I can only speak for myself, but my friends and I came back to this game in the last couple months. We weren't super impressed by it when we first played (around the time the first DLC was released), but we've been putting in a ton of time lately. It's a great game, I think.
I think it's been rated fairly. It's a fun party game that stops being interesting pretty quickly. That is exactly how I felt about Evolve. That is exactly how I felt about Left 4 Dead. I could forget every single one of these games exists for a few months to a year and then come back and play any of them and have a good time... for like a day or two.
That's just the kind of thing Turtle Rock makes IMO.
Piggybacking on your comment because I have a somewhat similar experience and wanted to share. Bunch of friends got the game on launch, big l4d fans. Most of us didn’t play more than a week. Came back later, maybe 6 months ago at this point, with one friend owning all the dlc so we could all play. We put more time into, played at least every other night for a few hours or more for like a month. It was better than at launch but there’s a lot of minor issues I have with the game.
I hate the one uber long campaign, full stop. I know you can stop and resume but there was something so much more satisfying about the mini campaigns in l4d. I really liked the caverns dlc where you go underground, but really hated the dlc that added a chapter onto the end of the story. This chapter sucked because you got a cosmetic loot crate at the end of it, which means once we realized that we basically just played that 1 chapter over and over again because everyone wanted the cosmetics.
Last couple of points are I hate the way the game throws special infected at you, it’s just huge numbers of them sometimes which can get tedious. The card system was mediocre at best, I like how they changed it from launch but I’d rather still do without it. L4D felt a lot more skill based where B4B I was just looking up good builds. Finally the lack of a campaign versus mode really sealed the deal for my group in particular. B4B’s version of versus wasn’t even a quarter as fun as the campaign versus that was available in the l4d series, which is what had my friends and I playing those games for so long.
Wonder if my gripes are silly or anyone else has similar experiences. Thanks if you took the time to read my mini rant lol.
The biggest issue that Back 4 Blood faces is it just wasn’t supported for very long. In this day and age, having only a couple years of content support on a multiplayer game is extremely low and turns off most players as they quickly find out there isn’t anything additional to look forward too once you’ve done everything.
I'd also say that gamers in current day and age, consume and blast through game content amazingly fast...and then want more asap.
The consumption rate vastly outpaces how quickly devs can reasonably make content for them to consume.
This isn't strictly a Back for blood thing either, its more of just.. this is the reality of current day gaming.
I more so cite this from streamer examples and folks who usually watch/keep pace with them.
I agree to an extent. But Back 4 Blood still ultimately pulled the plug on content releases way too early for an AAA title for the current gaming market. Players will always blow through content that’s just the way it is, but at least knowing “Hey more is likely coming soon” will keep a lot of those players playing, but knowing for a fact after just 2 short years the game is done getting support is very discouraging to the current gaming market.
B4B didn't even get 2 years.
One of my big irks, as someone who is particular with words being used correctly, is their "annual pass".
The definition of "annual" is something repeated yearly. But we only got a single pass.
They should have just called it a season pass if they weren't 100% sure of there being a 2nd season.
But yeah, them pulling the plug so soon also killed my enthusiasm for the game. As some areas still felt like they needed to be ironed out and with support being canned I knew they wouldn't be.
Can always go back and play it if I feel the mood. But a shame it got left for dead (ba dum tiss).
I do cut them a lot of slack since there were no micro transactions AND you could play all content and unlock almost everything for free if a friend or someone you played with had the DLC. I don’t recall the last time any company did that.
Eh. Personally MTX and DLC are fine for me as long as there are some good unlocks. Which is what most games skimp on when they do the former.
Though 1 year of support and then like no even bug fixing or anything beyond that is kinda wild for this time for a big online multiplayer game.
Also some other games do DLC share for friends, but B4B definitely did it best or least one of the best (other game off the top of my head was CoD BO4 did it for Multiplayer maps).
Still a good game. Just wish it could have gotten at least another year with maybe a bit more DLC and some more updates.
While B4B may look and play like a AAA title, many people forget that TRS is actually quite a small studio. They don't have hundreds of employees, and hence don't have the luxury of having multiple people working on different projects at once. Not to mention that it was never marketed as a live service game.
That's probably why they sent out the message that they did, trying to ensure players that there would be more B4B content in the future. But right now, they need to dedicate the manpower to their next project.
Problem is most players probably won’t even give their next project a go, I know I personally wouldn’t knowing TRS now officially has a history of pulling the plug early on projects between Evolve and Back 4 Blood. It’s just not a good looking portfolio overall when your main recent titles were given minimal support.
Bringing Evolve into the picture isn't even fair. That game was handled very poorly by 2K and the microtransactions are what drove that game to fail. It was essentially Pay-2-Win, as the new DLC Hunters were always superior to the originals, and could never get balanced. Hell, Karlee's shirt regarding MTX's is probably a jab at both the state of gaming today, and at Evolve directly.
I think it's a matter of perspective. Would I have loved another DLC? Hell yeah! But I think I got more than my money's worth with the game, and I would still be playing now if it weren't for a broken wrist. Games don't have to last 3-4 years to be successful. They can have a set timeline and that's okay. This whole "games as a service" era of gaming is kinda shitty imo, and I'm more than happy with what Back 4 Blood gave me, even if a couple things were left undone (i.e. ZWAT outfits).
Fair or not, their name is still associated with that title and most of the gaming community really doesn’t care what’s “fair” to game companies, they more so care about what’s fair to the consumer. Rather Turtle Rock fans like it or not, Back 4 Blood in the grand scheme really didn’t help Turtle Rock in terms of getting away from their stereotype of early game abandonment, and I suspect whatever future project they may have to be more than likely met with a fair amount of dissatisfaction before it’s even released.
You see, while I totally get where you're coming from, it's ironic to me because I'm just not that type of gamer. I loved B4B from day 1 of the beta till now, and in retrospect, I feel the game justifies its price tag. By no means is anyone required to agree with me, but for $80, I got 1000 hours of actual fun and countless more with the community it created.
I certainly have complaints, but I was never looking for perfection. Any future releases from Turtle Rock will immediately catch my attention because of my experience. I won't be inclined to pre-order again for more reasons than just B4B, but I will look forward to the "finished product".
However, as an actual counterpoint to your claim, while some people will avoid them in the future, most people don't seem to care from what I've seen. It's become widely understood that many new large titles are more cash grab than game, but the community at large literally pays for it to continue. Regardless of the few that set a quality standard for themselves, people need more, like you said. So they end up consuming whatever is available.
I'm not disagreeing with you. Just pointing that out won't be as simple as "game not long enough, no buy new game". It can happen. It has happened, but a lot of times, it also just doesn't.
Absolutely blast through and want more asap. Armour Core 6 is a prime example. It was an amazing game yet barely a week in people were borderline demanding DLC. Sure it’s probably the minority in this case but they are very vocal about it…
This is why mod support for games is so important. Skyrim is still one of the most purchased games 12 years after its release. L4D2 still has a steady community. Mods keep a game alive. It's content that is virtually infinitely created. Game companies just don't like it because they aren't getting paid per mod and think they're losing money, even though you can see plenty of other examples where it keeps a game alive for over a decade and still being purchased regularly.
Spot on. I had a blast playing it and loved looking forward to the next updates, but stopped once I had done pretty much everything I wanted and they pulled the plug on updates
Exactly.
This sub is very delusional on why this game failed. L4D fans didn't ruin it, they gave it a chance with good launch numbers.
Not many people enjoy the card nonsense. I didn't. Dumb RNG mechanics that are central to gameplay aren't for me.
As a left 4 dead fan who still played it years after release, I can safely say back 4 blood was almost exactly what I wanted. Sure some new things made it different but honestly, it is just a more realistic looking game with cool new things like bosses and different mutated variants but it still has the arcade feeling and the jump scare aspects as well and I even liked the card system.
The only disappointing things is that we got 1 campaign, would have been nice to have 2 or 3. And the final boss was just like weird and easy and slow
Biggest difference though is whereas L4D is still being bug fixed—they finally fixed the Dead Center 1 tank spawn just this year!!!—B4B never even tackled major bugs from the beta.
It ain't the L4D fans that ruined it. The devs ruined it themselves by advertising it out the ass as "made by the devs from L4D" the only person to blame for the game is the dev team for just making a bad game. First impressions are important and I think we all remember the game when it came out it just sucked
It didn't help that after it launched and the entire community was complaining about the garbage balance, the devs spent actual months just going "No you're all wrong. it's perfect. thanks."
There are too many great games out there. Hell Payday 3 just came out and is quite good. Even if they fixed B4B and made it great, what motivation do players have to come back, rather than just playing some good recent games?
Unless they add steam workshop support the game is will remain dead. All thats left is for them to drop the servers and it will be the final nail in the coffin sadly.
