The co-op zombie shooter Left 4 Dead has left a legacy in the gaming industry. With many different games using the same mechanics, it's no wonder that many want this FPS series back. Featuring the iconic Witch as one of the scariest enemies in the genre, Left 4 Dead made fighting the zombie hordes actually terrifying.
However, thanks to the resurging popularity of the zombie shooter, Left 4 Dead lives on in one of the most anticipated games of Fall 202, Back 4 Blood. Much like Left 4 Dead, Back 4 Blood relies heavily on teamwork, strategy, and communication. Not all is peachy in Back 4 Blood though. As the game just came out, it has a lot of game-breaking bugs and other issues that ruin the experience. Here are the most important fixes that the game needs in order to make things feel right.
5 The Card System & AI Director Issues
Even though there's a handful of differences between the two, Back 4 Blood is still fundamentally the same game as Left 4 Dead. However, certaon differences are big enough the make the two standfrom one another. For example one of the new mechanics introduced in Back 4 Blood is the card system. Much like in Titanfall, the card system gives the player perks that they can use during each run. The more the player builds up the deck, up the stronger they become.
The issue with the cards involves the game's AI director. This AI impacts the course of the game depending on what supplies and perks the players have acquired, meaning that each run-through of the same level is different. Unfortunately, if the card equipped is especially good or of high rarity, the AI director can make the game unbalanced. Thus, the better perks the player has, the harder the game becomes. Now the overwhelming parts are even more intense. Tweaking this could go a long way towards balancing the game.
4 The A.I. Glitches & Intelligence Issues
One of the reasons fans have been clamoring for a Left 4 Dead comeback is because of how ahead of time the game was. One factor that made it such a joy to play was, and still is, the game's A.I. Players appreciated how smart the A.I. was; however, the story is different in Back 4 Blood. While the A.I. does pull its weight, it has its issues.
Playing alone with A.I. can hinder the experience in Back 4 Blood because of how computer-controlled allies act. For example, they tend to bunch up closely together, making easy targets for the Ridden zombies. These allies can be effective when calling out special zombies, but also will run straight towards one rather than deal with common ones to help control the horde size.
In addition to the A.I. being less intelligent than its predecessor, it's also riddled with glitches. CPU allies will walk in place staying at checkpoints, or flat out not move when they need to. All these things can make things difficult for the player, because the A.I. is so unresponsive.
3 The Matchmaking
Players will run into most of Back 4 Blood's issues when it comes to this area. The game's matchmaking is limited for now, but developers Turtle Rock may expand or fix it on a later date.
Back 4 Blood features expanded acts and chapters to make it feel bigger than Left 4 Dead. Unfortunately, Back 4 Blood more or less forces gamers to play each act in one sitting. If a player leaves the game and begins matchmaking on the chapter in which they left off, it becomes nearly impossible to start off at the correct part. This makes the story harder to follow, because the matchmaking forces players to jump around if they can't get a match they want. These issues are gone if the player gets three others to join them; otherwise, though, it's a challenge to get back into where the player left off. Resolving this issue would go a long way in helping players enjoy the story at their own pace.
2 Weapon Balance
Most of the weapons in the game are fine, but they do need some fine-tuning. Back 4 Blood's guns are either either exceptionally good or terrible; there's no in-between. This throws off the balance —if one player has a gun that doesn't do that much damage, it makes the game harder and things get more chaotic.
Since Back 4 Blood is still fresh, buffs may be incoming, but right now it's hard to keep on top of things. Snipers, for example, may seem like they're doing damage, but players will find themselves emptying a clip into a zombie just to take it down. Most of the guns in all the classes need some a few tweaks to make those shots more impactful, some more than others.
1 The Difficulty Scaling
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Back 4 Blood features three levels of difficulty: Classic, Survivor, and Nightmare, which correspond to tutorial, normal, and very hard. However, those difficulties don't really deliver what most players expect, and don't scale evenly from one to the next.
The game's classic difficulty is so easy that it takes players out of the experience of a zombie apocalypse, and it doesn't really show the best parts of the game. Conversely, the Nightmare difficulty is almost impossible with random players online, because at that level Back 4 Blood is all about communication and strategy. Even if players take their friends online, it's extremely difficult to coordinate. The game gives little to no direction at the Nightmare difficulty, forcing players to learn as they go — which is hard to do when there's so much chaos around.