• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Back 4 Blood |OT| Shouldn't this game be Left 4 Dead?

Kev Kev

Member
In my experience, you have fewer people trying to matchmake a particular section of an act. I never get grouped when I attempt this. Starting a fresh run on a given campaign however matches me up quick.
if thats the case, then they need to let us at least start with bots, then people who are selecting quick match can join in our already started game. that way we dont have to jump into the middle of a level that we havent played yet.

but as it is now, they dont let you start with bots bc they want to limit/force the player to only playing with other random people lol. "NO SINGLE PLAYER! BECAUSE.... because... well... well we dont know exactly why BUT STILL NO!!!" how does that make sense? whats with the tyranny? let us play the game how we want to you damn god damn nazis
 

ViolentP

Member
if thats the case, then they need to let us at least start with bots, then people who are selecting quick match can join in our already started game. that way we dont have to jump into the middle of a level that we havent played yet.

but as it is now, they dont let you start with bots bc they want to limit/force the player to only playing with other random people lol. "NO SINGLE PLAYER! BECAUSE.... because... well... well we dont know exactly why BUT STILL NO!!!" how does that make sense? whats with the tyranny? let us play the game how we want to you damn god damn nazis
Funny because earlier today I started a game and the other 2 players immediately jumped out and I was stuck with 3 bots.

The capability is there.
 

Kev Kev

Member
Funny because earlier today I started a game and the other 2 players immediately jumped out and I was stuck with 3 bots.

The capability is there.
exactly! its happened to me a few times too, but its like they are throttling starting a match like that for some reason. i actually really love when it happens bc at least the bots dont take off without me and i can really slow down and take in the whole level.

until they watch me get eaten by a hag lol, and then im like "FCUK YOU BOTS!!!"
 

Nvzman

Member
I tried playing and enjoying this, but I think most people who say this is like Left 4 Dead have no idea what they are talking about. Like yea, its "like" Left 4 Dead in that its a cooperative zombie shooter with special infected, but it completely misses the mark in every single way imo. It has absolutely none of the charm or smart gameplay that L4D has.
The game has so many atrociously stupid design decisions, it feels more like the janitors who swept the floors of the office that L4D was made in made this game, not anyone actually leading the gameplay design of L4D.
Biggest thing, you literally cannot tell half the fucking time where the special infected are coming from because they have almost zero sound cues until they start attacking, and the spawn logic is relentless and never gives you a break. Any difficulty above the recruit difficulty is mindlessly frustrating because the AI feels completely static and cheaply throws out enemies out you without any thought, unlike the Director from L4D. I have no idea where the praise for this game is coming from, its pretty garbage compared to L4D and I genuinely hope this Games as a Service shit begins to go away, I'm sick of games releasing with barely any content and being praised for being a pale imitation of great games before it.
 
I would have been rushing out to buy this at one time, as use to play left 4 dead 1+2 with a load of friends, but now they all settled down with familys and dont game anymore, and not into playing with randoms, if this had a decent offline mode with bots then would have been tempted to buy
Hi if you can play UK evening times message me, my mate and I are in the same boat. If you are a chilled older gamer you'd be welcome to join us.
 

Erebus

Member
I tried playing and enjoying this, but I think most people who say this is like Left 4 Dead have no idea what they are talking about. Like yea, its "like" Left 4 Dead in that its a cooperative zombie shooter with special infected, but it completely misses the mark in every single way imo. It has absolutely none of the charm or smart gameplay that L4D has.
The game has so many atrociously stupid design decisions, it feels more like the janitors who swept the floors of the office that L4D was made in made this game, not anyone actually leading the gameplay design of L4D.
Biggest thing, you literally cannot tell half the fucking time where the special infected are coming from because they have almost zero sound cues until they start attacking, and the spawn logic is relentless and never gives you a break. Any difficulty above the recruit difficulty is mindlessly frustrating because the AI feels completely static and cheaply throws out enemies out you without any thought, unlike the Director from L4D. I have no idea where the praise for this game is coming from, its pretty garbage compared to L4D and I genuinely hope this Games as a Service shit begins to go away, I'm sick of games releasing with barely any content and being praised for being a pale imitation of great games before it.
Yeah I'm with you on this one. Again this game is more similar to World War Z (that in turn copied the L4D series) than L4D in my opinion.

