It's far from an unfair level of difficulty - in fact, if your team plays well, you can finish missions without significant trouble - but it definitely forces you to stay focused more often than its predecessor did.
There are more special infected, ammo and consumables feel harder to come by, and there are many more opportunities for players to screw up and accidentally attract the attention of the full zombie horde. Even at the lowest difficulty setting, Classic, Back 4 Blood is considerably more difficult than even some of Left 4 Dead's higher difficulties. The apocalypse feels like the apocalypseĪnother thing that makes Back 4 Blood feel different compared to Left 4 Dead is how challenging it is. While you can't buy weapons at these shops - you can only find new guns as you explore each level - the ability to buy ammo and consumables is helpful since it provides players with a way to restock if the AI director decides to get stingy with the spawn rate of supplies. In order to make purchases, you'll need to find small piles of copper, Back 4 Blood's currency, during gameplay. Lastly, there are little "shops" in each level's starting safe room that players can use to buy ammo, consumables, and more before going out to face the apocalypse. It's a little frustrating to not be able to play as the character you want when matchmaking, but thankfully, the character perks only have a small impact on the overall gameplay. If you want to be the team's grenade specialist, pick Hoffman since he automatically gets extra slots for throwables. Therefore, players who like using melee weapons will love using her. For example, Holly, the energetic and wise-cracking punk of the squad, has high stamina and an intrinsic melee damage boost. This system ultimately allows you to take on the zombie horde in a way that feels best for you, which is awesome.īack 4 Blood also gives players more choice with its character-specific perks. Looking to play the support role? Fill your deck up with cards that allow you to carry more bandages and heal teammates more efficiently. Want to be a tanky melee fighter? Build a deck that has lots of health and melee cards. This system allows players to specialize in a way that best fits your preferred playstyle.
As you progress through a campaign's levels, you'll also be able to select additional cards from your deck as well. Once you join a game, you'll be given the opportunity to select a few of the cards you chose out of a randomized collection. Certain cards also give you unique traits, such as increased damage resistance while crouching. For example, one card may boost your reload speed while another might allow you to carry more healing items. Before loading into a match, players can create a deck of 15 cards that each give them benefits and perks. The biggest thing that differentiates Back 4 Blood from Left 4 Dead is its focus on player choice, the bulk of which can be found in the game's card-based deck system. Here's a look at the three main ways that Back 4 Blood differs from Left 4 Dead. After extensively playing the recent Back 4 Blood Closed Alpha, the differences are the main reason why I'm itching to play more as soon as I can. These differences help make Back 4 Blood feel like an evolution of Left 4 Dead rather than a clone of it. However, Back 4 Blood also features some key design choices and gameplay systems that help differentiate the game from its predecessor. With its wide assortment of weapon and utility pickups, unique and advanced "special infected" zombies, and an AI director that keeps playthroughs fresh by influencing zombie and item spawns, Back 4 Blood is, in many ways, simply a better-looking version of the game that players enjoyed over a decade ago (and still do today). It makes sense considering it developed Left 4 Dead when it was still a part of Valve. It's undeniable that Turtle Rock Studios' upcoming co-op zombie shoot-em-up Back 4 Blood is heavily inspired by 2008's Left 4 Dead.