Back 4 Blood from Turtle Rock Studios

Looks pretty, don't like the play throughs being done on controllers only, makes it look clunky and poor compared to L4D and L4D 2

However after their horrible handling of Evolve Turtle Rock has a lot to do before they get my money.
 
I was watching streamers play this yesterday.
Variety is good since Cod and Cyberpunk are broken.
 
The Alpha downloaded an additional update yesterday afternoon. Not sure what it did, but am about to hop back in.
 
You can now easily hop into existing games. I didn't have that option before. I guess it also fixed an issue with the machete, the accuracy card, and some crashes.

I hopped into a guy's game who was playing with bots. The poor guy had died 3 straight times. While the bots are pretty good...they follow a very slow pace through the level and constantly try to fight everything. They were constantly getting logjammed into areas with tons of enemies. I ended up leaving him and the bots in the dust and bee-lined it straight for the safe room. With that first level, you can sprint for the exit and bypass the entire final section...which is the hardest part. Birds and named zombies be damned - just keep running. You can do that again on the 3rd map, too.

I ended up leaving feedback about the melee weapons being underwhelming and the item system feeling needlessly clunky. IMO they could just have the whole sub-menu be part of the normal game UI. I'm definitely gonna buy this when it comes out either way. It's fun and it's what I hoped it would be.
 
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I know they claim it's "alpha", but it gives the impression of a copy-paste OG Left 4 Dead DLC.
 
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Ripskin said:
Looks pretty, don't like the play throughs being done on controllers only, makes it look clunky and poor compared to L4D and L4D 2
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Huh? Ive been playing all weekend with a keyboard+Mouse...
 
Tylerdurdened said:


I know they claim it's "alpha", but it gives the impression of a copy-paste OG Left 4 Dead DLC.
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I can tell you from playing it this weekend, its not just a copy and paste Left 4 Dead, and I played a hell of a lot of L4D. Seems there's more strategy involved in this game, especially with weapons. Youre not just given an arsenal at the beginning of the level, you steadily progress through the "Act". and build up your resources...to an extent. Also, the special infected have weak spots, so you cant just unload on them and expect them to die. The cards are a nice addition too which give you perks, I hear the special infected will also get cards, so itll be interesting to see how that goes in the full game.
 
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I had fun during the match I had time to play this weekend. Seemed to be a worthwhile game.
 
Anyone put down an ogre? I wasn't able to; either I was with players who avoided it or players who sucked at taking it on and got smoked.
 
Axman said:
Anyone put down an ogre? I wasn't able to; either I was with players who avoided it or players who sucked at taking it on and got smoked.
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I stopped playing at that part lying on the ground our team evaded him. Maybe I didn't give the game a chance but I wasn't impressed.
It wasn't anything like Vermintide and the Horn.
 
Axman said:
Anyone put down an ogre? I wasn't able to; either I was with players who avoided it or players who sucked at taking it on and got smoked.
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I ran into one on two different playthroughs and they left for good when we got 'em to around 40% health. I kinda figured it was just a canned thing where they leave if you hurt them enough or after a period of time. Well, that and it didn't seem like most people were seriously interested in fighting them, too.
 
I will say that once I figured out the card system and deck I found the game to have more variety and entertainment value. It did seem like the cards needed balance; some of them seemed downright necessary for certain characters and play styles while others were entirely redundant or weaker versions of other cards.

Like the +2 health for every melee kill card: if you were playing a melee character, that one needed to be your starting card. The infinite sidearm ammo was also very important for the vet character, while the primary weapon cards seemed to really fit the prepper guy, since he drops ammo randomly.

I hope they put more random paths into the later game. That was a big part of L4D since you couldn't always count on the same doors being blocked or open. They need to up the banter, too, but I expect that to make its way into later versions.
 
It'll be interesting to see what tweaks they make between now and the release next June. Obviously they need to add lots more maps, but there are loads of little details that could use some work, too. They could probably just toss some things together and get a release out the door, but it seems like they're interested in doing more than that. At least on paper.
 
Axman said:
Anyone put down an ogre? I wasn't able to; either I was with players who avoided it or players who sucked at taking it on and got smoked.
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Our team did. Don't know how though. I think it has to do with not disabling any of his weak spots. If you disable one, he usually crawls back underground.
 
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Axman said:
I will say that once I figured out the card system and deck I found the game to have more variety and entertainment value. It did seem like the cards needed balance; some of them seemed downright necessary for certain characters and play styles while others were entirely redundant or weaker versions of other cards.
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Apparently there are more "Special Infected" to be announced for the release of the game. And the special infected get their own set of cards too.
 
Nice.

For an alpha, what they have managed so far was damn impressive, I'll say that. It was surprisingly replayable even with what was offered in that small of a package.
 
polonyc2 said:
Back 4 Blood Delayed, But is Still Hanging on to a 2021 Release Date

Originally slated for a June release, the co-op shooter has been pushed back to October 12th 2021...the delay was announced on Twitter, with Turtle Rock Studios laying the blame on COVID-19 and promising an open beta for this summer...

https://twitter.com/TurtleRock/status/1375116890008211458

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Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Man....

