Back 4 Blood Review: ‘A worthy Left 4 Dead successor’

Back 4 Blood is the spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead and is Turtle Rock Studios’ first major title since releasing the poorly received Evolve. However, since Turtle Rock Studios produced the original Left 4 Dead, Back 4 Blood isn’t a clone or a ripoff. Instead, it’s very much what Left 4 Dead 3 could have looked like if we lived in a parallel universe where Valve hadn’t largely abandoned all its IPs.

Zombies ate everyone’s neighbors

At its core, Back 4 Blood is very similar to Left 4 Dead. During the campaign, four survivors (called Cleaners here) blast their way through undead hordes from Point A to Point B. Most of the time, Point B is a safe room, but sometimes there are more complex objectives like carrying objects, surviving a horde attack for a certain amount of time, and facing down bosses.

There is a story here, but I’ll be damned if I can remember the details. The basics are that a parasite has turned most of humanity into the Ridden. A small band of survivors calling themselves the Cleaners has begun a desperate fight against the undead, and you play as one of (currently) eight characters across four acts comprised of 33 levels.

The entire plot is just a device to give a theme to killing zombies, which is fine. This is a four-player co-op game, and you’ll jump in and out of chapters all the time, so there’s no need for a deep overarching tale beyond “kill zombies.” The characters also have backstories, but I didn’t find them as likable as the crew from Left 4 Dead. They all have unique buffs and starting weapons, so you’re encouraged to pick one that fits your playstyle instead of because you like their character or design.

Something old, something new

While the core gameplay in Back 4 Blood is similar to that found in Left 4 Dead, there are unique layers built on top of that. The most important is the deck-building system. Players can build a deck of up to 15 cards, each of which gives a particular buff. Some will do something simple, like give you +30% accuracy. In contrast, others will provide you with equipment, like a knife replacing your melee attack.

You can draw one of these cards at the beginning of each level, and you can make some interesting combos with them that vastly increase your survivability. For example, changing your melee to the knife and equipping cards that restore health with melee kills and one that restores stamina for each kill can help you buzzsaw through regular Ridden without breaking a sweat.

Corruption cards counterbalance the positive effects of the player’s deck. The game’s AI director draws a corruption card at the beginning of each level that can make things much more difficult. These might cover a level in fog or make horde-alerting alarm doors more common. However, these corruption cards can often throw you a bone too. Some challenge the player to complete an objective to earn bonus copper to use at the shop crate at the beginning of each level.

Players will encounter predictable weapon types in Back 4 Blood. Pistols, SMGs, assault rifles, sniper rifles, shotguns, and LMGs are all available, as are explosives like grenades, flashbangs, molotovs, and flashbangs. The big change to weapons in this game is that there’s an attachment system and rarity grades that affect stats. So, instead of just finding a weapon and sticking with it, you’re encouraged to keep swapping up to a better one.

The biggest negative with the attachment system is that you can’t remove them once they’re on a gun. You can swap them for a different attachment of the same type (scopes for scopes, magazines for magazines, etc.), but it’s easy to pick up something you don’t want accidentally. For example, you can equip an ACOG with zoom to a shotgun, which renders it effectively useless.

PvP won’t let me be me

In addition to campaign mode, there is a solo mode (which is campaign without matchmaking and the ability to earn anything) and a PvP mode called Swarm. Unfortunately, Back 4 Blood is missing a Campaign Versus mode, which was a fan favorite from Left 4 Dead, and Swarm is okay but won’t be to everyone’s fancy.

Swarm pits one team of four Cleaners against a horde and a team of four special infected. There’s no hope for the humans to win here. Instead, the two teams take turns switching sides, and it’s a best two out of three to see who can last the longest as the humans.

Swarm mode is a good idea, but in practice, players spend too much time waiting. There’s a long period at the start of each match before it begins to give the Cleaners a chance to deploy, and at the end of each round, there are 45 seconds before the next wave starts. It may not seem like much time at first, but it adds up.

Back 4 Blood Review: The final verdict

Overall, Back 4 Blood is a great successor to Left 4 Dead. It definitely needs some tweaks here and there, but it’s a blast with or without friends, and the bots are pretty decent as well. Turtle Rock Studios could have just made a straight clone of L4D, but it didn’t. As the various new systems get polished and balanced, this game will likely be looked on as finely as its predecessors.

The biggest question about this game is whether the player base will stay strong or not. Left 4 Dead still gets a steady stream over a decade later, but it’s still up in the air whether Back 4 Blood will inspire the same loyalty. Fortunately, it’s on Xbox Game Pass for console and PC, so there’s little to no risk in giving it a try.