Even now, Left 4 Dead 2 is a game that my friends and I play quite a lot. When I heard about Back 4 Blood and that it was being made by the people who created Left 4 Dead, I was all in. This is a game that is available on Xbox Game Pass and it was on day one, while I love my PS5, Game Pass is the best deal in gaming by quite some margin.
How to Download Back 4 Blood
To download the game, click on the Download button at the end of the review. Choose a digital store such as Epic Games Store, Steam, Microsoft Store, or PlayStation Store.
The Game Review
The setting for Back 4 Blood is a post-apocalyptic world where the undead roams free. You play as one of a handful of different characters called “cleaners” as you try to stay alive. The characters talk to each other like they did in Left 4 Dead and the story is actually way more light-hearted than you would think. I love the humor here; it feels very natural and not forced at all.
This is the kind of game that you have to play with other people to get the best out of it. The campaign is a decent length with some great variety to the areas. Unlike Left 4 Dead, Back 4 Blood offers more than just going from your safe room to the next one. While there is some of that here, you will also have various objectives that you need to complete as well.
You have to work as a team and watch each other’s backs. It can start off pretty slow and you think you have this, but things can get out of control very quickly. I will say that the difficulty in this game is really unbalanced. We played on the easiest setting and were having fun, but we found it a tad too easy.
We kicked it up to the middle difficulty and the spike was insane, to the point where it felt completely unfair. Hopefully, they will rebalance this later, but as of now, if you want to have fun, play on the easiest setting. Fun is really the best way to describe Back 4 Blood. It is just so much fun to plow through a horde of crazy zombies with your friends.
The gunplay here is excellent, I am more of a sub-machine gun man myself, but there is a great selection of guns and melee weapons. You can also find various attachments for your guns in each area too if you look around which can give you a real edge against the horde.
One aspect of the game that is very unique to a shooter like this is the deck building. That is right, Back 4 Blood has deckbuilding and it is awesome! I will admit, that I thought this was going to be a pain in the butt, but it is an essential part of the game and helps you make your character truly unique.
You will come across cards as you play and the idea is that before a run, you build a deck and then you get the buffs that the card offers. I like to play fast, so I focused on stamina and once I made my deck, I could save it so I could quickly select it later. You can have many different decks saved so you can play around and have some real fun with this gameplay mechanic.
There is also a PvP game mode here too called Swarm Mode and I have to say that this mode is not for me. The idea of Swarm Mode is great, a team of cleaners going up against a team of zombies. However, the zombies are way too overpowered, I have never lost a game when I have been playing as the zombies, but I have also never won a game playing as a cleaner.
I knew that I was going to enjoy Back 4 Blood, but it completely went beyond my expectations. I am pretty sure this is going to replace Left 4 Dead 2 for me and my friends and that is the best compliment I can give it! I do hope that they address the balancing issues but to be fair, as I write this the game has only been out a short while.
