The whole story of Back 4 Blood cannot be experienced in a single run. There are several reasons for this, but also cool effects on the players.
In a few days, the release of Back 4 Blood is coming, but not all details about the game are known yet. Especially the exact extent of the campaign is still a mystery. However, a cool detail has already been revealed: Those who want to experience the whole story will have to play through the campaign multiple times.
Where did the info come from? From an interview with GameSpot with lead writer Simon Mackenzie. He spoke extensively about the story and why it will be necessary to play through the game multiple times.
What was said? In addition to hardcore zombie action, Back 4 Blood places a comparatively large focus on the story of the 8 characters. However, since only 4 of them can be in a group at the same time and players can mix these combinations wildly, a lot of dialogues had to be recorded.
As a consequence, many dialogues will only be played when experimenting a bit and swapping out team members.
We have cinematics, and this is basically the ‘historical version’ of the events as they unfold in the game, with the characters that are there being my ‘golden path’. […]
Nevertheless, all Cleaners have different stories when you have them. They talk about each other – focusing either on their own character or the overarching story. So you’ll get [often] a different experience, and I hope people play with different Cleaners.
Back 4 Blood also repeatedly gives small hints that one might want to play a mission again with a different team. Mackenzie explains:
If Hoffman is not in the group, then someone says: ‘Why didn’t Hoffman come along? He was so excited like a little puppy.’
These little sentences provide hints that for the next run, one should perhaps rotate the squad a bit to learn more about the story, the thoughts, and opinions of all characters. By changing team compositions, you learn more and more about each character.
In general, Back 4 Blood is supposed to provide significantly more story and also quieter moments than it may have seemed in the beta, as voice actress Barbara Crampton revealed:
I believe people will be surprised at how deep some of the character moments are. We learn something about where the Cleaners were before the collapse, how they felt, and what happened to them. There are some characters – like Hoffman – who are just obsessed with conspiracy theories around this thing, but for others, like Mom, family is very important, which is why we keep hearing about the loss of her son. That drives her, this sense of family and community, but it also means she stands up and confronts some when she believes the risk is unacceptable.
What does the story look like? In the beta of Back 4 Blood, not much of the story was visible yet. Although there were small snippets of dialogue between the characters, there hasn’t been much more to see so far. However, it is now clear that there will be a whole series of cutscenes to tell the story of Back 4 Blood. So those who thought there would only be camera pans, like in the “Left 4 Dead” parts, are mistaken.
Many details will likely be told “in passing” when there are quieter passages in the maps. Those who are interested in all the information about the game world and the characters will therefore have to actively switch things up and complete multiple runs through all the maps.
How extensive is the game? There are no official statements yet, but based on some leaks and the connection of the information, the rough extent can already be guessed at.
- It is known that during the beta, only one half of an act was playable – which consisted of a total of 8 maps. An act thus has about 14-16 maps.
- There will be a total of 4 acts.
If all acts have approximately the same length, there are between 56 and 60 different maps. Completing them at the highest difficulty level will likely take experienced co-op teams quite a while.
How much time players need for this will also depend on the difficulty. At the easiest difficulty, many maps can be completed in 3 – 5 minutes. As it gets harder, it can extend to up to 30 minutes.
How large the game actually is will be revealed next week –when the early access of Back 4 Blood starts.
