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Back 4 Blood early access and open beta impressions

I didn't dive too far into it but are the cards one-time use? Or do you just collect them and can use them in any game you want?

I was told to "build a deck" and stuffed like every card I had into a "deck" and still had slots left over which seemed...excessive? But then started thinking maybe I burned all those forever.

To my understanding, cards are basically perks that are randomly drawn each round, you select them and they become active until the campaign is completed. Or so I think.
 
Played through the whole campaign last night with a buddy. I was on PS5 he was on X1X. Game over all was pretty fun but imo the auto aim is waaaaaaay to aggressive it will literally snap to targets that are about 4-5 inches away on a 60 in screen. Also the in game voice chat was broke and we had to sync up via phone call. We had a random in our group who could use voice chat on steam but several levels he could not move his character at all.

I hope they can fix these issues before launch but it being only 2 months out i doubt it.

Edit: forgot to mention, the haptics and adaptive triggers are a nice touch. When your stam run low it get harder and harder to swing your melee and the adaptive triggers resistance get hard to pull. Also load times were near instant and i was always waiting on my buddy when heading back to the hub area, this could have been a networking thing though.
 
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My gameshare partner been screaming for a new Left 4Dead for years, like seriously.so last night we ran through damn near all the content in the beta, didn't go to bed until like 7am this morning lol

I wish the animation on the enemies was a little bit better, and some of the guns are overpowered(one of those rifles are a one shot kill for almost everything for instance), but its fun and addictive, good game to play with friends. We're there day one thanks to gamepass
 

bender

What time is it?
There is a beta?!?!?!?! What about me, bender?

tumblr_lcvzv5myBi1qf5ifco1_500.gifv
 

Hezekiah

Banned
Just seen this comment in the recent Eurogamer article. Sounds a bit worrying to be honest:

The annual pass is an example of monetisation, that is locking gameplay content behind a paywall - and since the game has an 'always online' requirement 'tied to progression' that indicates that the whole thing is being run on a service infrastructure, so there's definitely more monetisation to come that we haven't seen yet.

That the 'party leader' owning the content determines if it is available isn't the worst thing in the world - but it also implies the game is probably hosted locally by the party leader, so the online requirement is purely about monetisation and not about dedicated server infrastructure.
 

iorek21

Member
I like the gameplay, but it feels more like a Back 4 Countdown than anything else... jeez.

This game has timers for everything: 3 minutes to choose a freaking card, 5 minutes to scavenge, 2 minutes to be ready, 1 minute for taking a piss.

Devs don't really respect player's time, do they?
 

Jeeves

Member
I really don't like all the choices the game has you make. The characters all play different so you have to compare those options, then you have to decide on a card between each round, then in the safe room you can shop with your currency but there's way too many choices. There are so many weapons and equipment items, and each weapon has like four different upgrade items you can use on it. I want to be out shooting, not sitting around comparing 10% boosts to bullshit substats.

I'd much rather be playing Left 4 Dead, preferably the first one where the choices were quick, organic, impactful and pared down to the essential elements.
 

Kev Kev

Member
Games literally just a current day L4D, idk what everyone was expecting. I freaking love it.
its a little different at first with the cards and stuff. i think thats throwing people off a bit.

but yeah im enjoying it as well. the movement and being being able to jump and clamber everywhere feels great, the cards arent as complicated as i first thought and its just fun as hell. and its only in beta so im liking where this game is going.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
I really don't like all the choices the game has you make. The characters all play different so you have to compare those options, then you have to decide on a card between each round, then in the safe room you can shop with your currency but there's way too many choices. There are so many weapons and equipment items, and each weapon has like four different upgrade items you can use on it. I want to be out shooting, not sitting around comparing 10% boosts to bullshit substats.

I'd much rather be playing Left 4 Dead, preferably the first one where the choices were quick, organic, impactful and pared down to the essential elements.

Yeah I'm not digging this. If I had to rate the three big competitors at the moment, it would look this this

Zombie Army 4 -> World War Z -> Back 4 Blood

You can see the L4D inspirations and credit for trying others systems and stuff but they don't really work well imo. The treacle effect when a trash zombie hits you is stupid and way too much. The cards system and weapons rarity and the attachments are all too convoluted. Then there is copper and stuff between rounds?!? The appeal of the games is the pick up and play aspect of them not whatever this is, though I hope it does find an audience for the devs.
 
