Back 4 Blood

Ok, just finished, I’ll flip it over and wait for you to get in.

I am really enjoying this, but it doesn’t feel like the developers gleaned much from their beta/early access period. Way too much sloppy presentation in too many places.

For instance, this sort of stuff is exactly what it takes to get me to stop playing a game:

If they can’t get such basic stuff right – does this character get a 20% or a 30% bonus to healing? – why should I trust that anything else the game is telling me? Not to mention the stuff the game isn’t telling me.

-Tom

Yes. And unlimited use of stabby/crushy weapons (although I think that was L4D2).

Like so many other things in Back4 Blood, there’s a card for that:

I don’t think there’s a similar card for stamina, but there are plenty of ways to boost your stamina. If you want infinite melee attacks, it’s pretty easy to build a deck that will effectively get you there.

-Tom

There is a card for ‘run & gun’, to be able to use your weapon while sprinting.

Finally got a chance to play a few rounds with some friends tonight, pretty fun! We got through the first level fairly easily, even got the speed run challenge knocked out, so we were feeling pretty cocky. Then we ran into the ogre on the next level who proceeded to completely wreck us (twice) which took the wind out of our sails pretty quickly. We did eventually get through the level though I’ll admit there was a bit of cheesing the boss involved. Hey, whatever works right?

I wish I generally had any idea what the hell was going on in the campaign or gave a shit. The characters (particularly Phillips, whose actor is doing a great Michael Ironside impression) just go on and on and on while I’m trying to get my gear together or shoot zombies, and I just totally tune them out. I’ve played about halfway (I think?) through, and I’ve got no idea what we’re doing or why, other than “go place, shoot zombies”. To me this is an aspect that it a completely unambiguous downgrade from L4D, whose movie conceit I always really enjoyed. Not a big deal for enjoying with friends, I just feel no connection to the game or characters at all.

Well I finished up the main campaign tonight, and that’s that.

Tom and Kelly Wand in a knife fight:

Then there was our cat fight after I accused him of taking all the sniper ammo because neither of us knew that McMaster had also decided to use a sniper rifle without telling anyone. meeee-OW!

I think I’m liking this way more than you guys. The combo of character, weapon, and cards is really compelling to me. It’s more flexible than Aliens or World War Z, even if it doesn’t have the draw of a progression system that rewards grinding. And, or course, it’s been great playing with a team instead of a bunch of randos or perfunctory bots.

-Tom

I ran through the L4D campaigns approximately one billion times. Do you see yourself going back through this mammoth campaign over and over? Sounds like @lordkosc might be done.

Oh, absolutely! But it’s not really a mammoth campaign so much as four ways to play. The whole point of the game is to finish a run with your choice of character, weapon, and cards.

There are four “runs”, or acts, available in the game, and some of them share the same levels, but they’re all mixed up by the corruption cards and director actions. If you want to fast-forward past the early levels, I think that’s the purpose of the later acts. They’re harder, so they start you off with more cards. In fact, Act IV is just a big boss fight with all your cards in play. But I will gladly play through any act again just because I’m enjoying the synergy among four dramatically different variables: 1) the people with whom you’re playing, 2) the character you’ve chosen, 3) the weapon you’re using, and 4) the cards you put into play. And I will gladly keep playing Back 4 Blood, not to get through any sort of “mammoth campaign”, but to try out the various combinations among those four factors.

And to unlock more cards, of course!

-Tom

I myself have a few levels I never want to revisit. :)

I’d pop in if a co-ops partner was needed.

But I am not going to play with randoms anymore, its like people never played a team focused co-op video game before. I swear the other day the public quick join game I played over 3 maps in act 3 had someone intentionally setting off all the horde triggers.

I imagine them sitting on their couch like this:
bobs-burger-fire
Taking in the pleasures of immense pain they are causing the team.

Perhaps more than any of the similar games I’ve played – Aliens, World War Z, Vermintide, Payday – this game needs communication among the players, and not just in terms of the moment-to-moment stuff like calling out tough enemies or covering each other. For instance, the way we’ve been sharing ammo and money has made a huge difference, and that’s almost never going to happen with public groups.

This is in marked contrast to similar games which seem to take pains to allow players to get by with as little communication as possible.

-Tom

Does game play differ by which character you play as, or am I misunderstanding what you mean by that?

Yes, gameplay differs by character! And in some cases, dramatically. There are plenty of powers associated with cards, but some things are unique to specific characters. Karlee, for instance, lights up all hazards and special enemies. No one else can do that, which makes her uniquely suited for scouting or hunting special enemies.

Some characters help specific builds. Holly’s the obvious choice for a melee build, but then again Evangelo gets free breakouts when he’s grabbed by enemies, which is a constant peril for melee builds (everyone else has to use an inventory slot to tote around stunguns, but Evangelo can’t carry something else instead). If you want to be a dedicated healer, which is probably necessary on harder difficulty levels, you want Doc for her free healing and inherent healing bonus (other characters need cards to heal efficiently). To flex consumable weapons like grenades and pipebombs, you want Hoffman. Mom’s free revives are probably a godsend on harder difficulty levels. And each character also gives the team a different bonus.

But, yes, the characters definitely play differently.

-Tom

My QT3 L4D2 plays were the best online videogaming experiences I ever had.

Chasing that experience will keep me playing B4B for a while.

Jinsai#8502

This remind me to their previous game, Evolve, which was very teamwork oriented.

These people do exist. Years ago on the Games for Windows podcast there was one west coast, stoner sounding character who would always share his weekly griefing exploits. He just seemed to take delight in ruining the game experience for everyone else.

Prior to that, I had always charitably assumed we were just dealing with young children or the slightly touched, as one might say.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

Xbox stats (clear Gamepass influence here)

Steam stats

Heh, more proof that people on Steam work together :


Gamepass:

10-19-2021 7-29-14 AM 10-19-2021 7-28-52 AM

Wish there was an achievement for sharing copper.