Review Back 4 Blood, the heir of the Left 4 Dead series

Turtle Rock Studios’ latest title isn’t a horror game. This is an action shooter with a zombie element.

The great success of Left 4 Dead is probably something that the vast majority of gamers know, especially when many games are inspired by this series. Now, Turtle Rock Studios is determined to rediscover the magic of the past.

Back 4 Blood (referred to as B4B) is developed by Turtle Rock Studios, a company that has established itself through its success with the Left 4 Dead (L4D) series. So it’s not surprising that Turtle Rock, after half a decade of focusing on VR and Evolve projects, is back with the zombie genre they’re familiar with.

First, let’s go over the similarities between the two games. Gamers will be a member of a group of four and must cooperate with each other to survive hundreds of zombies. Normal zombies can be killed by 1 or 2 shots, while high level zombies will need more firepower.

In terms of difference, B4B integrates elements such as weapon upgrades to change stats such as range, firepower, and flexibility. These factors mainly help to make the gameplay more diverse, but not really necessary because the game is not too difficult.

At the present time, there are 3 types of high-level zombies: Stingers, Reekers and Tallboys. Stingers are ranged attackers that can cling to walls, jumping to awkward corners. Their main task is to spray poison to buy time and attract attention for the majority of other zombies to approach.

Tallboys are basically Charger and Tank from Left 4 Dead, while Reekers is built on Boomers. All of these zombies can be used by players in PVP mode and they have separate upgrade branches.

The card system is what really stands out in Back 4 Blood. When you choose a character, you will also be given the option to choose a deck that is suitable for active, defensive, and support play. The cards in the deck will buff your stats such as accuracy, healing, stamina, etc.

The first four default decks are tailored to clear roles: Medic, Soldier, Squad Leader (essentially a team buff) and Operator. However, those names are symbolic only as all cards come from one of four classes: attack, defense, mobility, and utility.

Besides pure buff cards, B4B also has more special cards. For example, you can equip a card that gives you 10% faster movement speed, reload speed, and weapon swap for 30 seconds whenever you use the painkiller. Another card that grants 10% stamina to the whole team. There is also a card that increases your damage the longer you aim the fly’s head for as long as possible. Gamers can also create their own custom decks. Cards are also used in PvE play, however the decks here will be different from PvP.

The initial missions of the B4B campaign are relatively simple. You just need to go to the required point on the map, shoot the zombies that appear in front of or behind you, pick up copper (Copper – item used to upgrade) and weapons to prepare for the battle. back screen. The maps then began to introduce more interesting objectives, previewing what Back 4 Blood could offer players.

The plot is a rather weak element of the game. The beginning of each level will be just a few lines describing the story that is happening. When the level starts, the characters barely communicate with each other unless you accidentally hit your teammates.

Of course, because it’s still in the Open Beta, there are many things about the game that we can’t experience until the official release. Therefore, it is possible that the plot element will be better expressed in the following missions of the game.

Also, and important to many people, the shooter gameplay of the game is really good. This is not a surprise if you consider Turtle Rock’s history, in addition to the famous product Left 4 Dead and Evolve, they have also collaborated on the development of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source . Of course, Back 4 Blood’s guns don’t have CS’ famously heavy recoil, but this studio knows how to make the shooting feel extremely satisfying.

The beta’s performance was also solid, and the DLSS support from the start meant our system had no problems gaming at 4K graphics. Of course, the graphics are not the first thing that many people think of when talking about zombie games, but this is indeed a beautiful game.

After all, Back 4 Blood isn’t really a horror game, it’s an action shooter with zombies. Because of this, the game’s graphics prioritize the ability to display up close and at a distance. Even in close combat situations, everything looks pretty sharp.

The most important question that many people want to know is whether B4B can tap into the magic that L4D already has?

It is difficult to answer the above question after only 1 day of playing. If forced to answer, we would say that Back 4 Blood is a very good game. However, with the market being filled with coop shooter genres including military and zombies, well, it won’t be enough for B4B to stand out.

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