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VN1X

Banned
I really don't like all the choices the game has you make. The characters all play different so you have to compare those options, then you have to decide on a card between each round, then in the safe room you can shop with your currency but there's way too many choices. There are so many weapons and equipment items, and each weapon has like four different upgrade items you can use on it. I want to be out shooting, not sitting around comparing 10% boosts to bullshit substats.

I'd much rather be playing Left 4 Dead, preferably the first one where the choices were quick, organic, impactful and pared down to the essential elements.
Huh weird I didn't have that experience at all. You just use the shops to upgrade your weapons that you've picked up off the ground. Maybe get some bandages or painmeds and that's that. No need to sweat over all the other stuff? Just get health + upgrades + utility and done.
 
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Shwing

Member
Played the beta on PC with 2 other mates. Was fun enough, but nothing new or exciting tbh. No way worthy of a full price purchase imo.
I think the fact we only played it the one night speaks volumes.
 

Kev Kev

Member
in case anyone missed it (i did at first) there is a shooting range in your "lobby" area (the military base looking area youre in before you start a game). you can test out every gun, mod, melee weapon and grenade types on dummys that show how much damage each weapon hits for. it was super helpful in giving me handle on what weapons i like and dont, and what weapons are effective or not. and its just kind of fun to fuck around with.

i also didnt like the cards at first, and even now they could go away and it wouldnt hurt my feelings, but after a few rounds and reading through them, they arent as complicated as i first thought. it does change up the gameplay a bit, but its nothing huge (+20% ammo, +15 health, +2 health when using melee, etc). i get why people dont like them (hell like i said im not really a huge fan of them, but they really arent that complicated once you read through them)

they just should have introduced them more slowly. i know its only a beta, but they drop you right in the middle of all this mess and its confusing as hell and really puts people off. bad choice imo. but give the cards a chance, theyre really not all that bad, and can offer some helpful buffs in gameplay.

the best thing about cards is every time you die you get another card, so the game actually gets a bit easier for those who keep dying. that seems backwards, but the fact is that most of us are going to use quick play and end up with randoms who fuck the game up. so when we die because of those randoms, we get to add some buffs to help get through the level. obviously with a solid team you wont die and wont need those extra cards, and i think you get a bigger reward for completing a run with no continues, so there is still incentive to not die.

im really looking forward to playing more tonite. they have a lot of work left to do, and i think the game would have been better off without cards and all that bullshit, but after getting over that, im having a blast.
 
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Haggard

Banned
I like the gameplay, but it feels more like a Back 4 Countdown than anything else... jeez.

This game has timers for everything: 3 minutes to choose a freaking card, 5 minutes to scavenge, 2 minutes to be ready, 1 minute for taking a piss.

Devs don't really respect player's time, do they?
You do realize, that there are "ready" buttons each player can press which cancel the countdown if all have pressed them? At least that`s how it is on PC. I never had to wait for more than ~30s until everyone had chosen his cards etc.
What sometimes takes longer is for all players to actually load into the map.
 
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Kev Kev

Member
You do realize, that there are "ready" buttons each player can press which cancel the countdown if all have pressed them? At least that`s how it is on PC. I never had to wait for more than ~30s until everyone had chosen his cards etc.
What sometimes takes longer is for all players to actually load into the map.
I’ve had to wait 4-5 minutes per match for some people. Seems like 60 seconds should be enough. Don’t know why they are giving people that much time. It gets to the point that I’m wondering if they are grieving the team lol. I mean, at least let us hit the shop while waiting for them. As it is we just have to sit there and shoot or stab the fucker making us wait lol
 

Xdrive05

Member
Copying my performance report from the other thread:

MSI B450 Tomahawk
Ryzen 2600 @ 4.2 GHz
16GB DDR4 @ 3200 Mhz
GTX 980 4GB @ 1500Mhz/3700Mhz vram

= always over 60fps @ 1080p on "Epic" preset, and almost always over 100fps on "High" preset, with Gsync on a 240hz display <- preferred way to play.

I am VERY impressed with the optimization. I'm sure they had to do that in order to get it to run decently on last gen consoles.

