Back 4 Blood: Is It Worth Playing? [Back 4 Blood Review Beta 2021]

[@LCTRgames]

What do YOU think of Back 4 Blood? Thinking of trying on release? Are you a Seasoned Left 4 Dead veteran? Let's me know your thoughts in the Comments RIGHT NOW! :)

[@Ralathar44]

TBH it's a very good game. People compare it L4D2 vs B4B but it's more like Call of Duty vs Battlefield. They deliver quite different experiences while sharing many/most of the same core loops. But for some reason the L4D2 community feels very threatened by it and attacks basically every video and conversation about it. They seem remarkably insecure. Regardless though with crossplay and gameplay and shared DLC B4B is going to be around long enough to prove itself one way or another. I figure I'll get a solid 100+ hours out of the full game with all maps, cleaners, and special infected. Whether that measures up to someone else's rose colored glasses idea of L4D2 is irrelevant to me. It's new and it's fun and I'm going to enjoy it either way :). Just because another popular game exists doesn't mean another can't be good too. Just like World of Warcraft existed and how there were many other good MMORPGs but many WOW fans only had eyes for one and shit talked all others while I enjoyed most MMORPGs :).

[@Sylhux]

Putting this on the Game Pass was definitely the right move to do for both players and devs. It would have been hard to justify the steep price point after a Beta that left so many people unimpressed. For me it was alright, had some fun with it but apart from the Card system which may have some potential, the rest pretty much felt inferior to its inspiration (especially the Pvp and the specials that I found quite boring to fight actually).

[@LCTRgames]

Game Pass does look like a really good move for the title

[@alissabarry-toth8316]

Well done! There’s a card you can use that will allow you to have two primaries but don’t believe that was in the beta. Hoping to see you play and hear your thoughts on launch!

[@LCTRgames]

ty Miss M :)

[@debasht]

6:24 there is a card for dual prim weapon. i unlocked all cards in the beta. 90hrs playtime. i cannot wait to play it again.

[@adetonian]

Damn that Deto guy dies a lot, what a noob... D: Nice vid, I'll probably get it via gamepass to get through the base game but I struggled to see the replay value a little bit. Will see, maybe pick it up in a future sale for further content.

[@LCTRgames]

lol, was going to msg you that I caught the moment you got grabbed by the ogre :D

[@adetonian]

@@LCTRgames The matchmade 4th: "Get inside it's safe there" Me: "Oh god hes got me you liar!"

[@Ralathar44]

At the end of the video you asked for more widespread change from some of the cards and the game DOES get there. Your early supply runs are more bread and butter basics, hard to misuse and less exciting because they are less extreme. Some later cards get a bit crazier. To give you an example there is a card that makes secondary weapons (like your Deagle!) have infinite ammo but reload slower. Someone paired that with a card that reloaded your gun when holstered and a card that made switching weapons much quicker. So in essence they had infinite ammo fast reload secondaries. There is also a card that lets you wield 2 primaries as well!. So the card system still has many gems to reveal :).

[@LCTRgames]

That's good to hear - thanks for posting!

[@jovica2]

at 0:20 when you add the second line of text, it sort of jumps up, making it really hard to read. it would make more sense if the text did not move

[@LCTRgames]

Noted, will make it more stable next time. Cheers for the feedback.

[@VenomusScorpion]

Did not play it, but reading up on some other comments, people have fears that it will become like Evolve - great at start, but boring after a while if no new content is introduced.

