Back 4 Blood Reviews
Back 4 Blood provides fantastic action with some of the best shooting offered this year. The card system provides long-term value by allowing players to experiment with the 8 characters to choose from, offering a variety of ways to go about the game. In its current state, the difficulty is a mixed bag, proving to be very inconsistent and impossible at times, especially if you mostly play with randoms. Team play with friends is highly encouraged because Back 4 Blood puts a premium on synergy and communication, which may be hard to come depending on your habits.
In the end, I really enjoy playing Back 4 Blood’s campaigns. They’re just different enough from the Left 4 Dead formula and it offers a pretty satisfying challenge. The Swarm and solo modes could be a bit more rewarding, so hopefully Turtle Rock Studios addresses these soon. Overall, if you’re looking for a new co-op experience with some friends, you’ll likely have a good time with Back 4 Blood.
Back 4 Blood is a great evolution of the genre.
Back 4 Blood isn't a repeat of Turtle Rock Studios' Evolve but doesn't live up to the expectations many were hoping for.
There are plenty of reasons why Back 4 Blood could be around for years as Turtle Rock adds additional content to the game, but I hope they start by tweaking what's here. The difficulty, for this type of game, feels wrong. Back 4 Blood is meant to be fun with friends, and although I'm all for the challenge and reliance on communication with your teammates, the higher difficulties are sadistic.
Back 4 Blood is a wonderful call-back to the games that have come before it. And even though it’s not a direct sequel to Left 4 Dead 2, it brings back the most important elements of the series. But it shouldn’t be seen as only a spiritual successor because it adds so many new features that make it an extremely satisfying modern-day FPS. While a few elements impede the gameplay, they can be easily overlooked when you have a great team to play with.
If you have a squad of like-minded buddies ready to lose many an evening to slaying some zombie infested hordes, Back 4 Blood will provide you plenty to satisfy that urge. It doesn’t quite capture the greatness of its forebears and it stumbles over itself with its erratic difficulty curve and repetitive nature, but Back 4 Blood has immensely satisfying, if simplistic, gameplay mechanic. This is a veteran, war-torn survivor who’s maybe danced this bloody dance once too many times, but it knows damn well how to deliver that co-op fun.
Back 4 Blood has clearly been designed as a multiplayer first title, and this is where it excels. From the rather basic narrative, through to the exceptional level design and progression systems, Back 4 Blood inspires extreme nostalgia while adding enough to carve its own path in the gaming zeitgeist. In this sense, the card and deck-building systems work very well (despite an odd caveat or two) to provide a wonderful level of team based strategy whilst keeping the repetitive gameplay fresh. Alas, the wonky AI and barebones narrative leaves a lot to be desired for solo players. When coupled with friends, however, it provides one of the most entertaining and insanely enjoyable multiplayer experiences currently available, and acts as a worthy successor to Left 4 Dead.
Turtle Rock Studios managed to successfully resurrect the original Left 4 Dead games formula, improving it with modern shooter mechanics, very fun gunplay and a lot of variety thanks to the new card system. It's not a very innovative game and it's got some technical and balancing issues, but it can be damn fun and addictive.
Review in Italian | Read full review
While being as close to Left 4 Dead 3 as possible, Back 4 Blood differentiates itself with a card system and new zombies that make for a game you'll keep coming back to.
Enduring the comparison with the veteran Left4Dead saga is no small feat. And Back 4 Blood not only supports it, but at times it feels superior to Valve games -also developed by the people of Turtle Rock, eye-. Its large number of levels, the different characters, its card system -both for its own abilities and for modifiers in the game- or its gunplay make this game a great cooperative. Against it, some policies of the publisher, the impossibility of maps created by users or its Versus mode, here called Cloud. Still an essential game if you like cooperative titles and if you are a Left4Dead lover.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
There’s simply more to do and see with Back 4 Blood. It recaptures the magic of Left 4 Dead with near-infinite replayability at greater depths. The lengthy roster and varied personalities of the cleaners are entertaining. The deck building system allows you to create a devastating hand, and the weapon modding lets you grow with the increasing challenge. As you progress through the game, the AI director keeps you on the edge as you barely survive each encounter. Turtle Rock does it again, Back 4 Blood feels like an evolution on the coop zombie shooter we haven’t seen in over a decade.
Back 4 Blood is one the best multiplayer titles of these past of couple of years and this is definitely something you want to experience with your friends as it not only gets better with how good your cooperation skills are with your teammates, it is also the kind of online game that doesn't get made as much as it used to around a decade ago.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Tons of replay value and great challenge make Back 4 Blood a fantastic co-op experience that shouldn’t be missed.
Back 4 Blood is a fantastic entry in this genre that is held back by a couple of bold choices. Builds are a lot of fun until it becomes overly robotic and anything short of a really bad modifier puts you on a set loop. It also benefits from strong mechanics that make even the lowest difficulty feel unrelenting, along with rewarding team players. As much as I applaud Back 4 Blood for catering to a specific hardcore player base, it is a choice that will alienate certain players. I suggest asking yourself if you’re looking for a game to grind heavily or if a moderate challenge on a lower difficulty is enough. If you answered yes to either or just love the genre, odds are you’ll love this too. However, if you’re not looking for a massive team-based shooter, this is one experience that will leave you frustrated and disappointed.
Overall, Back 4 Blood is a great game with glaring flaws that bring it down a little. Maybe as time goes on Turtle Rock can address the issues and elevate this to a perfect game for me. I am so happy to have a Left 4 Dead successor that feels current for this gaming landscape and is genuinely a blast to play.
It's a no-brainer to at least check out as it's on Game Pass, but poor controls on console serve as a great detriment to what otherwise can be a really fun time.