As for the game, I haven't had that much time to play it yet, but it seems at least solid. Surprisingly polished for a beta. But I need more time with it, and I need to find a good crew to play with. I keep getting paired with Xbox people with no microphone.
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
Played through the whole campaign last night with a buddy. I was on PS5 he was on X1X. Game over all was pretty fun but imo the auto aim is waaaaaaay to aggressive it will literally snap to targets that are about 4-5 inches away on a 60 in screen. Also the in game voice chat was broke and we had to sync up via phone call. We had a random in our group who could use voice chat on steam but several levels he could not move his character at all.

I hope they can fix these issues before launch but it being only 2 months out i doubt it.

Edit: forgot to mention, the haptics and adaptive triggers are a nice touch. When your stam run low it get harder and harder to swing your melee and the adaptive triggers resistance get hard to pull. Also load times were near instant and i was always waiting on my buddy when heading back to the hub area, this could have been a networking thing though.
You can disable or turn up/down auto aim. I turned it off and it’s much better, it’s basically cod single player snap to target with it on.

It’s L4D3, great graphics and runs like a dream on series x, but it just feels like a game from 10 years ago at this point. Walk here, kill the zombies. Walk here, press the button that alerts the zombies, kill the zombies. Safe room. Rinse and repeat.

Really need to be able to carry multiples of items in the one slot, a single Molotov for example isn’t enough. Needs more weapon customisation that you can unlock and then use from the start.

Oh and the bots just literally teleport in front of your eyes lol c

Went from a buy to a probably won’t even play on game pass for me unfortunately.
 
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Kev Kev

Member
is the open beta available for every one? including people who were in the early beta?

i was having a blast by the final run. we stayed and played an hour or so after the cut off time. pretty cool because they probably could have killed the switch and booted us but they let people finish off their runs, even use all their continues/ i was with group of guys, we all had mics, and he struggled on the bridge level (of course, that was the hardest imo). but we finally beat, had to use another continue somewhere in the latter 4 missions, but by the end we were coordinated and working effectively as a team. by he time we got to the last level we were so prepared that we breezed through the loading the missile gun section.

the game still has a long way to go, and i wasnt a fan of the cards at first, but im definitely ready to by this game in release now. it was scratching the left 4 dead itch just right. oh, and i also could do without the iron sights, but thats just an FPS standard now, unfortunately. but i got over that as well so, no biggie...

anyone else out there really enjoy and gonna join to open beta tomorrow?
 
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Naru

Member
As you would expect: modern L4D. I was never a big L4D fan but I could see myself getting this. Solid crossplay is key here though. Is the beta open on consoles too? Did anyone play with console users on PC?
 
Crossplay is ace. The game itself... not so much. The visuals are very much outdated. It looks like they remastered the old games, added some fx and shaders, upped the res and called it a day. Same goes for gameplay. This game feels like it came out 15 years ago. I was on the fence with this but imma just upgrade my World War Z GOTY Edition when the new content drops. It's the better zombie co-op shooter imho.
 

engstra

Member
Played it last night with some friends, I think all of our impressions were a MEH.
The gunplay was fine although didn't really feel like there was any impact to hits. I think the main thing that struck me was that it just felt like Warzone. Feels like we spent most of our time running around picking up items and ammo rather than worrying about the enemies ahead. Card system feels out of place. The enemy types were pretty underwhelming, didn't feel very diverse. All have some boils on them on some part of their body that you need to aim for.
If I had an Xbox, getting this on gamepass would be cool but I can't see myself paying money for this.
 

bender

What time is it?
Crossplay is ace. The game itself... not so much. The visuals are very much outdated. It looks like they remastered the old games, added some fx and shaders, upped the res and called it a day. Same goes for gameplay. This game feels like it came out 15 years ago. I was on the fence with this but imma just upgrade my World War Z GOTY Edition when the new content drops. It's the better zombie co-op shooter imho.

Not defending Back 4 Blood, but what drove me away from WWZ was the level up system. Count me in the cam that just liked the simplicity of L4D. I don't really get the point of the card system in Back 4 Blood and collecting money/having shops in a safe houses just feels really out of place.
 
