Back 4 Blood wrapped up it's open beta period yesterday and we've been covering the game a lot the past few weeks. I had the opportunity to play before the beta period started with members of the Shacknews team as well as several of my friends after the beta began. I walked away very impressed overall.
Having also played in the alpha earlier in the year, there have been tons of quality of life improvements as well as solid U/I additions that help the overall feel of the game. It also ran way smoother for me this time around which I imagine is just due to quality optimization on PC. I ran the game on high settings while also streaming and recording and got solid frame rate and graphical fidelity on my mid range PC. I also tried the game on PS5 and the haptic feedback while using the wide variety of weapons felt really satisfying. Which brings me to the next high point, the weapon depth.
This game is challenging in a good way.
The beta included 3 difficulty levels which is a it different than the alpha which only had one difficulty by default that was still fairly challenging. The easiest mode "Survivor" mode was not very challenging at all for the most part. Very few corruption cards and only a handful of special ridden or challenging scenarios per map. These areas would kind of lull us into letting our guard down as there were no punishments for traveling alone. Strangely, certain campaign chapters like the boat finale for example would see the difficulty ramp up out of nowhere and a few blinks later, our entire team was down. It feels almost as if the climax of the areas are hard programmed for a certain level of difficulty that wasn't being dialed down like the rest of the areas.
Saferooms are some of the few moments to regroup during the campaign 
After running through the campaign this way, I played majority of my other sessions with friends on harder difficulties. Veteran was at certain times brutal but as I watched more friends and streamers play, I learned new strategies for some of the areas I struggled with. Team purchases became super important, extra offensive slots and stacking things like barbed wire to build more defense against things that make the final areas before reaching a precious safe room more manageable. I do believe there will be more things that balance out the difficulty eventually and new challenges as well, as all of the special ridden were not even included in the beta including the Snitch; a creature who gave plenty of us headaches in the alpha with it's screams that alert the entire horde. I do have faith in Turtle Rock to figure things out with an additional 3 months before full release.
Here Comes the Gun Show
In early days of the beta, majority of people I played with chose assault rifles as their weapon of choice which made ammo scarce and less options for taking out the special Ridden. As more time passed, myself and others began to branch out more, using the snipers and shotguns with card perks to get the most out of different builds.
While there isn't bullet drop from what I can tell, there is solid weight to the guns and the gunplay feels good. This beta also had an amazing firing range with all weapons, attachments and melee options on display. I do believe that the attachments and scopes should be easier to manage and you should be able to remove them from a gun once you find a better one in the wild. This may be something that was just limited in the beta as there is a weapons area in the campsite with an NPC who had no dialogue or options. I imagine that we will be able to save our favorite layouts and buy new attachments before runs.
Player vs Ridden in Swarm Mode
I can be a pretty competitive person so the idea of a new PVP option definitely caught my eye. The "Swarm Mode" is not the traditional PVP Campaign Mode that Left 4 Dead fans were hoping for but I did have some fun with it. You basically take turns playing as the Survivors and as special Ridden. You can use your points earned during the match to boost your defense or offensive options as the Ridden or even strengthen the horde that accompanies you into battle. The main objective is to kill the enemy team in the first round and then swap sides to hopefully survive longer as the humans than the previous team did.
This mode has some balance problems with some of the combinations but I have also seen some solid loadouts and strategy that make me think there is still a way to salvage this mode with some tweaks. More emphasis should be put on the horde for starters. Also similar to Battle Royale games, a circle is constantly closing during the match that pressures players to move more. I think crushing the survivor team should have an effect on how this circle is activated and there should be ways to alter that part of the match
Believe in the Heart of the Cards
Turtle Rock Studios is really putting emphasis on the card system being their big Joker in terms of providing more gameplay variety and choice for the player in comparison to Left 4 Dead. I believe that casual reception has been mixed with some of friends finding the card system a bit more complicated than they would like when it comes to slaying the ridden. I personally think that the card system adds a ton of depth. While using characters like Dottie who starts with a baseball bat great for taking off heads, I could stack cards that provide me with health increases every time I kill two ridden for example. I was also able to unlock cards that helped our team like getting mobility boosts and health boosts when any member of the team was downed.
Build Custom decks for any situation or playstyle
The Supply Line also system allows you to spend the points you earn through completing the campaign mode areas and playing PVP matches to buy new cards from three different skill trees. I have to believe that Turtle Rock have a ton of cards planned for these supply lines and it will be interesting seeing how they approach balancing out the way these cards are used as there's no telling what kind of broken combinations players will come up with on release.
Final thoughts
Back 4 Blood was a great experience. I was able to play with friends seamlessly via Xbox, PS5, and Steam with few to no hiccups after playing with literally 6 different 4-man squads over the past 2 weeks. I do not know how much of a draw this game will have for folks that do not have friends to play with which is something I saw similar in games like Evolve and Payday 2 as the bots are atrocious. But the main takeaway here is that the core gameplay is fun. I could easily pour another 100 hours into the game with the amount of maps that are planned on release. It will also be on Xbox Game Pass day one so for friends who may be on the fence, that may enough to get them to give it a try and keep the online mayhem rolling.
