Since it’s summer and life has surprises in store at times, we had the chance to attend a press event to play Back 4 Blood, the next big game from Turtle Rock, which was specifically behind the excellent Left 4 Dead saga. If it’s a new license (the rights to Left 4 Dead are no longer in the hands of the developers), it’s certainly a spiritual sequel that takes on each of its codes. For the best ?
During this event we had the opportunity to have two different game modes Back 4 blood : the narrative campaign and the PVP mode. The narrative campaign breaks down the Left 4 Dead image into chapters and our team of survivors must get from point A to point B and try to stay alive as they fight their way through the infected.
The chapter begins which starts in a safe room with an armored door where you can buy ammunition, tools and quite a few accessories for your weapons. Exactly the picture of a Left 4 Dead but obviously with some special features like this famous tool box for refueling. Also note that at the beginning of the chapter it is possible to choose a deck of cards that will allow you to unlock certain bonuses, such as: B. 10% more stamina, wearing more bandages and other subtleties of this kind. This does not change the way you play, but it allows you, for example, to become more specific in a role as a doctor and so your comrades on site or in one bad posture easier to help.
A gallery with interesting characters
The choice of survivor is also very important as the title suggests at the moment a total of 8 people each with their own look, personality and peculiarities, as we often say. For example, we could play the character of the mother, a sixty-year-old with her tongue hanging out, but who considers the rem ains of the team to be her “children”. In addition to her ability to heal her comrades more easily, she gives other team members cute little nicknames like “my darling” and other cute little words. Because yes, even if Left 4 Dead had a high quality narrative, Turtle Rock seems to want to go even further with this new license. The studio really wants to have something deep and meaningful in the script, the image of the comics and series. the Walking Dead
From the first minutes we manage to find our tracks on a Left 4 Dead and we feel the wink and the big (very big) inspiration. so much so that the very first building in the country looks like the first building we spawn in in the country No mercy by Left 4 Dead. Sometimes zombies are in closed spaces behind doors that they can collapse in the end, blue light envelops buildings … In short, you understood the parallel both in terms of level design and artistic direction. It’s a real treat for those who have been longingly waiting for a Left 4 Dead 3.
Good feelings
For now, though the hordes are a little less impressive and we sense a cruel lack of fluid in the movement of the infected. Hard to say if this is due to the difference in the graphics engine, but we almost regret the fluidity of the engine source of valve. Everything is still a bit lacking in finesse and fluidity in the attacks and we hope that this will be fixed by the time the title is released in October. For the rest a lot of work was done on the weapons, even if many bugs remain like bullets that sometimes come out from under the barrel and not directly from it. But we feel that The studio wanted to avoid the paintball effect in order to provide real recoil and real firepower. Some guns like AKs still lack a bit of the vertical stroke to make things a little “livelier” and more realistic. If every character has a favorite weapon, you can switch weapons during numerous drops on the map.
A real apocalyptic world
The big selling point of the game is the lack of glut of ammunition, which sometimes forces us to collect body weapons to defend ourselves. A zombie apocalypse isn’t a huge Texan Walmart supermarket full of ammunition and frozen foods. No, ammunition is precious in this post-apocalyptic world and has made weapon use even more enjoyable and interesting.
A messed up PVP?
We were also able to discover a PVP arena mode in which a team of survivors must resist a team of infected people played by humans for as long as possible (time of support). The team that survives the longest wins the game. Unfortunately, if it seems interesting on paper, we haven’t been able to get the most out of it. In fact, we have suffered very long delays due to the line-up of teams made up of European players and non-European players (in our case the Brazilians). It was a real disaster in terms of latency …
On the zombie side we can find different types of specimens that we meet in the campaign, namely: Exploser (the equivalent of the Boomer in Left 4 Dead), Nausabonds that vomit a kind of bile to blind you, Colossi, the human Players can attack and crush or even stitcher, who can spit poison from a distance to cause damage. You agree with your team to create some group logic, knowing that monsters can only appear in hidden places from players (behind a door, behind a house, on a roof, etc.). The PVP mode is quite enjoyable, but it will be necessary to play it in better conditions in order to have a real opinion.
WE ARE WAITING FOR … NOT PRESSED!
Despite the cold shower of the PVP, not the game itself, but rather the organization of the matchmaking, this first in-game experience of Back 4 Blood was outstanding and already promises a worthy spiritual sequel to Left.4 Dead. We’ll go further and say that it’s probably the Left 4 Dead 3 that everyone was expecting. Back 4 Blood is planned for October 12, 2021 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Series X / S.
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