Today we tried playing on veteran with my team and got annihilated. On the other hand, recruit is ridiculously easy and offers no challenge.
 
Last edited:

T-Cake

Member
Honestly, I'm starting to get the feeling that all these games that are coming to Game Pass Day One™ are cursed by it. It seems like 9/10 are turning out to be big disappointments in one way or another, this included. Just spent an hour with it - feel like a zombie myself now. There was barely any emotion elicited from me until a giant monster appeared, which turned out to be enough of a bullet sponge that I quit.
 

Amaranty

Member
Played some more yesterday and aim assist is definitely out of whack. I've never experienced such a weird aim assist in any other game.

I lowered it to 30 and it still causes a rubberband effect on nearby enemies, when hip firing. If I try to move my crosshair over an enemy, the crosshair slows down and kinda gets stuck, but once the crosshair goes out of aim assist range it snaps to the direction I'm moving the thumbstick.
 
Matchmaking is a joke if you want to continue your run. It's getting really old playing the same parts over and over again because I don't want to continue my run with bots. :(
 

Kev Kev

Member
Played some more yesterday and aim assist is definitely out of whack. I've never experienced such a weird aim assist in any other game.

I lowered it to 30 and it still causes a rubberband effect on nearby enemies, when hip firing. If I try to move my crosshair over an enemy, the crosshair slows down and kinda gets stuck, but once the crosshair goes out of aim assist range it snaps to the direction I'm moving the thumbstick.
ive settled for leaving every setting at default, minus 1 or 2 little tweaks, and just hip firing at everything except specials (the ridiculous auto aim really helps for hitting those weak spots).

other than that i dunno what to yell ya, the aiming is completely whack in this game lol
 

cormack12

Gold Member
Just got done with recruit. My game selection is still locked. Fucking weird. Also, my cheevos for completing the acts on certain difficulties have not unlocked (act I Recruit etc) despite me unlocking the actual level ones.
 

SteadyEvo

Member
Is it just my internet or is this a laggy mess? Every match I’m seeing players and zombies skipping/teleporting around with a few seconds delay before zombies die. Gonna try wired connection later.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
Just got done with recruit. My game selection is still locked. Fucking weird. Also, my cheevos for completing the acts on certain difficulties have not unlocked (act I Recruit etc) despite me unlocking the actual level ones.
And this was all done with players, yeah? It was weird, at one point on PC I quit the game, and launched a bit later and was greeted with a list of achievements unlocking, lol.
Is it just my internet or is this a laggy mess? Every match I’m seeing players and zombies skipping/teleporting around with a few seconds delay before zombies die. Gonna try wired connection later.
So, I'm unsure. I played earlier in the day yesterday with 2 pals and had no issues, though the bot was constantly rubber banding and getting stuck in place. However, I tried to play later with randos, and got disconnected, so then I tried to play Swarm for the first time on retail, and right before it started a player left and the game ended. I got annoyed and quit, lol.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
Simple question : is this better or worse than Left4Dead?
IMO, in some ways fine, and in some ways worse. But I don't think anything about it is better per se.

If you have Game Pass, it's worth checking out for sure. Especially if you have pals to play with, you'll enjoy it regardless.

But things that L4D 1/2 did better IMO that this is lacking revolves around...

  • Special Infected audio cues
  • The AI Director strategically combating the player(s), using specific Special Infected at the right moments, etc.
  • Better difficulty curves
  • Better explosions and physics
  • Better gore and dismemberment
  • Campaign multiplayer
In B4B..

