I played through the first Act until I got to “the main menu”.
Impressions:
Wow, being able to look down the sights of a gun makes a HUGE difference, just like I suspected. I know that makes no difference to some people but to me it makes the assault weapons and LMG and shotgun much more fun to use.
I really hate the whole thing where the game switches to 3rd person view and your character does a weird arm motion, and you’re thrown around. It makes the game feel sooooooooo janky. Like worse than any Euro-jank. Why? Why?
Other than that other jank, my character (Mom) got thrown in the water, so I took over another character who couldn’t plant explosives because they’d been with Mom, so he had to run all the way back to where we got the first set of explosives, and all the while there were no enemies spawning at all. And then all the way back to plant the explosive, once again with no enemies. And then I planted the explosives and ran to safety, once again with no enemies. And then that triggered a cutscene in which they showed Mom in a big role. But she died! Ugh, the whole thing just feels so janky.
The levels feel a bit too open to me, and there’s often no real signal that you’re about to step somewhere that you’re going to fall off of and need help back from, particularly during that junkyard level or whatever it is.
I am a quitter , I uninstalled this over the past weekend.
Nothing added in them promised free updates makes me want to keep playing. And if anything you would think more free levels would be what they use to keep the player base active.
It’s so dumb that they decoupled any kind of progression from the offline mode. Glad to see they’re changing their minds, but I’m not glad it’s taking them two months to implement it.
As for QoL improvements, they certainly have room for them! For me, the most surprising thing about Back 4 Blood was that it’s a deck-builder. The second most surprising thing about Back 4 Blood is that it has virtually none of the tools you would expect in a deck-builder. The card management stuff is the absolute worst. They couldn’t make it more of a hassle if they tried. I ended up keeping a spreadsheet to track the cards myself because the game itself was so frickin’ useless at it.
Otherwise, I’m all in for this stuff and I figure I’ll be playing well into next year. I’m still excited collecting the cards already in the game – I’ve got about 120 of 150 – so I don’t necessarily need new player cards. But I am looking forward to new Corruption Cards. There are plenty of imaginative ways they can shuffle the levels, and it feels like they’ve hardly tapped them. Just look at the crazy stuff you can do with cards that modify the gameplay in Aliens: Fireteam Elite. I’d love to see Back 4 Blood really flex the Corruption Card system. Right now, it’s great. It has the potential to be soooo much greater!
Some of that 2022 stuff sure seems vague. “Melee updates”? What does that even mean? “New co-op mode”? Huh? As for “new difficulty”, I’m wondering if they’re going to try to thread the needle with their existing difficulty levels, or if they’re just slapping one more harder difficulty level at the top. I’m guessing they’ll add a fourth difficulty level and then just redistribute the difficulty curve among four levels instead of three. Probably a good idea, but immaterial to me, as I’m pretty happy with how things are going with the bottom two difficulty levels.
Anyway, yeah, nothing surprising in this roadmap, and it feels a little chintzy. More along the lines of routine post-release support than anything worth writing home about.
Some of the speculation I’ve been reading about the melee updates seems plausible - right now the explodey head zombies basically invalidate the vertical swing axes, it would seem logical to give the player a way to swing horizontal with them (and vertical with the bat/machete to reach the weak points on tallboys.) I hope this is true at least.
The timed-survival horde mode from L4D would seem to be a natural thing for them to crib; I wouldn’t be disappointed if that’s what they meant by new co-op mode as I was always fond of that in L4D.
I’m most of the way through Veteran mode now, with just the body pit and finale to do still. They seem to cut off the cashflow completely in Act 3 of veteran; we had a party with 3 money grubbers cards in effect and were going into the new maps with $500 each, which made it exceptionally difficult.
Developers’ note – We’ve listened to your feedback and implemented some highly requested quality of life updates. Follow along with our Trello board (Trello) to track upcoming new features, balance changes, and major bug fixes. Note that our Trello Board, and this list of fixes, are not exhaustive.
