One of the sagas that still does not have any rival to match is Left 4 Dead. There were attempts sharing thematic, such as World War Z, along with others who bet on fantasy, such as Warhammer Vermintide, but to date none with the same quality as the classics from Turtle Rock Studios and Valve.
Hence, their own original creators have a golden opportunity to excel through Back 4 Blood, clearly his spiritual successor. Now, with enough news to offer a different touch and that we have been able to taste in a private preview of its closed beta thanks to Warner Bros.
Twelve years of waiting for the Left 4 Dead successor
The initial feeling when entering this new work by Turtle Rock Studios is to be in front of a very familiar game, but not because it is for the whole family, but because we feel like at home if we have played Left 4 Dead. Its scheme is repeated to the letter, with safe areas to replenish, waves of zombies (infected) in certain sections of the mapping and the need to collaborate with the rest of the companions to get out of each nightmare alive.
A decade of difference goes a long way as there are two generations in between. Because if, Do not forget that the first Left 4 Dead debuted in 2008 for PC and Xbox 360. And its sequel came out the following year on the same systems. Thus, the jump at the graphic level in Back 4 Blood It is considerable, apart from enjoying better maneuverability when shooting or moving around the stage.
Strong close-range weapons to save ammunition, other firearms to maintain a margin of safety against the different types of infected … A priori it seems the same but immediately it begins to show greater depth with weapon types, between shotguns, rifles, light machine guns or pistols, not forgetting grenades, Molotov cocktails and others. And not only that, but there are different degrees of rarity and therefore with very different parameters that must be read.
In addition, the number of protagonists doubles that of Valve games, having up to eight exterminators. Y each has unique characteristics, such as replenishing ammunition with deaths, doing the same with life or enjoying various resistances or other types of improvements compared to the rest of the group. This makes it important from the outset see which one best suits our style and also in the face of rapport with others, since there cannot be two identical characters in the same game. This is a truism but it must be emphasized.
The difficulty mode chosen also has an influence, as it happened in the classics of a decade ago, by not worrying about friendly fire in survivor or suffering from the beautiful in nightmare. And the latter is downright harsh and exhausting knowing that the campaign features considerably longer acts than any Left 4 Dead.
So far, in any case, nothing that represents a revolution compared to those classics … But it is a mirage, since its great differentiating point lies in the cards. We can build a deck enhancing various aspects of the game based on health, ammunition, power and a host of other variables. But also suffer with the contaminated cards that are the ones that change the rules drastically in each game to increase its replayability to the extreme.
Back 4 Blood cards change the rules
From something seemingly as harmless as losing visibility due to haze to much more serious events such as being planted with a Six meter ogre At the first exchange, this dynamism means that each game in Back 4 Blood challenge the sea of interesting. Or at least in the high levels of difficulty, of course, that in survivor we have too many facilities.
This “director of the dynamic game”, as its creators mention, is the one who will constantly adapt to our actions, as if from The Presence of Song of Horror it was, so that we are not calm even for a moment. And the fact is that the enemies will not always be in the same places when replaying an act …
The lack of originality when introducing new infected can be held in his face, which are still variants of those seen in Left 4 Dead and other imitators of the genre: Tell-Tale, Big Guy, Stinking, Stinging … But at the same time everything is cooler and it is in Versus mode (up to eight people in two teams; some with humans and others with monsters) where more differences are perceived between those infected, by having variants for each one.
For example, for the elusive Stinger there will be two extra versions (Spit and Stalker), the same thing happening with the slow but powerful Big Guy (Thug and Shredder). The side that controls the infected will have to eliminate the humans as quickly as possible, being able to improve various basic parameters of the monsters in the process using mutation points. While those who control the humans will have to last as long as possible alive, which is what will really define which team is victorious at the end of the rounds.
Needless to say, in Versus mode the map is very small and the infected can only reappear when they are not visible to humans. They are frenetic games ideal to alternate with the demanding campaign at higher levels.
Except for the disconnections I suffered (it is still a beta), it has left me with good feelings, mainly because of the implementation of the cards and all that that entails, and that plays better than Left 4 Dead. If you want to know all the details of the beta We remind you that it has just started today for people who reserved the game (or by invitation), lasting until the 9th. Then there will be another second open beta without restrictions from August 12 to 16.
Back 4 Blood – PS5 Standard Edition
And the final version? On October 12 on PC (Steam and Epic Store), PlayStation (PS5 and PS4) and Xbox (Xbox Series and Xbox One), with cross-play between all systems and the Xbox Game Pass incentive in the case of Microsoft.