  • There's an issue with difficulties, Recruit often feels too easy, Veteran feels too hard. It will surely get fixed at some point, but it's not great. Even at end game.
  • The enemy AI is a mess, Special Ridden CONSTANTLY spawn, so much so that it feels much less strategic and more like the game is just throwing whatever it can at you in an attempt to stop you.
  • The lack of audio cues makes it hard to pin point Special Ridden, so there are times where they will be directly over or under you and you don't really know it.
  • The multiplayer mode is essentially a wash, probably not even worth playing more than 1-2 matches just to see how it is.
  • Right now "solo" doesn't unlock any form of progression or achievements. So you absolutely have to play with online players to actually proceed through the campaign as intended. Devs are looking into this apparently, but who knows how long it will take.
In the end, this game ISN'T L4D3, but it's about as close as we will probably ever get to it. The end result feels like a game that certainly could've been better than L4D 1/2 as it's the same dev minus Valve. However, it feels inferior in a variety of ways.

Still a game that's fun with friends? Sure. But I have a feeling in a few weeks the traffic is going to drop off drastically.

Edit: I forgot to add that matchmaking and network woes appear to be a mixed bag. Some folks have no issue, some do. So far I'm in the middle. There also appears to be a big issue with people leaving and/or getting disconnected. So, being forced to play with actual players only to have situations like that pan out is really frustrating.
 
Last edited:

cormack12

Gold Member
And this was all done with players, yeah? It was weird, at one point on PC I quit the game, and launched a bit later and was greeted with a list of achievements unlocking, lol.

So, I'm unsure. I played earlier in the day yesterday with 2 pals and had no issues, though the bot was constantly rubber banding and getting stuck in place. However, I tried to play later with randos, and got disconnected, so then I tried to play Swarm for the first time on retail, and right before it started a player left and the game ended. I got annoyed and quit, lol.

Yeah ive only matchmade because the bots are fucking awful. Dabbing in front of zombies while I'm mobbed on the floor.

Simple question : is this better or worse than Left4Dead?

Overall it's worse but it can be fun. The key differences are:

Trash mobs are still tough. In L4D they would go down after a good melee but in this they are tougher.
The specials spawn loads and get tedious. Like it's possible to have 2 smokers and 3 bloaters in the same horde.
The graphics vary between pretty good to a bit amateur looking.
Some of the weapons and attachment couplings are shit.

I think they just need to reduce the TTK on each difficulty by 20%, and have some rules on ridden card combos
 

Ebele

Member
I played it at a friends house for a bit, and idk i don't really like it tbh. I think its just all the modern day gaming mechanics to it. Like the cards system and having an inventory. I really just prefer the simplicity of Left 4 dead series.
 

Complistic

Member
no it feels weird t me too. messing with the sensitivity and "dead zones" helped a bit. im still messing around with it, but yeah something just feels off about the aiming (on consoles at least)

I'm probably late on this, but i found the aiming improved 100% when i disabled their weird aim assist.
 

bender

What time is it?
Played last night with a buddy and two random players for the first two chapters in Act 1. It's okay?

-The special Ridden (why can't we just call Zombies, Zombies?) while similar, are all a downgrade from L4D. The Boomer stand-in is weird as his explosion range his massive (maybe lag?) and the knockback animation is atrocious.
-They tend to throw special Ridden at you like candy. I guess the idea is to push the team to keep moving.
-I still think an economy system is stupid from a lore standpoint. It feels like needless complexity
-And speaking of needless complexity, the card system. Though I do like level card systems. We drew one last night that added a thick fog to the next level.
-Ditto for the weapon upgrade system.
-The writing is fucking terrible. Almost on the level of Sunset Overdrive.
-Not sure how to feel about the boss Ridden. Also not a fan of shoot the glowing red spot.
-Objective variety seems pretty good. Curious to see if that changes on subsequent playthroughs.
-Level lengths seem consistent which was one of my bigger gripes about L4D/2.
-Runs well on XSX
-Character designs are a miss for me.
 
Last edited:
Any UK time players looking for a group? we need 2 more for playing around 8:30-10:30pm UK time. We are just playing for fun nothing too hardcore or serious. DM me and I'll add you.
 

Bartski

Gold Member
so if you start a run with 3 other people, you can't continue unless you're matched with another 3 as host? Takes ages. Quickplay matches me with someone in a random place of the act I'm in and I can only start a new run in solo. Really?
 