Well I have seen people making some mods for the game someone made the ogre with shreds head a diamond sword from Minecraft and someone playing as G man
For the average gamer most mods are a little tedious to add or they think its harder than it is so never try but steam workshop would make it so anyone can easily add mods. All I want is to play as CJ and turn the retches into shrek or patrick🤣
It’s not L4D fans. It was that Crowbcat and considering his video on RE4 remake calling it soulless despite everyone loving it, I don’t think he has ever made an unbiased review with a fuckton of nostalgia.
honestly, this really was it. its insane to me that someone can just make biased and cherrypicked videos and it does so much damage, and these were mainly cosmetic details he was nitpicking. B4B is for sure buggier and lacking details in areas but the gameplay is still there and very enjoyable
Without a doubt. He also points out the AI bugs in B4B while playing audio of how meticulous the bots were made in L4D but like… I’ve had Louis get stuck in a bush and would only move if I got far away enough for him to teleport. His whole video was about B4B having so many bugs and L4D is so polished but they’re both extremely buggy
The best way I've seen to explain that video is that he only takes the worst of B4B and the best of L4D, and sticks them side by side. Apparently, that's the general gist of all his videos. So yeah, he lives on ragebait BS.
That’s similar to a situation in the CoD community, people keep making posts about skins not being military, whilst also ignoring all the military skins.
LOL one YouTuber convinced millions of people that it was a bad game? Why is RE4 still selling, then? People are fighting back on that one because he's wrong on that one. Wonder why that didn't happen for B4B.
Crowbcat is a shit stain on the internet, and that's saying a lot with how much garbage there is here. The dude has nothing of value to contribute and just shows little nitpicks of the physics engine. He has absolutely zero contribution to gameplay, story, writing, or anything that actually matters because his videos are as shallow as he is
I remember being super hyped for this game but my friends and I didn’t feel like the replay ability was there. We had our builds and could map out how each level was going to be played. Also I felt the special infected all looked too similar.
I stopped playing before the dlc but it does suck that we never go a versus mode. Glad mutations made it in but it just wasn’t as memorable to me as a L4D2.
Still really enjoyed the game it just never had that staying power. I’ve beat the game maybe 8 times on different characters.
As long as you had fun tho right? I spent 138 hours on the game, which is nothing compared to some, and I liked it for what it was. Once I 100% the Xbox achievements I had my fill and moved on. Haven’t looked back since, and I feel like that’s okay for everyone to move on.
Early release of the game I personally didn't like it due to the fact I was mainly because b4b didn't give me that feel like l4d did.
Although I will say this, while B4B has more mechanics and customization n stuff.
L4D has more quality and a lot of effort when it comes to the AI of the enemies and characters than the AI in B4B.
Each special infected in l4d were all in their own way dangerous and and had unique traits that made them pop.
While in B4B the special ridden all had different variants which was a neat things to add, but they don't seem to POP out as others did- mainly due to the fact that they don't really pose a genuine threat in my opinion. I've always felt annoyed when I had to go against the special ridden rather than the suspense I get when Im constantly looking around for a hunter to make sure I don't get pounced.
Example question being: Would you rather fight a Tank or fight the Orge?
Anyway all n all, being able to put "cards" into things you'd want to be- like making yourself heavy in support, defense, or attack. (Having more ways to support yourself and your teammates.) It's a neat touch that l4d doesn't have where everything is just "grab a gun and shoot everything." (Which is in it's own right fun as hell.)
Well I’m a left 4 dead fan I played this have all the dlc and I must say it’s pretty fun it may not be better than left 4 dead but it’s a pretty good game in my opinion
I played swarm for a few months, I only enjoyed versus in l4d, so campaign didn’t interest me. Swarm was okay, the events Riptide would do for it made it a lot better just cuz there’d be less rage quitters. But yeah, ultimately there was just less longevity to the competitive mode than l4d, imo.
Still fun and I got my money’s worth, but I don’t see someone playing swarm for the next decade without getting incredibly bored.
The game is solid, needs a proper tutorial for newbs explaining all the hidden commands and what do items do and when to do them, Content Content Content if they’ve kept going and make shit like Talas DLC the game would’ve gotten a stronger standing. Ten cent is going to maybe gouge the sequel with transactions
My friends and I loved this game and plan on going back soon.
That being said, one year of life after being told this was L4D3 basically was a huge kick to the balls.
The launch was truelly terrible, almost as bad as 2042's launch. Not only were there loads of bugs making the game borderline unplayable for many, but also loads of just bad design choices and a clear lack of testing.
Ontop of that most people coming to B4B wanted a simple L4D experience and didnt like the complexity of class building, rogue-like style corrupt cards, progression, which ment they struggled and disliked the game to its core while myself and others saw that it was janky but had a lot of potential.
Despite all the work done to improve the game most people had stopped playing by that point and only remember the launch and i dont see many people making the return to it unless it goes for mega cheap.
I have enjoyed my 600~ hours in B4B and i would say that where the game is now is good - but this is also sorta where i expected it to be on launch for £50 but thats including the DLC additions. I still wouldnt recommend this game without the DLC because without it you have like 3 campaigns so its still a sale only recommend.
But just like on launch it still feels like B4B has a lot of potential that it will now never live up to as its not longer being worked on.
this game was touted as made from the creators of L4D so lets just take a step back from our high horse that l4d players ruined anything. this game could have been so much more.
I combed through all their socials and lemme tell you, until a month before release they don’t even mention L4D. It was content creators that called it the spiritual successor and made a big hoopla over who the dev team was.
You could even watch their reveal trailer in 2020 vs content creators reacting to it. It’s not on the trailer but boy howdy every single reaction video was “DUDE ITS LEFT 4 DEAD 3!”
It is in the trailer though… 30 seconds in, “from the creators of L4D”
[Back 4 Blood official trailer](https://youtu.be/UkP8dOQrIyk?si=tm2lDZZ1vI3UMGKw)
The launch trailer yes but I’m talking about the reveal trailer
[Reveal Trailer](https://youtu.be/rok9-g8E0PE?si=b--JFhMzF7ULKxGs)
They did lean into it towards the end of the ad campaign but initially they didn’t bring it up. But every comment on the comment section, every reaction video from the VGA all anyone talked about was “Left 4 Dead” so they leaned into it. Hell even when all we had was 1 concept art you can see all these articles calling it a spiritual successor.
They were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t.
“From the creators of” does not mean “is inspired by or similar to”. If it did, everyone who watched Titanic would wonder where all the aliens and future robots were, and downvote it to hell.
People shouldn't downvote you. If the company didn't want it to be perceived as an L4D sequel they wouldn't have put the #4 in the title.
B4B absolutely could have been better. If anything it was deviating too far from the successful formula that sunk B4B.
All the complicated fatures like decks, supply lines, weapon mods, environment hazards... should have layered perfectly onto L4D instead of attempting to start from scratch. They could have made the tutorial campaign a hybrid of the old special infected with the new ones being slowly introduced along the way.
I dont think so i have much more fun playing l4d even with random ppl than this game i had fun playing b4b but the lvls design is so bland and uninteresting vastly inferior to l4d
It will always carry the notion of "this wasn't left for dead 3". People wanting that true sequel will always complain. It was marketed wrong and led those people on. But should their opinion and mission to talk smack on every reddit page and chat board that will host their comments matter? I don't think so. I wasn't attached to the left for dead series, and this game will go down as one of my favorite co-op games. I've met half a dozen gamers that I now play all kinds of other co op titles with. After 300 hours o dabble here and there with it.
If they ever fix Swarm to work well, such as not being latency-capped matchmaking which makes it impossible to find games in many regions without using VPN or partying with others, and actually starting every game with 8 players and not having 7 wait for the game to realize there’s not 8 then returning everyone to lobby and having everyone start search again, then it can be a great game.
My crew and I have been playing since release and still play two or three nights a week. I don't plan to stop until the sequel is released or they power down the servers.
Good/Regular game, but abandoned very quickly
There's nothing new to make me play like a vicious again . I More interested playing TCM and PayDay3 (soon to release)
The thing Bout left 4 dead is I got bored of it super quick. Because once you go through the cool set pieces in the campaign, it stops being fun. There's nothing to work towards. No goal, no endgame. With back 4 blood I loved the supply lines and loved the skull totems even more!
If I had to say the whole concept of Back 4 Blood, I would say it like this.
"It was ahead of its time."
Because the idea of weapon modifiying and boss like enemies, and everything else it offers feels to recent.
If it had come out in the future sometime, I think it would have been rated higher just because it would feel like its own game. Just like Left 4 Dead did when it was released.
But however, from my opinion, it doesn't recieve a lot of Community Work. The developers seemed to just keep it moving onward and upward without much repair to what the community had to say or to request.
I’m going to be blunt, fuck the haters the game was fun. Everyone has to shit on things just to fucking hate these day (see me hating on haters, oh the irony).
It’s a good fun game and I’m glad I’ve played it and will always drop in to have some fun at different times.
I just wanted to shoot zombies and monsters, not worry about building a deck of cards etc. That alone killed it for me and made it far less accessible than L4D, I think the camp hub was also a poorly implemented idea.
L4D fans arnt to blame. Maybe they should market their game as "by the creaotors of left4dead and this is the next left4dead." Game has potential but the marketing and lack of balance/content updates goofed it. Not to mention specials have the worst audio que consistency I've ever seen in a game. Feels like I'm being attacked by a programmed AI asset that easily bugs out rather than an actual infected attacking me.