All Cleaners are now immediately available to use. Players are no longer required to finish the The Devil’s Return – The Crossing campaign chapter to unlock Doc, Karlee, Hoffman, and Jim
Completing any campaign chapter now unlocks all previous chapters
In-Game Voice Chat can now be disabled in the Audio Options
Added mute icon to HUD for players with voice chat off or who have been muted
First Time User Experience now sends players directly to Fort Hope
Additional post-round statistics added for Swarm PvP
Added a “Mute All” button to the scoreboard in Swarm PvP
First aid cabinets now show a preview of how much health they heal
Players now recover health while inside Fort Hope
This change does not affect players in the shooting range
Added the /all message command allowing players to send messages to the Global Chat Channel
CAMPAIGN UPDATES
General
Weapons no longer revert to their default loadout when continuing a run in Training (previously named “Solo Campaign”)
Bots now use defibrillators more effectively
Improved character behavior when dropping and picking up items in certain locations
Flashbang now affects Common Ridden that are climbing on hit
Ogres are no longer outlined for Karlee after burrowing underground
Chapter Specific Updates
Blue Dog Hollow: Bad Seeds – Destroying the nest in Nightmare difficulty now spawns an endless horde
The Armory: The Handy Man – Bob’s Arm now appears in the scanning animation while the player has “Auto Select New Weapons” on
Dr. Roger’s Neighborhood “Gather Research” objective adjusted to account for solo players
Card Updates
Negative ammo capacity effects from cards now apply instantly after the card is drawn
Batter Up – Melee Damage adjusted to 40% from 50%
Brazen – Stamina efficiency adjusted to 20% from 30%
Breakout – Decreased use time to 3 seconds from 4 seconds
Face Your Fears – Adjusted to 2 Temporary Health from 3
Fresh Bandage – Now instantly applies its trauma heal effect when spawning into the safe room it is selected in
Ignore The Pain – Now restores health instead of providing Temporary Health
Inspiring Sacrifice – Heal decreased to 20 over 15 seconds from 25 over 20 seconds
Mean Drunk – Melee Damage adjusted to 60% from 75%
Meth Head – Stamina efficiency adjusted to 30% from 40%
Money Grubbers – Now grants 3 bonus copper per stack (from 5) and a max bonus of 75 (from 100)
Spikey Bits – Melee Damage adjusted to 20% from 25%
True Grit – Heal increased to 10 from 8
Balance Updates
Quick player-input movements are now smoother
Rebalanced Supply Point rewards for all campaign chapters in all difficulties
Adjusted Supply Points earned for completing the Speed Run objective
Readjusted Abomination health values on Nightmare difficulty
Players who are grabbed by a Crusher are now immune to friendly fire damage while grabbed and for 1.5 seconds after being released
Removed pipe bombs from Mom and Karlee bot loadouts
Ridden Updates
Breaker
Reduced the melee recovery times by 1.5 seconds
Reduced Leap recovery time by 1 second
Reduced Leap cooldown to 3 from 5 seconds
Reduced the bonus damage for Chest and Leg weakspots to 500 from 1000
Reduced the Taunt and Horde summon animation times by 0.5 seconds
Reduced the Swarm Cloud shrink time to 75 seconds from 90
Breaker leap speed reduced to 1500 from 2000
Breaker Horde call reduced to 60 seconds from 120
Breaker weakspot bonus damage to 1000 from 2000
Ogre
Health increased to 17000 from 16500
Chest weak spot extra damage reduced to 500 from 2000
Reeker
Movement speed no longer slowed by bullets
SWARM PVP UPDATES
General
Bruiser’s Frenzy ability in Swarm PvP can now be canceled by pressing the button to trigger it again
[PC] Default hotkey: mouse right-click
[PS4/PS5] Default action button: R2
[XBOX] Default button: RT
Card Updates
Adrenaline Fueled and Meth Head added to Card Pool
Breakout – Decreased use time to 3 seconds from 4 seconds
Face Your Fears – Now grants 2 Temporary Health from 3
Ignore The Pain – Now increases Melee Damage against Mutations
Balance Updates
General
Tuning adjustments to make quick movements less abrupt to player acceleration movement
Cleaners
Cleaner team now receives a handicap bonus of 10% damage increase for each Cleaner missing from the team in Swarm PvP
Cleaners get a default 25% increase to Aim Down Sights speed and 25% increase to weapon swap speed in Swarm PvP
Ridden
Swarm starting radius reduced to 30 meters from 45 meters
Swarm transition reduced to 90 seconds from 120 seconds
Crusher
Health increased to 700 from 675
Hocker
Health reduced from 90 to 80
Harpoon (ability) cannot be cocked or fired while the character is in the air
Attack projectile speed to 2000 from 2500
Attack projectile miss cooldown to 4.5 from 3
Evolution 2 reduced to 20% from 25%
Reeker
No longer slowed by bullets
Tallboy
Attack knockback increased
Health decreased to 600 from 625
