Back 4 Blood is finding itself trapped in yet another controversy, as players who choose solo mode are greeted with a nasty progression block. The multiplayer zombie survival-shooter's player reception is quickly shifting from mostly positive to somewhat mixed as Back 4 Blood players discover strange decisions that negatively affect gameplay.
Hailed as the resurrection of team survival-shooters, Back 4 Blood was initially met with positive reactions from fans before the developers and publisher began revealing confusing design decisions and gameplay-limiting factors. The game comes from the studio behind Left 4 Dead, but it is beginning to lose its positive image among fans.
The current version of Back 4 Blood prompts the player with a message stating that maps and objectives will be changed and player invites are disabled; adjustments expected for a solo mode. However, the final entries on the list of changes made from multiplayer have players concerned. Supply Points, achievements, and even stat tracking are all disabled for singleplayer mode. Since Supply Points as an in-game currency are a major part of player progression in Back 4 Blood, this essentially means singleplayer mode gives players an inherent disadvantage as compared to multiplayer where the points can be used to purchase ability cards.
The developers at Turtle Rock Studios sent out a short response on Twitter, promising to address the issue. Hopefully, those who prefer singleplayer will have a better experience in the future, since right now the progression issues remove much of the game's appeal for solo players. While Back 4 Blood is designed for co-operative multiplayer, survival-shooters generally do not limit singleplayer as much as basic player progression. On top of the Denuvo DRM being implemented, the indimidating state of Back 4 Blood may drive some players away.
Turtle Rock Studios' response could lead to positive changes, but it also begs the question of why this decision was made in the first place. Back 4 Blood may be designed for multiplayer, but anti-singleplayer is a very unusual stance to take for games of its genre. Some quote retweets on the response discuss the option of refunding preorders, so the line of thought for limiting singleplayer in such overbearing ways evidently is not going well, especially in competition with the many other shooters coming out in October.
Despite the problems, Back 4 Blood's existence in general is still a good sign for co-operative survival-shooters as a whole. Back 4 Blood's popularity proves that interest in survival-shooters is still high in the gaming public, and it could indicate the genre clawing back out of the niche it stayed in for a while. Still, players who are frustrated with Back 4 Blood's design and multiplayer-only achievements may search for alternatives like Earthfall if changes are not made soon.
Back 4 Blood releases on October 12, 2021, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.