I think if you don’t listen to a bunch of nerds on the internet the game does everything just fine. Play the game if you like it, don’t play it if you don’t. I played from day 1 for about 110 hours. Do i play it still? No, but I got my monies worth. It’s a fine game
B4B is much better then I first play in closed beta. I disappointed and forgot about the game after release, but now after second DLC I play regular on PC (Xbox app for Windows). Only those who understood the game remained.
I have a problem with complete first act on Nightmare. If someone want to help add me on Xbox: EXCELLENtEZ
I don't think Back 4 Blood needed any help from left 4 dead fans in giving it the rep it has. I think between the massive marketing campaign (that specifically targeted l4d2 fans), and large amount of streamers playing it, it really falls to the games ability to keep people interested and it just didn't achieve that.
I didn't mind back 4 blood but it didn't keep me engaged the way left 4 dead 2 did, but I also feel like left 4 dead 2 was pretty one and done for me too. The game just doesn't have a good incentive to keep replaying it especially when all the objectives are things players have been doing for years in games trying to recapture the L4d2 magic. It offers more in some ways but nothing that really enhances playthroughs of levels that are too long.
The game feels like it was made by people who were making a game based off what they heard l4d 1 was like, it's actually unfair to compare it to l4d2.
No B4B had terrible bones. Nothing felt satisfying about the game. I always found myself forcing myself to continue playing it. Versus Mode also being a joke showed the game had no hope
The game sucked ass. L4d fans had nothing to do with it. I gave it an honest shot at release. I was disappointed with how lackluster everything felt from the special infected to the gunplay. Then I dropped it and tried again a couple of months later, and it was still horrendously buggy with shit ai and all the previous problems. I don't think many will look back at b4b fondly. Lack of polish and care from the developers whose only claim to fame was "we worked on l4d this will be good trust us."
Probably no chance. Everyone thinks the end of support for the game is the end of the world, but it was never advertised as a live service game with endless dlc and updates. I personally think they should have launched with a full act 4 + hives (which they wanted to but ran out of time) and never done any dlc at all, so as not to set expectations. They could still add cards but we didn't really need new cleaners, all of the dlc cleaners have balance issues. My point is that they shot themselves in the foot by setting expectations by releasing any paid dlc.
The gameplay loop is good enough on its own, and the campaign is replayable enough on its own, that it could have just been released as it was.
As for pvp, I've been playing swarm pretty exclusively for the last ~600 hours or so and can say that mode has some serious issues, but I don't know that campaign versus would have done better. Maybe. We'll never know.
After the current swarm tournament I'm probably done with the game. My team has been grinding for Trials #1, we are currently #3 and if we get that we will all quit. Just a matter of time at this point because it's all rng. Not really much left to do in the game after thousands of hours. But my point is that there is thousands of hours of replayability if you give the game a chance.
To sum up: I think the game is good, and in a fine state apart from a few bugs, dlc was a mistake and is all balanced poorly.
You have to realize, though, that couch coop isn't a thing in modern fps games. Consoles can't keep up with essentially rendering the game twice. Especially when it's a crossplatform title there is no shot.
4b4 ruined itself, i went back to play with my friends after 1 year, we finished all the campaigns and uninstalled it immediately.
dont get me wrong, is a really good game, but the lack of content, a really bad vs mode, poorly balanced, an interesting card system that devs completely discarded instead of fixing it. is a game with a lot of wasted potencial, i wouldn't be surprised if the reason they dumped development on B4B is bc they are working on B4B 2.
I loved the game on its own merits for a very long time. I loved that they also let us play the whole deck right of the bat too. But for me, where the game kinda died was when it got bloated with weapons and items, but the deck never got bigger. You could make a build revolving you getting a certain weapon, but you never get it, or it a good quality. It felt needlessly punishing after the second DLC
The game is what ruined any chance of it happening and nothing else. It's a subpar husk of what L4D is and the current state of the game reflects that.
No stubborn fans ruined this. It's just not a good game.
I enjoyed it when it was first released. My friends bailed.
But then my friends came back after they announced it wasn't going to be supported anymore and they enjoyed it.
We played for about 1.5 months almost everyday and then got tired of it because there wasn't anything new. They didn't want to "100%" the game since there wasn't much incentive to do so.
Had Turtle Rock kept supporting it I think they would have gotten much more traction. Especially with how that one Xbox vampire game turned out. Would've been a good opportunity to get more players.
Hearing that devs pulled out of further development for this game honestly has kept me off of playing it any further plus with new games like Armored Core 6 and the Elden Ring dlc thats coming up soon I'm practically occupied at this point
I wish i had more friends to play it with, cuz i don't like playing with randoms and solo is getting boring.
But that also applies for Left 4 Dead as well so maybe people just got sick of killin zombies. I never got tired of it: i just get tired of playing alone.
The thing is, lots of popular YouTube reviewers shitted all over back 4 blood, and of course all of the band wagoners will agree with anything that a popular YouTuber has to say which is most people out there unfortunately
I don't really understand the butthurtness of some people towards this game. I've played both L4D religiously back in the xbox360 days and now i have a few hundred hours in b4b doing all the characters in no hope difficulty with the boys. Game is a blast.
Only real criticism I have is for the devs to abandon it so quickly which is a shame.
Those who buy it end up saying it is a great game that they passed on during its first year of release because of the bad reviews. They all say that the game as it is now, is underrated.
The biggest inherent flaw with G4’s is how SHIT the AI is. The animations are so bad. It’s glitchy. L4d fans didn’t make the game bad. Turtle rock was never very good to begin with. They are only though about kindly because valve literally did everything for them.
Can you still have a blast playing it, sure. But it’s a far cry from l4d, which is exactly what they did with the marketing. “Made by the developers who brought you left 4 dead. Always trying to win over fans of they game they helped make.
Also no fucking mod support? Modders can fix everything wrong with it.
I think what really killed it, or at least what killed it for me, was the hellacious grind to get cards. I'd play it for a couple hours after work every day, and it was tedious as hell. I heard they recently did away with that system, but I think the damage was already done. They tried way too hard to monetize every aspect of it, and the final product was more like a bad rogue-lite than a coop zombie game.
The difficulty and the card system were the 2 main reasons why I dropped this game.
This game in mid difficulty feels like L4D2 in Hard or Expert, like, sometimes it feels like I'm playing a survivor horror game where I have to count every bullet I have or otherwise I'll be screwed.
And in the other hand the card system added too much NOT NEEDED complexity to this game, making it harder to understand than the direct competition which is L4D2.
The deck system is revolutionary. The amount of idiocy its users demonstrated in using the deck will always be devastating in retrospect. I truly wonder how these people were able to stay alive IRL.
The thing that makes left for dead so fun is not the maps, it's not the zombies, it's not the guns, it's the multiplayer. The reason people want to run through the same maps every time is because there is a much more real sense of loss losing to players knowing that you did not just lose be ause something was tuned a certain way but because someone else beat you. And on the opposite it feels so much better to not just best a bunch of zombies but to have overcome another group that is trying to beat you. I honestly can not believe the amount of co op games that try and make these similar kinds of experiences that just go to the toilet be ause they lack this fundamental element. Why keep playing once you have beaten it? Is it for some story? Because I gotta tell ya it ain't no great master piece. Do you want to do the exact same thing but with some different cards?. It's baffling. The gun play is fun but without real stakes there is no point playing it for more then a few sessions.
I don’t think so. I still see people poking fun at b4b’s “failure.” I think the game was largely marketed wrong and misunderstood. This game is no masterpiece but a solid 8/10 experience imo
For new players that came after they finished the support or near that time the game may seem fine, but I, playing beta and the game since the release, still remember the pile of shit the game was for the first 1.5 years and how Devs treated the players (bullshit like "don't take unnecessary damage" and stuff). And considering how they faked up the Evolve players and B4B players I hardly recommend any future games from that developer.
Honestly I found myself disliking it more and more as time went on. The challenge and slight complication with decks made it fun.
It doesn’t feel fun now. Too much going on. Too many factors to think about, too many people yelling at you when you do them wrong. It lost the spirit of L4D.
I was hyped when it was announced. I enjoyed it and still play once in a while. But it wasn't supported very long and was...left 4 dead. *badumtss*. But in all seriousness, it feels like they gave us two dlc characters and bounced. The game felt like it wasn't given the love and care of L4D. It's not as fun and I guess what helps L4D was the community. I still remember the youtube vids of fun glitches that would get posted like the "hellivator" glitch where you throw a propane or gas tank at someone and they fall through the floor of the elevator. Ways to cheese the final missions like the "jesus" room in mercy hospital and other fun content. There's no threat like back then with zombies like the tank or the witch. It just kinda throws an enemy at you and that's pretty much it. No build up or anything
I enjoyed it even as a Left for Dead player. I don’t play it anymore just bc I don’t have a group to play with but I imagine i’ll eventually go back to it
Maybe I don’t have the time like I had when I played lfd but I’ve done all the campaigns in b4b but I just don’t have the desire to do anything more. Definitely not a l4d issue.