LordPezix

Member
After playing The Ascent with my bros and now this bad mama jamma!! Bought the Ultimate edition, totally fucking worth it.

Full squad of pipe hittin zombie head poppin cracked out mother fuckers.

Nothing but head shots boys.
 
Just played it for 4 hours with friends. Game is fun as fuck altho the mini stutters on series x is getting annoying. Hope they will sort it out
Haven't downloaded the game yet. Honestly kind of hesitant. I don't have a mic and I'm not exactly sure if I'd want to play without one. I have a Series X too.
 

Sygma

Member
release version is way more interesting than the beta, at least the gunplay is nice. Some pretty brutal difficulty spikes (the two first levels of Act 2 are such a shitfest) here and there but once you start getting the right cards for the characters it becomes a cakewalk. Had a doc earlier who could heal 200+ hp and restore one life with any medpack, and played with some extremely sick Hayley dealing 30 000+ dmg in less than 15 mins only using melee

Imho its better to start on recruit for a couple of levels in order to get some cards than jumping straight in veteran because of how the scaling works

And btw speaking of it, game is dumb easy if you play as 2 players - 2 bots. You'll constantly get ammo from the bots and the damage scaling at 2 players is way less severe
 
Last edited:

Kev Kev

Member
Haven't downloaded the game yet. Honestly kind of hesitant. I don't have a mic and I'm not exactly sure if I'd want to play without one. I have a Series X too.
give it a go. im also on xbox and almost never use a mic. if i hear others using them then ill plug mine in, but often times i find no one talks much anyway. i will warn you tho, i expect a lot of tweaks to be made to this game over the next few months, as there are quite few issues (nothing game breaking, but still). so maybe itd be better to wait until they work out all the bugs. but even with that, most people are saying its a blast despite the issues.

also, is that your doggo in your avatar pic? i dont know if you already posted, but im gonna need you to post some pics of that good boy/girl right here --> https://www.neogaf.com/threads/show-me-you-god-damn-dogs-right-now.1615629/ please and thank you :D
 
give it a go. im also on xbox and almost never use a mic. if i hear others using them then ill plug mine in, but often times i find no one talks much anyway. i will warn you tho, i expect a lot of tweaks to be made to this game over the next few months, as there are quite few issues (nothing game breaking, but still). so maybe itd be better to wait until they work out all the bugs. but even with that, most people are saying its a blast despite the issues.

also, is that your doggo in your avatar pic? i dont know if you already posted, but im gonna need you to post some pics of that good boy/girl right here --> https://www.neogaf.com/threads/show-me-you-god-damn-dogs-right-now.1615629/ please and thank you :D
Will download it tomorrow and give it a go. Also, I've posted my boy in that thread so check him out!
 

Yamisan

Member
Game is so shit atm and unable to finish the camp. due to forever wait time looking for team mates. I'll rebuy the game when its <$30 a few months. Bitched at a sony rep until they refund it for being faulty.
 
Played the game up to act 2 and am enjoying it.

And yes its basically Left4Dead with some additional systems. But the card system specifically I feel is an unnecessary addition to make the game seem to have more depth.

From what I played so far would rate it about 7/10. Its fun enough to play with friends. But for all the additional complexity they added, I still don't see the point of playing this more than once. At least not yet.
 

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
Matchmaking is a joke if you want to continue your run. It's getting really old playing the same parts over and over again because I don't want to continue my run with bots. :(

This is something they need addressed. I decided to let it ride and see how long it would take to find a single other player across all platforms who was on the same act as me, and it went for over an hour before I remembered why I even had the game running and gave up. Something has to be broken there. If not, and they're forcefully throttling the creation of ongoing runs for some reason, then they can enjoy a game that will die a premature death.
 

Gravemind

Member
I'm actually a pretty big fan of the forced chat mechanic in this game. Even if you're in a private Xbox live party chat, you will still hear your squad mates talking and they will still be able to hear you.

Chatting with randoms has brought back the mid-2000's xbox live gaming vibes.
 
Top Bottom