[@LCTRgames]

Game is at least PvE so you and friends can play against the AI, so it's a little different to Evolve. But I agree ppl will be looking at the monetisation and additional content closely

[@iamsin6808]

What makes L4d 2's community last so long is the PVP campaigns. If you look at the player base. Majority, if not all, of the concurrent players play CEDA pubs or just normal pvp. It's the quick reaction time, mad dashes, insane plays, strategies and tech that gave the game longevity and depth. In this game they have replaced the depth of the pvp campaigns with customization of your playstyle. The bad thing about this is, once you've beaten every campaign, mastered them, learned the OP positions, the tech for each level it just becomes how the RNG/game director chooses to fuck with you. A high level team vs AI will always win once we learn enough about this game and have 4 cleaners running around with meta builds. The amount of fun I still have with my friends on L4D 2 pvp is definitely still enough fun to have it be our game of choice since it's so available on steam and we all love and know it well. Deadstopping incapacitating zombies felt rewarding leveling chargers cutting a smokers tongue while it tries to grab you. There seems to be little to none outside of deadstopping the hunter like ridden. They need to add more depth to the combat and find a way to release custom maps designed for pvp, because with how it stands, im gonna play through the campaign and then never touch it again.

[@azca.]

Back 4 Blood is superior in every way. If people don't like it, they can go back to their janky, dated title called L4D. Over 60+ hrs in both betas. Since those people wont be buying the game, I'm happy I won't be seeing them in my games.

[@TS-dr2jn]

I played this game on my xbox one x and had a really hard time aiming properly, before anyone says anything I'm probably above average at fps game like cod and battlefield and dont have a problem aiming usually, its quite hard to describe though im sure some people will understand what I mean, it could have been the fact it was 30fps but im not sure

[@Gattaii]

i feel like l4d2 is superior in almost every way besides i guess the rpg-ish elements which i think are not nescesarry for a l4d type zombie shooter anyway and u can get l4d2 for like 2$ and also get slightly underrated WWZ for like 20$ and u still spend less than this

[@LCTRgames]

I agree that WWZ flies under the radar, was better than I thought it would be. Think this is worth picking up the xbox game pass for as well? Lot of other games available that way

[@Gattaii]

@@LCTRgames oh yeah didnt even think of gamepass that thing is one of the best deals ever i think

[@Ralathar44]

TBH while similar they are different games. It's like Call of Duty vs Battlefield and each delivers its own unique flavor. L4D2 favors a more speedrun rush rush rush never lag behind gameplay style where avoiding fights, even mini boss battles, is almost always preferred when possible. The specials in L4D2 are almost all focused on incapacitation, their main difficulty being that they literally remove control from you and once grabbed you must be saved by someone else. And whatever threat the Witches used to be years ago disappeared on most difficulties thanks to people learning how to "crown" them, robbing her massively of her identity and presence outside of realism. The AI director has almost complete control of your game with you being totally fucked on items, weapons, ammo, and tank spawning in areas you cannoyt avoid being trapped if RNG hates you. But the next run you may have all the supplies of god, plentiful ammo, all the high tier weapons, and the tank spawns in an open field where it has little chance. This includes weapon tiers too. In L4D2 you have weapon tiers and certain weapons are just far stronger than other weapons. Pump shotgun will always be much weaker than a properly used Auto Shotgun and the weapons you're provided with via the AI director makes a big difference on your experience. If you like the pump shotgun, tough, you need to upgrade to not hold your team back. Happen to not find an upgraded SMG, you'll have to use that higher tier sniper instead or end up ineffectie and out of ammo. This is good in terms of making players adapt, but bad in terms of letting the player choose their preferred weapons. L4D2 is very cartoony and over the top always throwing out a one liner or comedy quip regardless of the situation and the characters in it don't feel like real surviovrs and they are almost never even the slightest bit afraid. They feel like normal people skins with comedy personalities given the inexplicable asskicking ability, resolve, and one liners of an 80s action hero. Someone who was just an overweight teacher yesterday will now drop comedy lines mid life or death struggle with multiple enemies the very next day. There is no real backstory, no setting, no character arcs, no story, 2d stereotype cardboard characters, no substance at all really outside of the sacrifice. BUT the dialog writing is so damn good and funny that they are iconic to this day. It's the epitome of style over substance and it's a masterclass in it. Meanwhile Back 4 Blood is more of a clear, scavenge, and move on gameplay style where being much slower and steady and smart is rewarded alot more than speedrun outside of specific areas where you're not supposed to fight. If you can clear an area safely it's almost always the right choice. The Specials in L4D are more focused on being more dangerous obstacles with far fewer of them incapacitating you and giving you more options to avoid/escape incapacitates. So L4D2 is more focused on saving each other to avoid having control removed and B4B is more focused on team support and firepower to kill the enemy. Different kinds of team work. The AI director has even greater options for controlling your game in B4B BUT B4B gives you alot more agency as the player. Via your build and the beginning of each level store you can roll the odds in your favor in terms of items, weapons, ammo, etc and having someone with a "economy" build focused on giving the team more of everything to work with is a viable build everyone likes playing with. So where L4D2 is more about overcoming the situations the AI DIrector forces you into, B4B is more of a push and pull between the director and the players on who determines the experience. This includes weapon quality too. Instead of tiers of weapons you must memorize where some are intentionally much better than others all weapons in B4B are viable. Pump shotgun can absolutely compete with auto shotgun. Instead of tiers you have weapon quality and attachments. Now the beautiful thing here is because they split up the tier power between both you can totally make it through just fine with a grey (common) weapon because you'll have nice attachments. Similarly a good quality weapon will do fine even without attachments. You don't need both. But the game is to try to get the best of both worlds via smart decision making with low to mid grade attachments almost always being available from the store to help prevent you from fucking yourself over because no matter what you can get a grey/green weapon with green attatchments. Overall this gives the player much more choice about the weapons they want to use but means they will not be forced to adapt as much. The characters and setting and story and character arcs and such seem to be taken pretty seriously in B4B and the characters are all seasoned survivors who intentionally go out to reclaim territory and save others. This has left many of them damaged under the surface leaving them deeply affected with things like survivor syndrome or the search for family. (no not you Vin Diesel) There is alot less joking and banter and people who just want shallow entertainment from their characters will prolly like these characters far less. Serious with bits of humor vs the full blown style over substance of L4D2. We'll see just how much people connect with the characters when they get their full stories told rather than just the sneak peak. Like I said, very different experiences people are trying to label as the same game because they're only looking surface deep.