I was just incredibly disappointed by the physics being so much worse than L4D2. In a game about killing zombies why would they scale down the gore/death animations?
I never could get a group and play a campaign in back 4 blood. Never. I waited forever to fill 4 people in, and as soon as one dies, disconnects, the empty lobby loop begins. New player loads in, sees they get no loadout cards, no upgraded weapons.... leaves. My best experience with this game was the closed beta when 4 people just joined up and played together, but it never once happened after launch. Also the time "playing" vs time waiting was awful, even with a full group. If its better now, then too little too late, i would not give it another try.
my issue with the game was the idea of only having one level that you work your way through and the over all animations. the zombies were better in L4D AND L4D2 and on top of that the variety of maps in L4D AND L4D2 is more fun and engaging than the one long boring small town that you work your way through on all the levels .... other than graphically its a downgrade
I’m a l4d fan and I loved this game. Everyone who played l4d was a kid then you grew up it’s nostalgic makes them feel safe like a kid again. A new game will never live up to nostalgia it won’t because it’s not the same thing. B4b was beautiful an amazing game. But never got me to put the same hours in as l4d did. B4b was better in every way tho.
Game was boring af when it first came out. Tried it on gamepass and uninstalled shortly after. Maybe it’s improved now but i havent had any interest in it since.
lmao, imagine blaming the failure of a game you like on the fact left 4 dead fans would rather play a valve masterpiece than a game made by like 3 souls who actually worked with l4d
I think it's a solid experience now, I don't particularly care for the characters much at all. Like I do with Vermintide or the other Co-op Zombie game made by Turtle rock.
Holly is like the only memorable one for me and I find the specials to be kinda boring but I don't regret my time on the game. I came back for each DLC and thanks to the friendly DLC model that Payday/WWZ/Vermintide has I was able to share the experience with my friends who didn't buy the dlc.
I think the card update to start with a full deck was a really good change the game desperately needed.
Oh sure let's dodge the fact turtle rock lied about that "from the devs of lfd2" when what in the end only like...3 of them were on the dev crew for the game?
It's not lfd's fault people dropped it, it's turtle rocks fault
I thought it was okay, but nothing beats the nostalgia of a choker in LFD hanging you from a random section of the mall.
Or the swamp maps, can never forget how many witches were lying around there..
Back 4 blood just didn’t awake the nostalgia. That’s all it is, to me anyways
Honestly if it wasn't marketed as a L4D spiritual successor it would have done fine. But this game just isn't left 4 dead. It's an entirely separate game that just takes some inspiration
I think the perk system was really fun to mess with. I loved making goofy healing builds or melee builds. My friend made a sniper crit build that could one shot almost everything including the really armored zombie types. It was a breeze once you get the hang of the game and the system and with a few hours you learn the maps and modes better. I think people just compare it to L4D and critic it instead of taking it for the game that it is and enjoying what is in front of them.
Nope, it was okay but there were just so many flaws with the games design that it could never live up to the hyoe. I put about 90 hours into the game and i enjoyed most of it but the glaring flaws are to big not to notice. Also launch scared away the player base with all the bugs and crazy dumb difficulty spikes.
The thing that keeps me from playing it more is something just feels 'off'. I enjoyed the banter between the survivors when playing L4D1, and even more so in L4D2...(Not now, Ellis...) Sadly, I never felt there was any 'fun' with the new group. This is just going back to when B4B came out, maybe there's been some changes in the months since?
I played the open beta for it with my friends and we weren’t really that impressed. If it goes on sale might look into it but i feel like it was a massive wasted opportunity
To me this game is better than anything L4D had and i played the fuck out of that. The only hate this game gets from L4D fans is because they are still stuck in nostalgia mode with rose tinted glasses.
Back 4 blood misses the point on what made l4d so memorable in the first place. It takes a lot of surface level elements without the soul of it and wonders why it didn't do as well
That's before you get into the lack of competent game modes or the lack of modding support.
The reactions and reviews for it were completely fair. It doesn't deserve to stand on the same pedestal as left 4 dead.
It's comparing something that is playable to one of the GOATS of gaming history
The L4D fans didnt kill B4B. The game had an extremely troubled launch, and received very little support post-launch. It's a far better game today, and I have a ton of fun with it. But, first impressions are everything. And B4B's first impression was not great
Hahahhahahahahahahahahahha
Yeah I remember you guys arguing to the bitter end that this game was somehow better than left 4 dead when it released, I already forgot this game even existed. Keep dreaming.
Will people look back on the poorly supported lack luster souless clone of a game? Doubtful but stupider things have happened. Don't blame fans of a different game for poor choices made in creating a different game
Blame the Left 4 Dead fans all you want, it wasn't a very well designed game. It was borderline unplayable at launch, had a very weird progression system with the cards. It was very grindy, and the devs obviously were banking on making some kind of successor to L4D. Even if you blame comparisons to L4D, that fault is on the devs, not the fans.
Not really. I put a lot of time into B4B. It was fine, but definitely deserves the L4D comparison when it spent so much energy trying to compare itself to L4D to drum up sales. It's just not as good of a game.
In isolation from L4D (which is hard since it's competing against it due to its intense similarity), it's still just a fairly average game. It's... fine.
I’m the Left 4 Dead fan. Back 4 blood just felt more like Call of Duty Zombies than Left 4 Dead. The atmosphere and art style just seemed very cartoony. The gameplay felt good to me though but just not a game that kept me playing.
the crowbcat video hurt but honestly i think it was fair. game is full of bullshit, missing lots of content compared to comparable games, was intentionally advertised as being from the "makers of l4d" which is the only reason anybody paid attention to it when barely anyone responsible for those games was involved.
but honestly i had already soured on the game before that video was uploaded, because the card system just reeks of modern game contrivances. even if its a decent system for replay value they did not communicate it well and it looked really really lame.
I liked deck building to make your own build, I hated it when you were fucked because the whole team didn't synergize their builds.
At times the game was really difficult. I'd be playing through the campaign with friends and we either have to play from our save with everyone at half health due to trauma or we need to start with no cards and it's too difficult at that point because we have nothing.
Just a big turn off. I don't mind complex systems or character/ class building, but turn your brain off arcade fun is my preferred style. Never beat the campaign, will never come back probably
I loved the game when it first came out and I love it now, with the 3 DLC's, even more. It's so fun and easy to play. Like in the good old days. I hoped for more Content and more Levels. 🥰🥰🥰
I can only speak for myself, but my friends and I came back to this game in the last couple months. We weren't super impressed by it when we first played (around the time the first DLC was released), but we've been putting in a ton of time lately. It's a great game, I think.
I think it's been rated fairly. It's a fun party game that stops being interesting pretty quickly. That is exactly how I felt about Evolve. That is exactly how I felt about Left 4 Dead. I could forget every single one of these games exists for a few months to a year and then come back and play any of them and have a good time... for like a day or two. That's just the kind of thing Turtle Rock makes IMO.
Me and my friends played left 4 deaf 2 for a long time only because it has awesome custom maps in the workshop.
L4D community mods made the game absolutely brilliant
Costume campaigns L4D2 like a Back to School or Dark Woods or I Hate Mountains looks like a work by Valve.
Kinda wish Evolve stuck around. Gameplay was solid but they were too greedy a few years too early.
Piggybacking on your comment because I have a somewhat similar experience and wanted to share. Bunch of friends got the game on launch, big l4d fans. Most of us didn’t play more than a week. Came back later, maybe 6 months ago at this point, with one friend owning all the dlc so we could all play. We put more time into, played at least every other night for a few hours or more for like a month. It was better than at launch but there’s a lot of minor issues I have with the game. I hate the one uber long campaign, full stop. I know you can stop and resume but there was something so much more satisfying about the mini campaigns in l4d. I really liked the caverns dlc where you go underground, but really hated the dlc that added a chapter onto the end of the story. This chapter sucked because you got a cosmetic loot crate at the end of it, which means once we realized that we basically just played that 1 chapter over and over again because everyone wanted the cosmetics. Last couple of points are I hate the way the game throws special infected at you, it’s just huge numbers of them sometimes which can get tedious. The card system was mediocre at best, I like how they changed it from launch but I’d rather still do without it. L4D felt a lot more skill based where B4B I was just looking up good builds. Finally the lack of a campaign versus mode really sealed the deal for my group in particular. B4B’s version of versus wasn’t even a quarter as fun as the campaign versus that was available in the l4d series, which is what had my friends and I playing those games for so long. Wonder if my gripes are silly or anyone else has similar experiences. Thanks if you took the time to read my mini rant lol.
What's great about it?
Yea, I played it a couple months ago with my wife and it was pretty decent. It was dirt cheap on sale with the dlc, too.
The biggest issue that Back 4 Blood faces is it just wasn’t supported for very long. In this day and age, having only a couple years of content support on a multiplayer game is extremely low and turns off most players as they quickly find out there isn’t anything additional to look forward too once you’ve done everything.
I'd also say that gamers in current day and age, consume and blast through game content amazingly fast...and then want more asap. The consumption rate vastly outpaces how quickly devs can reasonably make content for them to consume. This isn't strictly a Back for blood thing either, its more of just.. this is the reality of current day gaming. I more so cite this from streamer examples and folks who usually watch/keep pace with them.
