The Left4Dead infected are clearly humans mutated by a fictional disease; even the largest one, the Tank, looks like he was once human. With the exception of spider-lady (who doesn't seem like a good idea from a gameplay standpoint; why does a zombie have a long-ranged snare trap?) all of the creatures in Back4Blood look more like the result of magic (in this case magic worms) than an outbreak of super-rabies, or anything that could feasibly exist. They don't look like they were ever human, which is especially problematic in the zombie genre.

2. The playable character designs look confused as well. I don't even need to explain this, just do a basic visual comparison.

Spoiler: Back4Blood

Spoiler: Left4Dead

Left4Dead has four playable designs that are simplistic, yet tell the audience exactly what they want to know at a glance.

• Ex-military Boomer
• "The girl"
• Productive Civilian (also black)
• Manly Biker

Let voice acting color the designs a little more thoroughly and you have a solid cast. There is no instance of "that character nobody wants to play." Back4Blood has about four characters I don't want to associate with in comparison, chiefly because three of them look like obnoxious millennials wearing kneepads and satchels. Someone's dad also showed up, for some reason. How difficult could it have been to come up with basic archetypes like "police officer", "EMT", "day trader", "struggling actor", "priest", etcetera?

The character design aesthetic looks like generic FPS Battle Royale loading screen player models

 

[Miller]

I wish they would go big, have big maps with lots of zombies and the ability to use a vehicle. Remaking L4D is fine but that was 12 years ago.

Evolve wasn't really their fault. That was 2k trying to be fucking kikes.

The problem with Evolve wasn't the microtransactions, it was the gameplay: 4 vs 1.
With Back 4 Blood they're going back to the L4D formula, which is a good thing.

 

[Anchors-Away]

I wish they would go big, have big maps with lots of zombies and the ability to use a vehicle. Remaking L4D is fine but that was 12 years ago.

If you listen to the dev commentary in L4D, they legit couldn't make maps larger due to people getting lost or unable to figure out routes in the established layouts of maps like No Mercy.

At first they thought players would be smart enough to follow light sources as a means of guidance. After all, if you see a light in the distance, it's worth investigating right? Nope. So they legit had to put big fucking arrows above or around the light sources to direct players which way to go. Ironically the recent fan-patch to L4D2 highlights one of the flaws with larger maps as Last Stand actively sucks ass due to the conflicting light sources all over the place.