What is the Early Access of Back 4 Blood? “So-so,” says zombie fan Cortyn from MeinMMO and explains what urgently needs to be patched.
The Early Access of Back 4 Blood has started. Since October 7, buyers of the two premium versions have been able to jump into the zombie shooter and blow the undead lights out of the worm-infested zombies.
It becomes clear within minutes that a lot has changed since the beta. Many criticisms have indeed been addressed and improved. In some cases, however, they have gone overboard and should quickly release a patch.
Too many special infected from all directions
The special zombies, such as Tallboy, Exploder, or Snitch, appeared relatively rarely in the beta. Only occasionally did you see these special variants, which annoyed many players.
Some developer at Back 4 Blood must have read that and laughed maniacally while twisting the spawn properties with a “You want more? Then you get more!” Because now the maps are full of special infected. There are hardly 20 seconds without a Tallboy shuffling around the corner or an Exploder appearing – even on the lowest difficulty level.
That alone wouldn’t be so bad, but it becomes a real game changer due to another factor:
Zombies and special infected now also spawn more frequently behind you from rooms that you thought you had already cleared.
This leads to a whole array of gameplay changes that I perceive as a deterioration. Because the game clearly tells you: Be quick. Step on it. The longer you take, the harder it gets.
Slow, careful approaches are punished more heavily, and the ability to fall back to “safe” defense points is completely eliminated since a new special zombie can appear at any time from the small side room.
However, I do understand the intent behind this change. In the beta, players could almost permanently return to the last safe room to stock up on items and ammunition before the final battle. That simply wasn’t good game design and made the matches more boring.
A better solution would be to simply let the door to the safe room close after a certain distance instead of now blocking the entire path back with new special infected and zombies.
Because the “Cleaners” currently cannot do one task at all: clean. Cleared areas are quickly repopulated by special infected. That feels wrong and pushes towards a “rush-rush” playstyle, overshadowing any other playstyle.
PvP mode: Who is too good will be punished
The PvP mode of Back 4 Blood, also known as “Swarm,” is not popular with all players. Especially veterans from Left 4 Dead find it significantly worse than the versus campaign.
However, there is a group of players who have warmed up to the Swarm mode and would like to play it. But in the early access version of the game, there is a huge, serious flaw:
If one team leaves the match, the other team completely ends up empty-handed.
Currently, it is like this: Team A plays as zombies very well and wipes out Team B of the Cleaners within a few seconds. Team B thus sees the match as already lost and simply leaves.
Team A now receives the notification that the match is canceled because there are too few players. Team A gets nothing – because they played well and defeated the opponents soundly.
This handling is completely absurd. In 2021, it should be an absolute standard in game design that in a PvP match, side A automatically wins if side B gives up and leaves the game.
If you fear that players will then conspire and pass victories to each other – take action against it. Anyone who leaves PvP matches before the end receives a matchmaking ban that continues to increase. Repeat offenders are simply thrown into a separate matchmaking pool after a while, from which they can only exit if they complete X matches in a row without disconnecting.
We live in the year 2021. Launching PvP modes with such teething problems is simply no longer justifiable. This problem has been predictable since online games have existed.
A lot has improved since the beta
However, I want to make it clear that not “everything is bad” in Back 4 Blood. Some things have indeed improved since the beta and many aspects that were already good in the beta remain excellent.
- Blood and body parts everywhere: The most noticeable change for everyone is: The game finally has gore. If you shoot a Tallboy in its weak spot, eventually its large, menacing arm falls off. Other zombies regularly splatter into pieces – just as you would expect from Left 4 Dead. This greatly contributes to the atmosphere.
- Trauma damage better treatable: Feedback has been heard. Thus, medkits and bandages are now able to heal trauma damage, at least if the team has purchased upgrades for healing items. This makes healing items more relevant and also motivates players to take on a character as a “supporter.”
- Bots are helpful: Lastly, bots have become significantly smarter and more useful. They now regularly and – as was my first impression – quite sensibly use their own items, such as pipe bombs. If you run out of ammunition, they immediately show up and drop some of their own supply so you can keep shooting.
It is clear to me that Back 4 Blood urgently needs a patch, preferably right on release day. Because some of the problems could frustrate players who were convinced by the beta. It would be much, much better with a few tweaks and fine adjustments.
Back 4 Blood is a good co-op game – but with a few adjustments, it could be even better. We can only hope that the developers will quickly bring changes so that the official launch does not turn out to be a nasty surprise.