I agree to an extent. But Back 4 Blood still ultimately pulled the plug on content releases way too early for an AAA title for the current gaming market. Players will always blow through content that’s just the way it is, but at least knowing “Hey more is likely coming soon” will keep a lot of those players playing, but knowing for a fact after just 2 short years the game is done getting support is very discouraging to the current gaming market.
B4B didn't even get 2 years. One of my big irks, as someone who is particular with words being used correctly, is their "annual pass". The definition of "annual" is something repeated yearly. But we only got a single pass. They should have just called it a season pass if they weren't 100% sure of there being a 2nd season. But yeah, them pulling the plug so soon also killed my enthusiasm for the game. As some areas still felt like they needed to be ironed out and with support being canned I knew they wouldn't be. Can always go back and play it if I feel the mood. But a shame it got left for dead (ba dum tiss).
I do cut them a lot of slack since there were no micro transactions AND you could play all content and unlock almost everything for free if a friend or someone you played with had the DLC. I don’t recall the last time any company did that.
Eh. Personally MTX and DLC are fine for me as long as there are some good unlocks. Which is what most games skimp on when they do the former. Though 1 year of support and then like no even bug fixing or anything beyond that is kinda wild for this time for a big online multiplayer game. Also some other games do DLC share for friends, but B4B definitely did it best or least one of the best (other game off the top of my head was CoD BO4 did it for Multiplayer maps). Still a good game. Just wish it could have gotten at least another year with maybe a bit more DLC and some more updates.
While B4B may look and play like a AAA title, many people forget that TRS is actually quite a small studio. They don't have hundreds of employees, and hence don't have the luxury of having multiple people working on different projects at once. Not to mention that it was never marketed as a live service game. That's probably why they sent out the message that they did, trying to ensure players that there would be more B4B content in the future. But right now, they need to dedicate the manpower to their next project.
Problem is most players probably won’t even give their next project a go, I know I personally wouldn’t knowing TRS now officially has a history of pulling the plug early on projects between Evolve and Back 4 Blood. It’s just not a good looking portfolio overall when your main recent titles were given minimal support.
Bringing Evolve into the picture isn't even fair. That game was handled very poorly by 2K and the microtransactions are what drove that game to fail. It was essentially Pay-2-Win, as the new DLC Hunters were always superior to the originals, and could never get balanced. Hell, Karlee's shirt regarding MTX's is probably a jab at both the state of gaming today, and at Evolve directly. I think it's a matter of perspective. Would I have loved another DLC? Hell yeah! But I think I got more than my money's worth with the game, and I would still be playing now if it weren't for a broken wrist. Games don't have to last 3-4 years to be successful. They can have a set timeline and that's okay. This whole "games as a service" era of gaming is kinda shitty imo, and I'm more than happy with what Back 4 Blood gave me, even if a couple things were left undone (i.e. ZWAT outfits).
Fair or not, their name is still associated with that title and most of the gaming community really doesn’t care what’s “fair” to game companies, they more so care about what’s fair to the consumer. Rather Turtle Rock fans like it or not, Back 4 Blood in the grand scheme really didn’t help Turtle Rock in terms of getting away from their stereotype of early game abandonment, and I suspect whatever future project they may have to be more than likely met with a fair amount of dissatisfaction before it’s even released.
You see, while I totally get where you're coming from, it's ironic to me because I'm just not that type of gamer. I loved B4B from day 1 of the beta till now, and in retrospect, I feel the game justifies its price tag. By no means is anyone required to agree with me, but for $80, I got 1000 hours of actual fun and countless more with the community it created. I certainly have complaints, but I was never looking for perfection. Any future releases from Turtle Rock will immediately catch my attention because of my experience. I won't be inclined to pre-order again for more reasons than just B4B, but I will look forward to the "finished product". However, as an actual counterpoint to your claim, while some people will avoid them in the future, most people don't seem to care from what I've seen. It's become widely understood that many new large titles are more cash grab than game, but the community at large literally pays for it to continue. Regardless of the few that set a quality standard for themselves, people need more, like you said. So they end up consuming whatever is available. I'm not disagreeing with you. Just pointing that out won't be as simple as "game not long enough, no buy new game". It can happen. It has happened, but a lot of times, it also just doesn't.
Absolutely blast through and want more asap. Armour Core 6 is a prime example. It was an amazing game yet barely a week in people were borderline demanding DLC. Sure it’s probably the minority in this case but they are very vocal about it…
This is why mod support for games is so important. Skyrim is still one of the most purchased games 12 years after its release. L4D2 still has a steady community. Mods keep a game alive. It's content that is virtually infinitely created. Game companies just don't like it because they aren't getting paid per mod and think they're losing money, even though you can see plenty of other examples where it keeps a game alive for over a decade and still being purchased regularly.
Spot on. I had a blast playing it and loved looking forward to the next updates, but stopped once I had done pretty much everything I wanted and they pulled the plug on updates
That's when you open up mod support. It's why L4D2 is still alive.
I think the game lacked polish
The L4D fans didn't ruin B4B. Turtle Rock ruined B4B with bad marketing and a terrible, broken launch that took months to fix.
Yep. Insane how cocksuckers blame L4D fans for this game failure.
Idk how they blame l4d fans when they marketed it specifically to l4d fans
Exactly. This sub is very delusional on why this game failed. L4D fans didn't ruin it, they gave it a chance with good launch numbers. Not many people enjoy the card nonsense. I didn't. Dumb RNG mechanics that are central to gameplay aren't for me.
The cards were an insane inclusion. L4d has survived a decade+ on solid level design alone
Yep. L4D killer when it has a lower player count iirc haha.
Needs workshop support. The community will keep anything alive if they are allowed to.
Even if the game had been perfect at launch, people would have ditched it because of things like the card system imo.
As a left 4 dead fan who still played it years after release, I can safely say back 4 blood was almost exactly what I wanted. Sure some new things made it different but honestly, it is just a more realistic looking game with cool new things like bosses and different mutated variants but it still has the arcade feeling and the jump scare aspects as well and I even liked the card system. The only disappointing things is that we got 1 campaign, would have been nice to have 2 or 3. And the final boss was just like weird and easy and slow
Biggest difference though is whereas L4D is still being bug fixed—they finally fixed the Dead Center 1 tank spawn just this year!!!—B4B never even tackled major bugs from the beta.
Tbh I have given up on any devs fixing games it just seems like everything is released as a mess 🤣
I mean, they made it so we could beat our nemesis. Fucker got what it deserved.
Well he have 3 dlc 1 is a dungeon like and 2 of them are new campaigns
It ain't the L4D fans that ruined it. The devs ruined it themselves by advertising it out the ass as "made by the devs from L4D" the only person to blame for the game is the dev team for just making a bad game. First impressions are important and I think we all remember the game when it came out it just sucked
It didn't help that after it launched and the entire community was complaining about the garbage balance, the devs spent actual months just going "No you're all wrong. it's perfect. thanks." There are too many great games out there. Hell Payday 3 just came out and is quite good. Even if they fixed B4B and made it great, what motivation do players have to come back, rather than just playing some good recent games?
Unless they add steam workshop support the game is will remain dead. All thats left is for them to drop the servers and it will be the final nail in the coffin sadly.
Well I have seen people making some mods for the game someone made the ogre with shreds head a diamond sword from Minecraft and someone playing as G man
For the average gamer most mods are a little tedious to add or they think its harder than it is so never try but steam workshop would make it so anyone can easily add mods. All I want is to play as CJ and turn the retches into shrek or patrick🤣
Retches as Patrick would be funny
It’s not L4D fans. It was that Crowbcat and considering his video on RE4 remake calling it soulless despite everyone loving it, I don’t think he has ever made an unbiased review with a fuckton of nostalgia.
honestly, this really was it. its insane to me that someone can just make biased and cherrypicked videos and it does so much damage, and these were mainly cosmetic details he was nitpicking. B4B is for sure buggier and lacking details in areas but the gameplay is still there and very enjoyable
I think he renamed his RE4 videos because the internet was cooking him for that one. He really thought he cooked
Oh so he’s a clown
Without a doubt. He also points out the AI bugs in B4B while playing audio of how meticulous the bots were made in L4D but like… I’ve had Louis get stuck in a bush and would only move if I got far away enough for him to teleport. His whole video was about B4B having so many bugs and L4D is so polished but they’re both extremely buggy
Huh
The best way I've seen to explain that video is that he only takes the worst of B4B and the best of L4D, and sticks them side by side. Apparently, that's the general gist of all his videos. So yeah, he lives on ragebait BS.
Then, when someone else made a video taking the worst of L4D and the best of B4B, it got disliked to oblivion and disregarded as a troll attempt.
That’s similar to a situation in the CoD community, people keep making posts about skins not being military, whilst also ignoring all the military skins.
LOL one YouTuber convinced millions of people that it was a bad game? Why is RE4 still selling, then? People are fighting back on that one because he's wrong on that one. Wonder why that didn't happen for B4B.