I don't get the point of being a melee character in this game, it's just a hack fest and then the monster with the long arm comes along and all you can do is run away
 
Not defending Back 4 Blood, but what drove me away from WWZ was the level up system. Count me in the cam that just liked the simplicity of L4D. I don't really get the point of the card system in Back 4 Blood and collecting money/having shops in a safe houses just feels really out of place.
I actually liked the simplicity of the level-up system of WWZ. It kept me engaged. I don't see that happening with B4B. And yes.. The card system is not very well designed and explained.
 

Vae_Victis

Banned
Seems like and OK game overall, but I don't see myself spending €60 on this. Especially since it's not impossible it will die in the next 6 months.
  • The gunplay is good enough, but nothing more.
  • Zombies are basically identical to the ones from L4D, not terrible but nothing to write home about.
  • Level design seems decent.
  • Visually decent, but again nothing spectacular. At least it runs fine on good PC hardware without frame pacing issues and other developer-end problems.
  • Some imbalanced weapons and strange add-on effects. Machetes and bats deal like 15-20 damage, axes deal 120-140, and they swing at around the same rate. Putting different scopes on weapons literally increases their damage or range. Weird design choices.
  • Bots are abysmal, they shoot you as much as the enemies and literally commit suicide by jumping off roofs for no reason whatsoever.
  • Connection issues, half the time spent trying to launch a match, even though it should in theory be player-hosted.
  • The fact it's player-hosted but it still refuses to let you do anything (even the co-op mode) unless you are matched to some TurtleRock server, combined with the card system and the "pass-like" linear unlock progression of items and cosmetics, screams micro-transactions coming soon.
 
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the very heart and dna of l4d is 100% in this and its great, with friends even better, reminds me of the good old days. but man the game is also buggy, the AI is stupid, the movement is slow and feels way shittier than l4d, i know its a beta but they went gold the other day. $60? gonna be a hard pass
 

splattered

Member
Didn't play a ton of the beta but didn't think too highly of it either... sucks because i really enjoyed play L4D series w my wife. Went ahead and cancelled the preorder and put the money towards FH5 Premium instead. Money better spent right there.
 

Uiki

Member
  • The fact it's player-hosted but it still refuses to let you do anything (even the co-op mode) unless you are matched to some TurtleRock server, combined with the card system and the "pass-like" linear unlock progression of items and cosmetics, screams micro-transactions coming soon.
e02e5ffb5f980cd8262cf7f0ae00a4a9_press-x-to-doubt-memes-memesuper-la-noire-doubt-meme_419-238.png
 

GametimeUK

Member
Here we go. Judging the game for what we epected it to be instead for what it is : )
I've been guilty of this in the past, but it is really cringe to see other people doing it too. Despite that I haven't seem many people actually like the contents for the game much either. I need to get round to trying it.
 

Derktron

Banned
Yeah, first impressions weren't what I expected, I expected it to be different and I felt like the game wasn't what I expected it to be. It felt generic and felt bland. It looked and played like any other game of this category would play. Maybe when it comes out on Gamepass I'll give it a shot and try it again with an open mind.
 

kunonabi

Member
As somebody who didn't care for L4D at all I don't mind this for some reason. It's not amazing but considering how limited cross play options are for my friends it's servicible. That said campaigns seem way too long to me and I think some minor enemy balancing is needed.
 

CuNi

Member
They managed to turn a PvE game into a PvP game. And I mean the coop campaign.

The weapon randomness encourages a mentality of always picking up the beast weapon regardless of type that you can find instead of diverse group layout. When the game dropped us God tier weapons in the shop, everyone got them so everyone was running with the same gun and competing for the same ammo. It managed to turn coop players against each other as everyone if low on health wanted to be the first one to a medkit for the free heal, snag up all the ammo or get to that weapon drop first. Many people prefer carrying a tool kit to open the rooms with better weapons first and get the good guns first instead of ammo boxes or first aid etc.

It's a L4D successor with focus on the worst aspects of it. The only good thing about the game was the idea of a card system, which is poorly implemented and the graphics.

It's a okay game that is worth 30$ at max if you like this kind of game and run it with a full group of friends. Else maybe 20$ tops.
There is nothing you can say that will justify it being 60$.
 

Giles

Member
Played it last night for the first time and tbh it just felt cluttered. I was a fan of L4D but it had a more simplistic approach. Convoluted pick ups and loot system etc just seems to be the way online shooters are these days and maybe I should stick to single player lol

I miss the days of pick up and play arena shooters.
 
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