Back 4 Blood Reviews
Back 4 Blood is certainly not a perfect title, but overall the proposal of the Californian team is effective and well thought out. It goes without saying that to fully enjoy it you will necessarily have to find companions at the height, but we can assure you that the game is worth the candle.
Review in Italian | Read full review
A tedious, time-consuming playing card mechanic, frustrating bug crashes and a repetitive, near-endless onslaught of Ridden enemies led by an uninspired AI Director, collectively drags this spiritual sequel to Left 4 Dead down from the heights it could have reached.
It's safe to say that we're probably not going to be getting a Left 4 Dead 3 in our lifetimes, but Back 4 Blood is going to be as close as we'll get in the time being. The game preserves mostly everything that made the two Left 4 Dead games so great while integrating it into the modern gaming sphere.
In spite of its shortcomings, though, Back 4 Blood is already starting to feel like it could very well become my go-to zombie shooter whenever I just want to have a fun, social experience with friends. Despite how saturated the zombie game market has become, Back 4 Blood cuts through all the noise and delivers a solid co-op shooter that oozes charm and prioritizes fun with friends over everything else.
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.
Back 4 Blood offers fun co-op action with a bit bumpy start and not always successful balancing.
Review in German | Read full review
Back 4 Blood is a game that has made the return of the zombie / infected genre in style. A triumphant return that has taken the formula of the great Left 4 Dead and enhanced it, creating one of the most addictive games in recent years. Without a doubt, it is a game that offers an experience like no other if we play with friends. Thanks to its fantastic technical section and its frenetic gameplay. A title that you cannot miss if you are a fan of cooperative games.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
While Back 4 Blood‘s characters and special infected aren’t quite as memorable just yet, that might just be something that develops over time. After all, this is a game designed to be played over and over again with friends and it’s impossible to have that long-term experience by now. What matters the most is that Turtle Rock has nailed the gameplay and surrounding replayable elements like the card system. These new changes are net positives for this style of game, even if longtime fans will need to adjust their expectations a bit to fully appreciate them.
It's hard to fault the moment-to-moment gameplay of Back 4 Blood when all of its pistons are working in tandem and you're running with a good crew. Though the effort to contemporise and grow beyond its roots is commendable, just about every other aspect of the game feels like a misfire. The campaign isn't fun and, more offensively, it pays no regard to solo players.
If you're an old Left 4 Dead player, Back 4 Blood will bring back memories of the long play hours you've spent with this fun series, its spirit hovering around Back 4 Blood with new additions to the card system that offers greater diversity, and will add fun and longer life to the game, with full Arabic support in the MENA region.
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
Back 4 Blood is not just a new coat of paint. It tries new ideas to shake up its legendary formula, mashing together their learning to create a cohesive, insanely fun co-op experience.
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.
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
Back 4 Blood manages to recapture much of the magic Turtle Rock Studios crafted more than a decade ago.
But for what it is, Back 4 Blood proves that what made Left 4 Dead good is still a lot of fun, even if this new iteration doesn't make use of every innovative convention to spring up since the series' original release. And there's something to be said for aging gracefully and not shoehorning in everything at once. As the old plastic surgery adage goes, sometimes it's best not to remake but maintain.
While it never forges its own identity, or escapes the shadow of Left 4 Dead, Back 4 Blood provides a great cover act, that captures all of the original series' magic.
Back 4 Blood doesn’t just imitate the Left 4 Dead formula like these titles, it elevates it past its predecessor. Perhaps it’s the nostalgia for the 12 year old title, or maybe just poor memory, that fuels our rose-tinted retrospection and distaste for something new. Regardless, Back 4 Blood takes the concept to the next level and builds in layers of cool ideas and just plain fun gameplay.
A blistering return to zombie-slaying nirvana, Back 4 Blood is an excellent spiritual follow-up to Left 4 Dead that ticks almost all of the right boxes, except for the one labelled 'solo progression' – if you're planning on playing offline on your own, you might want to steer clear for now. Otherwise, jump right in.
Back 4 Blood still comes out as the best Left 4 Dead-inspired game in recent memory, taking the core design and innovating on it just enough to keep everything fresh and fun. Where Back 4 Blood gets things right, it does them really well, but where it doesn’t is often quite obvious.