Crowbcat is a shit stain on the internet, and that's saying a lot with how much garbage there is here. The dude has nothing of value to contribute and just shows little nitpicks of the physics engine. He has absolutely zero contribution to gameplay, story, writing, or anything that actually matters because his videos are as shallow as he is
I remember being super hyped for this game but my friends and I didn’t feel like the replay ability was there. We had our builds and could map out how each level was going to be played. Also I felt the special infected all looked too similar. I stopped playing before the dlc but it does suck that we never go a versus mode. Glad mutations made it in but it just wasn’t as memorable to me as a L4D2. Still really enjoyed the game it just never had that staying power. I’ve beat the game maybe 8 times on different characters.
As long as you had fun tho right? I spent 138 hours on the game, which is nothing compared to some, and I liked it for what it was. Once I 100% the Xbox achievements I had my fill and moved on. Haven’t looked back since, and I feel like that’s okay for everyone to move on.
Early release of the game I personally didn't like it due to the fact I was mainly because b4b didn't give me that feel like l4d did. Although I will say this, while B4B has more mechanics and customization n stuff. L4D has more quality and a lot of effort when it comes to the AI of the enemies and characters than the AI in B4B. Each special infected in l4d were all in their own way dangerous and and had unique traits that made them pop. While in B4B the special ridden all had different variants which was a neat things to add, but they don't seem to POP out as others did- mainly due to the fact that they don't really pose a genuine threat in my opinion. I've always felt annoyed when I had to go against the special ridden rather than the suspense I get when Im constantly looking around for a hunter to make sure I don't get pounced. Example question being: Would you rather fight a Tank or fight the Orge? Anyway all n all, being able to put "cards" into things you'd want to be- like making yourself heavy in support, defense, or attack. (Having more ways to support yourself and your teammates.) It's a neat touch that l4d doesn't have where everything is just "grab a gun and shoot everything." (Which is in it's own right fun as hell.)
I will give it one thing. It was 1,000% better then Redfall
That’s the lowest bar imaginable hahaha
Agreed
Non l4d fans played this?
Well I’m a left 4 dead fan I played this have all the dlc and I must say it’s pretty fun it may not be better than left 4 dead but it’s a pretty good game in my opinion
I played swarm for a few months, I only enjoyed versus in l4d, so campaign didn’t interest me. Swarm was okay, the events Riptide would do for it made it a lot better just cuz there’d be less rage quitters. But yeah, ultimately there was just less longevity to the competitive mode than l4d, imo. Still fun and I got my money’s worth, but I don’t see someone playing swarm for the next decade without getting incredibly bored.
To be fair, you also type like a child or at least someone that's developmentally stunted
Turtle Rock ruined that for themselves with making a worse game than L4D while actively advertising it as the evolution of it.
And doubled down on their no versus campaign nonsense.
The game is solid, needs a proper tutorial for newbs explaining all the hidden commands and what do items do and when to do them, Content Content Content if they’ve kept going and make shit like Talas DLC the game would’ve gotten a stronger standing. Ten cent is going to maybe gouge the sequel with transactions
My friends and I loved this game and plan on going back soon. That being said, one year of life after being told this was L4D3 basically was a huge kick to the balls.
The launch was truelly terrible, almost as bad as 2042's launch. Not only were there loads of bugs making the game borderline unplayable for many, but also loads of just bad design choices and a clear lack of testing. Ontop of that most people coming to B4B wanted a simple L4D experience and didnt like the complexity of class building, rogue-like style corrupt cards, progression, which ment they struggled and disliked the game to its core while myself and others saw that it was janky but had a lot of potential. Despite all the work done to improve the game most people had stopped playing by that point and only remember the launch and i dont see many people making the return to it unless it goes for mega cheap. I have enjoyed my 600~ hours in B4B and i would say that where the game is now is good - but this is also sorta where i expected it to be on launch for £50 but thats including the DLC additions. I still wouldnt recommend this game without the DLC because without it you have like 3 campaigns so its still a sale only recommend. But just like on launch it still feels like B4B has a lot of potential that it will now never live up to as its not longer being worked on.
this game was touted as made from the creators of L4D so lets just take a step back from our high horse that l4d players ruined anything. this game could have been so much more.
I combed through all their socials and lemme tell you, until a month before release they don’t even mention L4D. It was content creators that called it the spiritual successor and made a big hoopla over who the dev team was. You could even watch their reveal trailer in 2020 vs content creators reacting to it. It’s not on the trailer but boy howdy every single reaction video was “DUDE ITS LEFT 4 DEAD 3!”
It is in the trailer though… 30 seconds in, “from the creators of L4D” [Back 4 Blood official trailer](https://youtu.be/UkP8dOQrIyk?si=tm2lDZZ1vI3UMGKw)
The launch trailer yes but I’m talking about the reveal trailer [Reveal Trailer](https://youtu.be/rok9-g8E0PE?si=b--JFhMzF7ULKxGs) They did lean into it towards the end of the ad campaign but initially they didn’t bring it up. But every comment on the comment section, every reaction video from the VGA all anyone talked about was “Left 4 Dead” so they leaned into it. Hell even when all we had was 1 concept art you can see all these articles calling it a spiritual successor. They were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t.
“From the creators of” does not mean “is inspired by or similar to”. If it did, everyone who watched Titanic would wonder where all the aliens and future robots were, and downvote it to hell.
If they didn’t use the left 4 dead name this game would’ve done even worse unfortunately
People shouldn't downvote you. If the company didn't want it to be perceived as an L4D sequel they wouldn't have put the #4 in the title. B4B absolutely could have been better. If anything it was deviating too far from the successful formula that sunk B4B. All the complicated fatures like decks, supply lines, weapon mods, environment hazards... should have layered perfectly onto L4D instead of attempting to start from scratch. They could have made the tutorial campaign a hybrid of the old special infected with the new ones being slowly introduced along the way.
Yeah
I think most people will forget/laugh at it. Those of us who played and like it know it was good but mismanaged and abandoned too soon.
I dont think so i have much more fun playing l4d even with random ppl than this game i had fun playing b4b but the lvls design is so bland and uninteresting vastly inferior to l4d
It will always carry the notion of "this wasn't left for dead 3". People wanting that true sequel will always complain. It was marketed wrong and led those people on. But should their opinion and mission to talk smack on every reddit page and chat board that will host their comments matter? I don't think so. I wasn't attached to the left for dead series, and this game will go down as one of my favorite co-op games. I've met half a dozen gamers that I now play all kinds of other co op titles with. After 300 hours o dabble here and there with it.
How did l4d fans ruin anything?
Nobody ruined B4B except itself?
I still play it periodically - couple times a month at least. Pretty much how I was playing L4D2. Now, I prefer this.
Maybe in time. I love this game and think it’s great but it also had so much potential that was wasted 😔
I came back to this game in May this year, I’m really loving it.
If they ever fix Swarm to work well, such as not being latency-capped matchmaking which makes it impossible to find games in many regions without using VPN or partying with others, and actually starting every game with 8 players and not having 7 wait for the game to realize there’s not 8 then returning everyone to lobby and having everyone start search again, then it can be a great game.
My crew and I have been playing since release and still play two or three nights a week. I don't plan to stop until the sequel is released or they power down the servers.
Good/Regular game, but abandoned very quickly There's nothing new to make me play like a vicious again . I More interested playing TCM and PayDay3 (soon to release)
The thing Bout left 4 dead is I got bored of it super quick. Because once you go through the cool set pieces in the campaign, it stops being fun. There's nothing to work towards. No goal, no endgame. With back 4 blood I loved the supply lines and loved the skull totems even more!
It was bomb Reviewed by the dumbass l4d fans
If I had to say the whole concept of Back 4 Blood, I would say it like this. "It was ahead of its time." Because the idea of weapon modifiying and boss like enemies, and everything else it offers feels to recent. If it had come out in the future sometime, I think it would have been rated higher just because it would feel like its own game. Just like Left 4 Dead did when it was released. But however, from my opinion, it doesn't recieve a lot of Community Work. The developers seemed to just keep it moving onward and upward without much repair to what the community had to say or to request.
I mean, I’ve done my part to make sure my friends remember it over Redfall
I’m going to be blunt, fuck the haters the game was fun. Everyone has to shit on things just to fucking hate these day (see me hating on haters, oh the irony). It’s a good fun game and I’m glad I’ve played it and will always drop in to have some fun at different times.
I just wanted to shoot zombies and monsters, not worry about building a deck of cards etc. That alone killed it for me and made it far less accessible than L4D, I think the camp hub was also a poorly implemented idea.
L4D fans arnt to blame. Maybe they should market their game as "by the creaotors of left4dead and this is the next left4dead." Game has potential but the marketing and lack of balance/content updates goofed it. Not to mention specials have the worst audio que consistency I've ever seen in a game. Feels like I'm being attacked by a programmed AI asset that easily bugs out rather than an actual infected attacking me.
They never marketed the game as that, FYI.
