The Three Biggest Things WRONG with Back 4 Blood
(Source: Steam)
Turtle Rock, the developers of the popular co-op zombie shooters Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 have just released the early access for the series spiritual successor Back 4 Blood. Early access is only available August 5th 12pm PST through August 9th 12pm PST, and can only be accessed by those with a code or who have pre-ordered the game. The open beta begins on August 12th 12pm PST and lasts until August 16th 12pm PST, it will be open to everyone.
As someone who was a MAJOR fan of the L4D series, I knew I had to pre-order Back 4 Blood as soon as it became available. Getting early access was definitely a good decision, as there’s some things I personally don’t like about the game and one thing I’d even call a major dealbreaker.
Just as a disclaimer before I move on: these are just my opinions. I’m not saying everyone will hate these things or want to change them, but I personally would.
1.) The “Cleaners” Honestly Suck
(Source: Engadget)
The characters of L4D weren’t the most fleshed out and deeply intriguing characters you’d ever meet, but they had a charm to them. They had personality even if they lacked a whole lot of backstory. The Cleaners in B4B seem to lack anything particularly interesting or even defining about who they are. They’re just very… cookie cutter. They need more personality and less crappy attempts at “witty” comedy. The only thing I do genuinely like about the Cleaners is that each character has special “buffs” on the team. For example: Evangelo (the character whose “personality” I hate most) provides better stamina regeneration and team movement speed. That’s very helpful when trying to run away from the faster kinds of Ridden. But I don’t know if that perk is enough to make me not hate Evangelo.
2.) THERE’S NO SPLIT-SCREEN
(Source: L4D Splitscreen Mod — Steam)
It was a disappointment modders needed to take the PC versions of L4D and L4D2 into their own hands just to get splitscreen. But at least we had it on console… right? I guess Turtle Rock feels differently about Back 4 Blood. Never in a million years would I have expected any kind of Left 4 Dead game (or spiritual successor in this case) to not have splitscreen capabilities on console. The only silver lining is that Turtle Rock devs said in an interview that splitscreen is a “possibility” in the future. Why is it not available at launch and why do they even need to consider splitscreen? This is admittedly a major dealbreaker for me and others like me who don’t like playing with random people online (think I’m the only one who doesn’t like the lack of splitscreen? Check out these Reddit posts).
Some of the arguably best moments of any L4D game was sitting on the couch with friends while you blow some undead brains out, fight a tank, or argue over who’s going to startle the witch who (in)conveniently spawned right in the middle of where you need to go.
3.) There’s No Witches
(Source: Left 4 Dead Fan Wiki)
One of the best (if not the best) special infected was the Witch. She was genuinely terrifying if you didn’t know where she was, were new to the game, or were trying to navigate an entire sugar cane field littered with Witches without dying a horrible death. It’s such a missed opportunity for B4B to not have a witch-like Ridden. Hopefully once the game fully releases in October, there will be something resembling a Witch. Fingers crossed!
Back 4 Blood releases on October 12th, 2021 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/Series S, and PC.