Overhead melee attack swing’s radius to 140 centimeters from 160 centimeters
Offense: Level 3 Damage+ bonus reduced to 30% from 35%
Mutations
Infected Wounds now reduces healing by 2% from 0.5% per hit from Common Ridden. The effect stacks up to 40% from 20%, and has a limited duration of 20 seconds which is reset upon each new hit
WEAPON UPDATES
Secondary Weapons
Secondary Weapons no longer require a reload in the next safe room
Weapon swap animation now displays properly when equipping different Secondary Weapons
Melee Weapons
Bat movement speed increased to 410 from 400
Bats must do 50% more damage to stumble Ridden
Axe movement speed increased to 395 from 380
Axe damage reduced to 70 from 85
Axe stumble damage scale reduced to 0.5 from 1
Hatchet damage reduced to 40 from 50
Hatchet stumble damage scale reduced to 0.5 from 1
Machete movement speed increased to 425 from 420
CONTROLLER UPDATES
Controller Options Changes
Added linear and exponential options to Aim Down Sights Target Snapping
Increased granularity of tuning Dead Zones for controllers from 10% increments to 1% increments (default adjusted to 13)
Revamped “Legacy” controller preset to better match other co-op FPS titles
Made improvements to Aim Assist
Aim assist is now more stable when jumping and aiming from above
[PS5] Reduced trigger resistance for Melee weapons
[PS5] Burst Fire weapon trigger effects now properly match rate of fire
ACCESSIBILITY UPDATES
Added “Stamina Breath” to Audio Options
When toggled “Off”, heavy breathing sound effects that play when your character runs out of stamina are muted
All red text should now change colors properly when a new color is selected for Red Elements in the Custom Color Blind Mode
Gas cans now change color when red elements are changed in the Color Blind Options
[XBOX] Guts that birds eat are no longer marked green
Health bar and ammo indicator now change color when Color Blind Mode is set to Protanopia or Custom
UI UPDATES
Renamed “Solo Campaign” to “Training”
Developers’ note – We noticed players were interested in keeping a practice mode they could play around in prior to joining other campaign difficulties, so we’ve renamed this mode to make it more clear that this is a great way to join the fray without the pressure of playing with other players. In Training, all cards are unlocked, so we encourage you to experiment with a variety of card combinations in your decks. Note that in December we will add in an Offline Mode for solo Campaign progression.
Training can’t be started when multiple people are in your Fort Hope instance. Must be playing alone
“Solo Decks” renamed to “Training Decks”
“Start/Continue Run” renamed to “Play/Continue Online”
Added differentiation between Cleaner and Ridden Input Layouts in the Gamepad controls in the Options menu
Made improvements to navigation in Personalization and Accomplishments menus on gamepad
Music no longer cuts off when the player navigates between tabs in the Options menu
The Friends tab no longer redirects back to the first page when a user’s friend connects to or disconnects from the game
Weapon previews in Supply Lines now rotate properly
[Steam] Steam Big Picture’s Virtual Keyboard now opens when a user selects a text box
Fixed an issue with mouse click alignment being off on sliders in the Options menu
Addressed performance issue related to having a large friends list
BUG FIXES
Campaign
Cards
Heavy Hitter – Effects now properly apply when killing Ridden with a melee attack
General
Fixed some issues related to Specials spawning
Fixed achievements and accomplishments not unlocking if you are dead at the end of the mission
Fixed friendly fire removing Jim’s passive ability
Fixed a bug where all Trauma damage was blocked as long as you had 1 temp health
Fixed an issue that was causing the visibility of Sleepers to display incorrectly with Karlee’s ability to sense nearby hazards and mutations
“Waiting for Available Respawn” message will no longer appear on UI when joining a match for the first time in spectator mode
Fixed issue where the horde timer was not resetting after a team wipe
Fixed an issue where the Hag could become unresponsive if players kited her in her hunting phase without drawing aggro
Fixed an issue where acid covered (from Retch vomit) and pus covered (from any Reeker death explosion) were using the same icon
Rescue pods no longer disappear for players that reconnect to a game they had disconnected from
Objective counters now update properly for players with the Vendor box UI open
Fixed an issue where only one team upgrade would appear for purchase in the Vendor after players purchased all available loot upgrades to the highest tier
Fixed player explosive dialogue playing when the player is damaged by the explosion in game
Fixed issue where the damage source for players knocked prone or killed by the Ogre’s stomp was shown in the kill feed as “Unknown.”