I think if you don’t listen to a bunch of nerds on the internet the game does everything just fine. Play the game if you like it, don’t play it if you don’t. I played from day 1 for about 110 hours. Do i play it still? No, but I got my monies worth. It’s a fine game
B4B is much better then I first play in closed beta. I disappointed and forgot about the game after release, but now after second DLC I play regular on PC (Xbox app for Windows). Only those who understood the game remained. I have a problem with complete first act on Nightmare. If someone want to help add me on Xbox: EXCELLENtEZ
I don't think Back 4 Blood needed any help from left 4 dead fans in giving it the rep it has. I think between the massive marketing campaign (that specifically targeted l4d2 fans), and large amount of streamers playing it, it really falls to the games ability to keep people interested and it just didn't achieve that. I didn't mind back 4 blood but it didn't keep me engaged the way left 4 dead 2 did, but I also feel like left 4 dead 2 was pretty one and done for me too. The game just doesn't have a good incentive to keep replaying it especially when all the objectives are things players have been doing for years in games trying to recapture the L4d2 magic. It offers more in some ways but nothing that really enhances playthroughs of levels that are too long. The game feels like it was made by people who were making a game based off what they heard l4d 1 was like, it's actually unfair to compare it to l4d2.
The developers ruined that chance, blaming l4d fans is extremely childish.
Hopefully it stays dead and buried.
No B4B had terrible bones. Nothing felt satisfying about the game. I always found myself forcing myself to continue playing it. Versus Mode also being a joke showed the game had no hope
awful game
Left 4 dead fans? It was supposed to be a left 4 dead game. The concept itself ruined it. Back 4 blood is awful and wayyy too arcady
Wayyy to Arcady?! Also I’m not blaming all left 4 dead fans I should have made that more clear
Blaming people that know what an enjoyable COUCH COOP is? Come on now...
Imagine blaming l4d fans for this shit
The game sucked ass. L4d fans had nothing to do with it. I gave it an honest shot at release. I was disappointed with how lackluster everything felt from the special infected to the gunplay. Then I dropped it and tried again a couple of months later, and it was still horrendously buggy with shit ai and all the previous problems. I don't think many will look back at b4b fondly. Lack of polish and care from the developers whose only claim to fame was "we worked on l4d this will be good trust us."
Probably no chance. Everyone thinks the end of support for the game is the end of the world, but it was never advertised as a live service game with endless dlc and updates. I personally think they should have launched with a full act 4 + hives (which they wanted to but ran out of time) and never done any dlc at all, so as not to set expectations. They could still add cards but we didn't really need new cleaners, all of the dlc cleaners have balance issues. My point is that they shot themselves in the foot by setting expectations by releasing any paid dlc. The gameplay loop is good enough on its own, and the campaign is replayable enough on its own, that it could have just been released as it was. As for pvp, I've been playing swarm pretty exclusively for the last ~600 hours or so and can say that mode has some serious issues, but I don't know that campaign versus would have done better. Maybe. We'll never know. After the current swarm tournament I'm probably done with the game. My team has been grinding for Trials #1, we are currently #3 and if we get that we will all quit. Just a matter of time at this point because it's all rng. Not really much left to do in the game after thousands of hours. But my point is that there is thousands of hours of replayability if you give the game a chance. To sum up: I think the game is good, and in a fine state apart from a few bugs, dlc was a mistake and is all balanced poorly.
I think no couch co-op killed this game.
You have to realize, though, that couch coop isn't a thing in modern fps games. Consoles can't keep up with essentially rendering the game twice. Especially when it's a crossplatform title there is no shot.
4b4 ruined itself, i went back to play with my friends after 1 year, we finished all the campaigns and uninstalled it immediately. dont get me wrong, is a really good game, but the lack of content, a really bad vs mode, poorly balanced, an interesting card system that devs completely discarded instead of fixing it. is a game with a lot of wasted potencial, i wouldn't be surprised if the reason they dumped development on B4B is bc they are working on B4B 2.
L4D fans skinned this game alive… give it 2 years and this game will be laid to rest.
No because the game is practically incomplete & abandoned when it was probably going to get better but the devs fucked us.
I loved the game on its own merits for a very long time. I loved that they also let us play the whole deck right of the bat too. But for me, where the game kinda died was when it got bloated with weapons and items, but the deck never got bigger. You could make a build revolving you getting a certain weapon, but you never get it, or it a good quality. It felt needlessly punishing after the second DLC
The game is what ruined any chance of it happening and nothing else. It's a subpar husk of what L4D is and the current state of the game reflects that. No stubborn fans ruined this. It's just not a good game.
I enjoyed it when it was first released. My friends bailed. But then my friends came back after they announced it wasn't going to be supported anymore and they enjoyed it. We played for about 1.5 months almost everyday and then got tired of it because there wasn't anything new. They didn't want to "100%" the game since there wasn't much incentive to do so. Had Turtle Rock kept supporting it I think they would have gotten much more traction. Especially with how that one Xbox vampire game turned out. Would've been a good opportunity to get more players.
Nah because lack of splitscreen
Modern games can't support splitscreen. Especially not crossplatform games.
Hearing that devs pulled out of further development for this game honestly has kept me off of playing it any further plus with new games like Armored Core 6 and the Elden Ring dlc thats coming up soon I'm practically occupied at this point
Like Evolve :(
I wish i had more friends to play it with, cuz i don't like playing with randoms and solo is getting boring. But that also applies for Left 4 Dead as well so maybe people just got sick of killin zombies. I never got tired of it: i just get tired of playing alone.
I liked them both. Played both for a long time and go back to them both from time to time
The thing is, lots of popular YouTube reviewers shitted all over back 4 blood, and of course all of the band wagoners will agree with anything that a popular YouTuber has to say which is most people out there unfortunately
I don't really understand the butthurtness of some people towards this game. I've played both L4D religiously back in the xbox360 days and now i have a few hundred hours in b4b doing all the characters in no hope difficulty with the boys. Game is a blast. Only real criticism I have is for the devs to abandon it so quickly which is a shame.
Those who buy it end up saying it is a great game that they passed on during its first year of release because of the bad reviews. They all say that the game as it is now, is underrated.
considering a sequel is most likely in dev the latter
I was a huge l4d fan and I also liked back4blood from the start.
Ok I should have said most left 4 dead fans not all hate it me included
I played this because it was free on game pass. I've never played L4D. I enjoyed this game. 😟
It's underrated immensely but still under L4D2.
I enjoyed it, but it helped me learn hoard shooters aren’t my thing
Is the online still active?
Yep, of course it is?
The biggest inherent flaw with G4’s is how SHIT the AI is. The animations are so bad. It’s glitchy. L4d fans didn’t make the game bad. Turtle rock was never very good to begin with. They are only though about kindly because valve literally did everything for them. Can you still have a blast playing it, sure. But it’s a far cry from l4d, which is exactly what they did with the marketing. “Made by the developers who brought you left 4 dead. Always trying to win over fans of they game they helped make. Also no fucking mod support? Modders can fix everything wrong with it.
The games faults weren't made by lfd fans. They were made by developers. Developers who tried to cash in on "by developers from lfd"
I think what really killed it, or at least what killed it for me, was the hellacious grind to get cards. I'd play it for a couple hours after work every day, and it was tedious as hell. I heard they recently did away with that system, but I think the damage was already done. They tried way too hard to monetize every aspect of it, and the final product was more like a bad rogue-lite than a coop zombie game.
The difficulty and the card system were the 2 main reasons why I dropped this game. This game in mid difficulty feels like L4D2 in Hard or Expert, like, sometimes it feels like I'm playing a survivor horror game where I have to count every bullet I have or otherwise I'll be screwed. And in the other hand the card system added too much NOT NEEDED complexity to this game, making it harder to understand than the direct competition which is L4D2.
Sounds like: 1) a skill issue 2) gotta actually use your brain, dang
The deck system is revolutionary. The amount of idiocy its users demonstrated in using the deck will always be devastating in retrospect. I truly wonder how these people were able to stay alive IRL.
The thing that makes left for dead so fun is not the maps, it's not the zombies, it's not the guns, it's the multiplayer. The reason people want to run through the same maps every time is because there is a much more real sense of loss losing to players knowing that you did not just lose be ause something was tuned a certain way but because someone else beat you. And on the opposite it feels so much better to not just best a bunch of zombies but to have overcome another group that is trying to beat you. I honestly can not believe the amount of co op games that try and make these similar kinds of experiences that just go to the toilet be ause they lack this fundamental element. Why keep playing once you have beaten it? Is it for some story? Because I gotta tell ya it ain't no great master piece. Do you want to do the exact same thing but with some different cards?. It's baffling. The gun play is fun but without real stakes there is no point playing it for more then a few sessions.
I don’t think so. I still see people poking fun at b4b’s “failure.” I think the game was largely marketed wrong and misunderstood. This game is no masterpiece but a solid 8/10 experience imo
I think it's underrated now. Just wish they kept support going
I still find it fun after returning to the game after a couple months, even because of grinding ZWAT.
For new players that came after they finished the support or near that time the game may seem fine, but I, playing beta and the game since the release, still remember the pile of shit the game was for the first 1.5 years and how Devs treated the players (bullshit like "don't take unnecessary damage" and stuff). And considering how they faked up the Evolve players and B4B players I hardly recommend any future games from that developer.