I guess its for the better. Had a lot of fun playing the Alpha.
 
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Well alright.

I liked the alpha but them nailing versus mode is what will really make me want to sink time into this game.
 
That sucks. Was really looking forward to this and felt the Alpha was pretty well done. Not perfect, but any issues I had could be easily fixed. 2021 is turning into "they year I played through my backlog."
 
Domingo said:
That sucks. Was really looking forward to this and felt the Alpha was pretty well done. Not perfect, but any issues I had could be easily fixed. 2021 is turning into "they year I played through my backlog."
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I wonder if the chip shortage is starting to take effect on how and when developers release their games?
 
Krenum said:
I wonder if the chip shortage is starting to take effect on how and when developers release their games?
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It's probably a lot of things. COVID accommodations, chip shortages, and I'm still convinced that Cyberpunk getting yanked off PSN has made developers wary about releasing broken games. Either way, I've caught up on lots of games I meant to play a few months/years ago. I lucked into getting new hardware last fall so I can max out just about anything now, too.
 
Domingo said:
COVID accommodations
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I'm sure this is 90 percent of the issue, maybe greater. Probably half of all of the people with jobs have some kind of desk job that was relocated, which in turn, necessitated a new computer, and on top of that, most parents have needed to buy at least one tablet or touchscreen laptop for their kids, and up to one device per kid even.

I wouldn't be surprised if 2020 through 2021 necessitated the fabrication of a couple billion new devices. And a lot of those devices went to and are going to people who have put two and two together, that their shiny new work computer can double as a shiny new gaming machine.

For people on this forum, slapping together an extra machine or two -- or more -- may not even be a whiff of a problem, but we are a teensy minority of the gen pop.

And I totally expect game developers to take advantage of that. They have the best excuse ever: no one can play their games until we have the hardware to do it on. The real clock that they're running against is how long can the studio and publisher run on reserves. No one wants to pull a Cyberpunk, either, so win-win from that perspective.
 
I like the fact that they used a worm found in ice core samples as the catalyst for the zombie invasion. Reminds me of that X-Files episode "Ice". It was creepy as hell (and one of my favorites) and obviously payed homage to "The Thing". That and they sprinkled in some commonality with "The Strain" too.
 
Back 4 Blood- Card System Trailer

Check out the all new Back 4 Blood trailer explaining some of the gameplay features as well as how the Card System works inside Back 4 Blood...there are distinct cards that will change the way you play and allow for replay ability...

 
Comixbooks said:
Looks good but the gameplay looks telegraphed but I'm sure it's not easy.
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If you've ever played Left 4 Dead, that's pretty much exactly how this game plays. I was able to get into the Alpha when they had it up, play control is very good. Even the Alpha seemed very polished.
 
Krenum said:
If you've ever played Left 4 Dead, that's pretty much exactly how this game plays. I was able to get into the Alpha when they had it up, play control is very good. Even the Alpha seemed very polished.
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I didn't like Left 4 Dead all that much. This game looks better.
 
I have hopes for the game and parts do look good, but they burned me with how they train wrecked Evolve. Really hope they don't do that with this game as I would not mind picking it up down the road a ways.
 
Ripskin said:
I have hopes for the game and parts do look good, but they burned me with how they train wrecked Evolve. Really hope they don't do that with this game as I would not mind picking it up down the road a ways.
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That's a fair point.
 
One of the things about L4D2 that I really enjoyed were some of the more arcade mechanics, where a highly competent crew could set up absolute killing fields, rarely taking damage if only because of the specials wrecking plans.

That becomes particularly apparent when playing on Expert, where just a couple of mistakes means losing. That very thing can make L4D2 so achingly annoying -- if you have a crap squad, it doesn't matter if you're playing on Easy, you're going to die. One competent player can rarely carry the whole match, even when four competent players can make the hardest difficulty a breeze.

With B4B, the gameplay practically guarantees mistakes, but from the alpha, is much more forgiving, and some of the mechanics even rely on them happening. It's more like WWZ in that respect. It definitely seemed like one good player was all that was necessary, and teamwork seemed less important.

Don't get me wrong, I really liked the B4B alpha, and I'll get the game based on that alone, but I don't think, from what we've seen, that this is a spiritual L4D3. It's a different game, for possibly better and worse. If the drama of the game can overtake any arcade mechanics, I'm all for it.

That being said, there's something about flawless teamwork victories that are really satisfying, and I hope there's something here that can deliver that same kind of gameplay. A lot is going to come down to the cards system, which was very rough in the alpha.

They also desperately needed to clean up melee combat, it basically wasn't working, unless you had a very specific set of cards -- which are drawn randomly from a deck.
 
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