[@Ralathar44]

You can get L4D2 for $2 now but it was $50 at release ($63 with inflation). They dropped the price rapidly over the years as a loss leader to demonstrate steam sales and the news articles about that still exist. This was back before steam had completely taken over :P. They then gave away a crapton of copies for free and eventually reduced the price to $10/$2 on sale. That's super unrealistic to expect from any other game company though. Steam can do that as a loss leader for steam AND they don't have to pay the 30% steam cut either. I will never tell people not to play L4D2, it's a fantastic game, but I don't see it's pricing and availability as a reason not to play B4B. Especially since most of us have long since payed our fill of L4D2. I personally owned it stand-alone before steam and after 1,000+ hours i'm just kind of done with it and as good of game as it is it's not without it's flaws either. I recommend either L4D2 or B4B over WWZ though. WWZ is not a bad game, but it's very grindy and once you get good you're doing mainly stealth and killing towers of zombies climbing something and as long as you're good at killing those towers you'll never face a real threat in many defenses and that made it get old way faster than it should have along with it's mediocre gunplay. I'm happy to have L4D2 still for speedruns and B4B now for when I just want to shoot alot of zombies and sadly WWZ will stay in my library gathering dust. I'd say L4D2 is a 9/10, B4B is looking to be an 8/10 or 9/10 with potential for more growth with patches/polish, and WWZ is more of a 7/10.

[@existentity3476]

I downvoted your video because you panhandled for likes and subscribes.

[@UnseenPlaya]

i played the open beta wasnt very impressed by it card system is meh and the gameplay/graphics were a bit lack luster i really dont think its worth 40-60$ l4d series is much better

[@LCTRgames]

Quite liked the graphics tbh, though I agree the pricing is on the strong side. But if ppl are won over by the xbox game pass this seems really worth checking for PvE with friends imo.

[@mejrikais6002]

L4d has nothing to worry about b4b is inferior in Every way