Fixed an issue with weapons not displaying correctly in first person for players that selected multiple characters before locking their choice in on the Character Select screen
Players can no longer see out of bounds when dying to fall damage or drowning in water
Fixed an issue where red kill hitmarkers were not displaying consistently in online games
Corrected bullet shells’ behavior when a player uses their Aim Down Sights with a High Zoom Scope equipped
Fixed an issue where the message “Run Failed” would incorrectly display at the end of the level if the player completed the level with no continues remaining in Solo Campaign (now known as “Training”)
Corrected Ogre’s tumor toss behavior towards players it can’t reach
Cleaners can no longer be picked up from ledge hang by a player underneath them
Fixed an issue where the character card would not be active after a player late joined into a game and transitioned to the next campaign chapter
Fix for Windows 11 cutscene and loading screen related crash
Search and Rescue – Clean Sweep
Fixed an issue where Breaker SFX continued to play after the Breaker was killed.
The Armory – The Handy Man
Bob’s Arm now appears in the scanning animation while the player has “Auto Select New Weapons” on in The Armory – The Handy Man
Remnants – A Friend in Need
Fixed an issue that caused a second instance of the “Charred Ridden” card to be dealt by the Game Director when opening the Morgue
Remnants – Making the Grade
Fixed an issue where the Ogre stopped tracking the targeted player and became stuck while trying to despawn
Dr. Rogers’ Neighborhood – Farther Afield
Fixed an issue where the Breaker did not spawn when its Director Card was played
Swarm PvP
Player Ridden spawn timers are now visible to teammates while in ghost mode in Swarm PvP
Leaver penalties no longer apply in private PVP matches
Fixed a bug where all Trauma damage was blocked as long as you had 1 temp health
Swarm PvP Penalty message now displays correct penalty timer
Fixed Temporary Health deteriorating while players are in the safe room
Fixed UI messaging informing players that the game can be left without penalty in private Swarm PvP games
Private Swarm PvP games can be left without penalty at all times
Playable Stinger variants can no longer spawn into the world mid -leap in Swarm PvP
Player Stingers and their variants are now properly stunned by flashbangs while leaping in Swarm PvP
Fixed an issue in Swarm PvP where Ridden Users could spawn closer than intended to Cleaners at different height levels
Fixed an issue where acid covered (from Retch vomit) and pus covered (from any Reeker death explosion) were using the same icon
Fixed player explosive dialogue playing when the player is damaged by the explosion in game
Fixed an issue where the camera would tilt for Ridden players after loading into Plan B – Trailer Trashed in Swarm PvP
Fixed an issue where red kill hitmarkers were not displaying consistently in online games
Fixed an issue that caused bullet shells to collide with the player’s gun when aiming down sights with a High Zoom Scope equipped
Fixed an issue with weapons not displaying correctly in first person for players who selected multiple characters before locking in their choice on the Character Select screen
Ridden players now hear Retch ping dialogue from player Cleaners in Swarm PvP
Player-controlled Stalkers no longer get released directly on top of Cleaners that use Breakout in Swarm PvP
Controller Updates
Fixed a bug with Aim Assist forcing 100% aim magnetism
Fixed a bug that sometimes caused a player’s field of vision to jitter when using Aim Down Sights
Fixed a bug that Aim Assist to prioritize Gas Cans and Propane Tank over more hostile targets
Fixed a bug that caused player’s camera to snap if they moved very slowly using a controller
MUXY – TWITCH EXTENSION
New Features
Name a Ridden feature enabled for broadcasters who have access to Bits
Players can spend Bits to have their name show up in the kill feed page on Twitch
Broadcasters can disable the feature or change the minimum Bits required to use the feature from their extension configuration
Bits spent by viewers benefit the broadcaster
Viewers’ names will show up in the kill feed when their special Mutation is killed
Viewers who use Bits to name a Ridden will be queued between levels and runs
Mutation upgrade levels are now displayed for broadcaster when on Ridden team in Swarm PvP