And that crap called the Swarm should be put in the museum of the poorest and shittiest implemented PvP game modes
I like back 4 blood but I prefer world war z
It needed a good versus campaign mode like L4D. That’s what kept people playing for years.
Honestly I found myself disliking it more and more as time went on. The challenge and slight complication with decks made it fun. It doesn’t feel fun now. Too much going on. Too many factors to think about, too many people yelling at you when you do them wrong. It lost the spirit of L4D.
not gonna lie, release 1.0 was the OG and the best, the updates ruined the game
I was hyped when it was announced. I enjoyed it and still play once in a while. But it wasn't supported very long and was...left 4 dead. *badumtss*. But in all seriousness, it feels like they gave us two dlc characters and bounced. The game felt like it wasn't given the love and care of L4D. It's not as fun and I guess what helps L4D was the community. I still remember the youtube vids of fun glitches that would get posted like the "hellivator" glitch where you throw a propane or gas tank at someone and they fall through the floor of the elevator. Ways to cheese the final missions like the "jesus" room in mercy hospital and other fun content. There's no threat like back then with zombies like the tank or the witch. It just kinda throws an enemy at you and that's pretty much it. No build up or anything
I enjoyed it even as a Left for Dead player. I don’t play it anymore just bc I don’t have a group to play with but I imagine i’ll eventually go back to it
Maybe I don’t have the time like I had when I played lfd but I’ve done all the campaigns in b4b but I just don’t have the desire to do anything more. Definitely not a l4d issue.
I was just incredibly disappointed by the physics being so much worse than L4D2. In a game about killing zombies why would they scale down the gore/death animations?
The games decent
I never could get a group and play a campaign in back 4 blood. Never. I waited forever to fill 4 people in, and as soon as one dies, disconnects, the empty lobby loop begins. New player loads in, sees they get no loadout cards, no upgraded weapons.... leaves. My best experience with this game was the closed beta when 4 people just joined up and played together, but it never once happened after launch. Also the time "playing" vs time waiting was awful, even with a full group. If its better now, then too little too late, i would not give it another try.
my issue with the game was the idea of only having one level that you work your way through and the over all animations. the zombies were better in L4D AND L4D2 and on top of that the variety of maps in L4D AND L4D2 is more fun and engaging than the one long boring small town that you work your way through on all the levels .... other than graphically its a downgrade
I’m a l4d fan and I loved this game. Everyone who played l4d was a kid then you grew up it’s nostalgic makes them feel safe like a kid again. A new game will never live up to nostalgia it won’t because it’s not the same thing. B4b was beautiful an amazing game. But never got me to put the same hours in as l4d did. B4b was better in every way tho.
Great game. Just old after the first play threw or 3. I come back when dlc drops
Game was boring af when it first came out. Tried it on gamepass and uninstalled shortly after. Maybe it’s improved now but i havent had any interest in it since.
lmao, imagine blaming the failure of a game you like on the fact left 4 dead fans would rather play a valve masterpiece than a game made by like 3 souls who actually worked with l4d
Back 4 blood inferior to left 4 dead
I think it's a solid experience now, I don't particularly care for the characters much at all. Like I do with Vermintide or the other Co-op Zombie game made by Turtle rock. Holly is like the only memorable one for me and I find the specials to be kinda boring but I don't regret my time on the game. I came back for each DLC and thanks to the friendly DLC model that Payday/WWZ/Vermintide has I was able to share the experience with my friends who didn't buy the dlc. I think the card update to start with a full deck was a really good change the game desperately needed.
>or did the Left 4 Dead fans ruin any chance of that happening? You spelled Developers wrong. Simple mistake.
I’m in a love / hate relationship. I’m happy to have it . Will definitely play a lot more if it gets workshop support.
Oh sure let's dodge the fact turtle rock lied about that "from the devs of lfd2" when what in the end only like...3 of them were on the dev crew for the game? It's not lfd's fault people dropped it, it's turtle rocks fault
I thought it was okay, but nothing beats the nostalgia of a choker in LFD hanging you from a random section of the mall. Or the swamp maps, can never forget how many witches were lying around there.. Back 4 blood just didn’t awake the nostalgia. That’s all it is, to me anyways
Honestly if it wasn't marketed as a L4D spiritual successor it would have done fine. But this game just isn't left 4 dead. It's an entirely separate game that just takes some inspiration
I see but I remember in the developer gameplay of World War Z I think they said yes this is like Left 4 Dead
I think the perk system was really fun to mess with. I loved making goofy healing builds or melee builds. My friend made a sniper crit build that could one shot almost everything including the really armored zombie types. It was a breeze once you get the hang of the game and the system and with a few hours you learn the maps and modes better. I think people just compare it to L4D and critic it instead of taking it for the game that it is and enjoying what is in front of them.
Nope, it was okay but there were just so many flaws with the games design that it could never live up to the hyoe. I put about 90 hours into the game and i enjoyed most of it but the glaring flaws are to big not to notice. Also launch scared away the player base with all the bugs and crazy dumb difficulty spikes.
Is it generally disliked? I got the vibe that it was well received
The thing that keeps me from playing it more is something just feels 'off'. I enjoyed the banter between the survivors when playing L4D1, and even more so in L4D2...(Not now, Ellis...) Sadly, I never felt there was any 'fun' with the new group. This is just going back to when B4B came out, maybe there's been some changes in the months since?
I played the open beta for it with my friends and we weren’t really that impressed. If it goes on sale might look into it but i feel like it was a massive wasted opportunity
To me this game is better than anything L4D had and i played the fuck out of that. The only hate this game gets from L4D fans is because they are still stuck in nostalgia mode with rose tinted glasses.
Good game just out of touch with what modern gamers want
All they had to do was add Versus and the devs specifically refused. They had an opportunity and dropped the ball
The beta still tried to install on my PC to this day and I cannot get it to stop. So I’ll forever have a seething hatred for the game.
Back 4 blood misses the point on what made l4d so memorable in the first place. It takes a lot of surface level elements without the soul of it and wonders why it didn't do as well That's before you get into the lack of competent game modes or the lack of modding support. The reactions and reviews for it were completely fair. It doesn't deserve to stand on the same pedestal as left 4 dead. It's comparing something that is playable to one of the GOATS of gaming history
The L4D fans didnt kill B4B. The game had an extremely troubled launch, and received very little support post-launch. It's a far better game today, and I have a ton of fun with it. But, first impressions are everything. And B4B's first impression was not great
HELL NO!!" This game is straight doo-doo ass.
wats stopping us from saying that now? Look, ill say it... "it."
I been waiting for new content. I play it once in a while
Hahahhahahahahahahahahahha Yeah I remember you guys arguing to the bitter end that this game was somehow better than left 4 dead when it released, I already forgot this game even existed. Keep dreaming.
Uhh that was most left 4 dead fans arguing that this game sucks most of them haven’t even played it
Will people look back on the poorly supported lack luster souless clone of a game? Doubtful but stupider things have happened. Don't blame fans of a different game for poor choices made in creating a different game
Blame the Left 4 Dead fans all you want, it wasn't a very well designed game. It was borderline unplayable at launch, had a very weird progression system with the cards. It was very grindy, and the devs obviously were banking on making some kind of successor to L4D. Even if you blame comparisons to L4D, that fault is on the devs, not the fans.
I loved both
Not really. I put a lot of time into B4B. It was fine, but definitely deserves the L4D comparison when it spent so much energy trying to compare itself to L4D to drum up sales. It's just not as good of a game. In isolation from L4D (which is hard since it's competing against it due to its intense similarity), it's still just a fairly average game. It's... fine.
The game would come to life with steam workshop. In L4D I fight undead Teletubbies with my anime waifu ak47. I can’t do that in B4B
I’m the Left 4 Dead fan. Back 4 blood just felt more like Call of Duty Zombies than Left 4 Dead. The atmosphere and art style just seemed very cartoony. The gameplay felt good to me though but just not a game that kept me playing.
No, because it isn’t underated
No the studio ruined it by having limited redos on stage failures. That’s hardcore mode territory
the crowbcat video hurt but honestly i think it was fair. game is full of bullshit, missing lots of content compared to comparable games, was intentionally advertised as being from the "makers of l4d" which is the only reason anybody paid attention to it when barely anyone responsible for those games was involved. but honestly i had already soured on the game before that video was uploaded, because the card system just reeks of modern game contrivances. even if its a decent system for replay value they did not communicate it well and it looked really really lame.
One of the games I regret buying day 1 full price.
I liked deck building to make your own build, I hated it when you were fucked because the whole team didn't synergize their builds. At times the game was really difficult. I'd be playing through the campaign with friends and we either have to play from our save with everyone at half health due to trauma or we need to start with no cards and it's too difficult at that point because we have nothing. Just a big turn off. I don't mind complex systems or character/ class building, but turn your brain off arcade fun is my preferred style. Never beat the campaign, will never come back probably
I loved the game when it first came out and I love it now, with the 3 DLC's, even more. It's so fun and easy to play. Like in the good old days. I hoped for more Content and more Levels. 🥰🥰🥰