The Zombie Shooter Back 4 Blood was able to excite many players on Steam over the weekend – but not the PvP mode. It is an absolute disaster.
In recent days, the beta of Back 4 Blood took place, allowing a glimpse into the upcoming zombie shooter. Together with three friends, I shot my way through the various modes for almost 20 hours, sending several thousand zombies to the great beyond.
My first impression: The game is going to be really awesome for everyone who enjoys cooperative shooting action like in Left 4 Dead. But there is a huge problem: The PvP mode is a disaster and makes so many mistakes that it is practically stillborn.
But before I start with the problems, I want to first explain what the PvP mode actually is.
Rounds-based PvP with guaranteed death
In the PvP mode of Back 4 Blood, 4 Cleaners (humans) face off against 4 Ridden (zombies). Team A plays as humans first and Team B as zombies. Games are played on relatively small maps, where you simply have to defend the environment. There is no objective location, such as a safe room.
Team A now tries to survive as long as possible. They choose maps from their decks (essentially “perks”) and must manage the sparse resources scattered across the map. They also have a brief minute for preparation before the zombies attack.
There are a total of three regular waves of zombies, and after each wave, there is a short interval during which the “swarm” moves. The swarm marks a kind of death zone and limits the area where the humans can stay without suffering permanent damage. Thus, the playing field gradually shrinks, as seen in “Battle Royale” titles. It is therefore not possible to simply barricade yourself in a room from the beginning, as it will soon be overtaken by the swarm.
If the humans survive all 3 waves – which takes approximately 5 minutes – a final, endless wave of zombies comes. The swarm has restricted the playing field to a radius of maybe 5 meters, so it’s only a matter of seconds before the zombie players win.
When the last human goes down, the two teams switch. Team A now takes on the role of the zombies, while Team B plays the humans.
The zombies are divided into different classes, such as:
- Tallboy, a slow but devastating close-combat fighter
- Reeker, a large zombie that can spit poison and explode
- Stinger, an agile but fragile zombie that can pin down survivors
Zombies can be upgraded during the match – both the players’ special zombies and the normal zombies. This is done through mutation points that you automatically gain over time and through bonuses when you deal damage to the humans.
The time previously accrued by Team A is now the time limit to beat. If Team B manages to last longer than Team A, Team B wins this round. If the zombies manage to eliminate Team A before they reach the time limit, the victory goes to Team B.
After that, the whole process is repeated on two other maps, as it is a “Best of 3”.
Too much preparation for too little gameplay
What sounds like a cool concept on paper fails at so many corners and edges that the fun of the game completely falls by the wayside.
Particularly bitter is the relationship between preparation time and actual gameplay. It’s simply terrible.
- Each round begins with 75 seconds during which the Cleaners can select their cards. Zombies choose their character during this time and wait.
- Then there are another 60-70 seconds during which the Cleaners have time to search the map for equipment and prepare their defense. Zombies choose a possible spawn point – and wait for the rest of the time.
- Then comes the actual match, where the Cleaners usually survive between 2 and 5 minutes. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
- Then the teams switch and the whole thing starts again.
Or in other words: Each round has, on average, just as much preparation time as actual gameplay for both sides.
Left 4 Dead set the precedent, Back 4 Blood leaves it out
Extremely harsh is also the comparison to its predecessors and thus also to the templates Left 4 Dead – Parts 1 and 2. Here, all maps of the campaign missions could also be played in PvP. The survivors tried to get as far as possible, while the zombies had to ensure that the survivors died as early as possible. The further a survivor progressed, the more points were awarded.
This is where all the different campaign maps could have been utilized. In Left 4 Dead it was incredibly fun to hold up the survivors on campaign maps and eat them or, as a survivor, just barely reach the safe room to earn a lot of points. Various strategies from “we all rush to the goal in panic” to “we go slowly and cautiously” were possible. This made each match feel unique.
Exactly this variety, which makes Back 4 Blood grand in the co-op campaign, is completely lost in the PvP mode in its current form.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a few maps where you simply have to last a certain amount of time. That would indeed be interesting as part of a variety of maps. But that all maps are solely “defend this point until your death” is sad and leaves the PvP mode far, far behind expectations and potential.
A final major point is the lack of feeling of satisfaction that arises from playing as a human. In Left 4 Dead, there was always a possible endpoint. A safe room or an event that the humans had to reach to achieve the maximum score and thus practically win.
In Back 4 Blood, this does not exist. The humans die. Guaranteed. There is no survival. No matter how well the team fights, the mode is designed so that you are overwhelmed and killed at the latest beyond the 5-minute mark. Even if you survive for a fantastic time of 8 or 9 minutes, death awaits at the end. Thus, a victory never feels like a real victory, no matter how well you played.
Problems that (hopefully) only exist in the beta
Additionally, there are numerous other issues that were extremely disruptive during the beta but likely relate to being in beta. However, I will briefly mention them here for the sake of completeness:
- Matches were almost never played 4vs4. Almost immediately, one or more players leave the match. There are no substitutes, and missing players are not temporarily replaced by bots. If a player leaves, they are simply missing and it is a huge disadvantage.
- Connection problems exacerbated the first issue. There were often error messages from the server.
- Even if the entire opposing team has disappeared, the match does not end. The mode simply continues regardless of whether there is anything to do or not.
But at least these last three problems are likely due to the fact that it was just a beta and that there were no penalties for disconnects – although it might be better for server stability.
The community is also angry
By the way, I’m not alone in my dissatisfaction with this game mode. In the Back 4 Blood subreddit, hardly anything else has been discussed regarding the PvP other than all the shortcomings of this mode (via reddit.com).
As potatoflavoredbrain writes:
I would kill for campaign PvP (zombies, of course). Honestly, for anything that isn’t this current circle arena PvP crap. Presumably, campaign PvP was in the planning, but [due to Covid] it was probably discarded.
shdavistx sees it just as drastically:
The PvP mode is an absolute joke. Everyone wanted the game mode from L4D2 PvP. Whoever made the decision that “swarm” is the PvP mode needs to be fired.
BamboozledByCrocs sees the whole thing a bit more positively:
I believe that if they have to, it should be relatively easy for the developers to incorporate campaign versus. The campaign maps already exist. It is just a matter of whether the community as a whole demands it.
Conclusion: PvP could be so much better if the developers just want it
What annoys me the most: The pure gameplay is fun. It’s fun to shoot zombies controlled by players. It’s fun to play zombies that attack survivors while slowly leveling up and unlocking new talents. The fundamental gameplay of “zombie versus survivor” is really enjoyable, but all the “surroundings” is pure torture and so much worse than it could be.
If the developers want the PvP mode in Back 4 Blood to be more than just a nice addition, but really to motivate and entertain over the long run, then a lot needs to be done. It’s not enough to simply polish a little; massive work is required to completely revamp the PvP.
And if I’m honest, I simply don’t believe there is enough time for that before the release of the game in October. I can only hope that the developers take the time and energy after the launch to fundamentally revise the PvP and give players what they want: the campaign levels in PvP style, like in Left 4 Dead. Because anything else is doomed to fail at this point.
In Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, I clocked almost 1,000 hours, with surely around 700 in the Versus mode and its various variations. However, in the PvP of Back 4 Blood, I’ve already seen enough after about 5 hours to think: “Better just go back to co-op.”
Back 4 Blood has other problems too – such as a zombie that seemingly racially insults streamers.