Bug Fixes
Fixed localization of Difficulty and Map name in extension
Fixed up card display bug on two cards that used key binds as part of their text
Fixed several issues where Fort Hope would not show “Waiting for game to start” Status
Windows Store builds now properly display the option to link extension to game client
Fixed some display bugs for cards with a lot of accompanying text
This reads like a lot of nerfs to melee with some buffs to enemies… and no buffs to cleaners to compensate. Someone who is better at the game than me please tell me I’m wrong. Right now my group is stalled out at the end of Act 1 because we need a 4th that doesn’t park itself in front of our sniper (looking at you, Evangelo bot). The difficulty felt fine for us as-is and it’ll be a tough sell to drag everyone back if they made it much harder.
Yeah, I’m not sure exactly who was clamoring: “Make the game harder!”
The money grubbers nerf definitely hurts - I had that as a early card in every deck. Most of the public random players I’ve played with mentioned they did the same. In hindsight, it’s probably a warranted nerf if it’s such a no brainer to take it, but that doesn’t make it any more appealing. It would have been logical for them to buff some of the other money cards at the same time, but no signs of that in the notes…
I’m certainly not looking for the game to get harder. I’ve been playing off and on very occasionally with friends and we got stuck on the bridge level last night, where you plant all the bombs on the ferry. Just couldn’t get through, and on the lowest difficulty. We just haven’t been able to get into a groove with this game at all.
Pipebombs or firecrackers help a lot with that stage (or any of the other endless horde stages - looking at you Acid Zombies fence pen stage in Act 3.)
You’ll definitely want to throw one right after breaching the propane tank wall, and again if you get mobbed trying to do the ferry bombs. It also helps to have one person stay behind and man the minigun to keep the top deck clear.
As someone who also mentioned the PvP upthread, and in a similarly disapproving light, I’ve come around on it. I think my problem was related to playing with people who had no idea what they were doing. Particularly since I was one of those people.
But now, having taken time out to figure out how the PvP works, I actually kind of like it? Partly because it’s short. It’s a lot less of a time commitment than any of the PvE stuff. It seems to me you’re supposed to bang out a PvP match in about five minutes. And in that five minutes, you’re mostly focusing on direct encounters with player-controlled specials, which is a good way to learn how the specials work. And you’re doing it by quickly bringing a bunch of cards to bear instead of gradually building them up over the course of several missions.
Furthermore, there are some interesting options for how to spend your mutation points on the neutral zombies instead of the specific specials. The match where I really came around I spent as a spitter, hanging back and sniping at the players while spending points to boost the horde zombies that they were mostly ignoring. As with the cards, there are some intriguing “build options” available when you’re on the zombie team.
It reminds me a bit of the multiplayer in ZombiU from way back when. We had a great time with that back in the day, so I can see spending some time with the Back 4 Blood PvP.
Yeah, the week after some friends and I started B4B we played some L4D (amazing, still) then carried on with Deep Rock Galactic and we just… well, ended up uninstalling B4B.
Despite L4D being 12 years old, I still appreciate the immediacy, balance and focus of its design, perhaps even more so now. It has so much personality, more distinct special infected helped by (much) better audio design, weightier melee, punchier explosions and the inertia from the zombies carrying their bodies as you take out their limbs still looks and feels great. Then there’s Versus, obviously. I really like the movie structure of L4D too (and the poster one-liners). I didn’t miss aiming down sights either, or a progression system (I still like the sound of the cards, on paper at least).
Maybe I’ll try out B4B again later down the line but right now the call of DRG is too strong for me and my friends!
I know the feeling well! Did you spot the video I linked earlier?
