Back in 2008, the good old days when Valve still made video games, Valve released a co-op survival game called Left 4 Dead. In L4D you and a small group of people would play as a four person cast of characters set up in various scenarios in which you and your group had to make it from point A to point B alive. Along the way an ever increasing army of zombies would be chasing you down, include the premier of what we now call the "special zombie". These special zombies would go on to be used in a wide variety of ways in every other zombie game ever made. You have the fat explody one, the tenticle grabby one, the screamy one that alerted all the others, etc etc.
For what it was at the time L4D was a fun little co-op game that could be played with friends or randoms and the experience didn't really change all that much. You had the guy who ran off and died so far away from the party he was impossible to save, the coward who hung behind everyone else doing as little as possible, the one who had never played an FPS before and thus sprayed most of their ammo into the nearest wall or floor, and then your average fps player who desperately tried to hold it all together.
A year later in 2009, Valve released a sequel which was more of the same with different maps and a different cast but mostly the same exact gameplay. That too was also fun if a little samey, but it felt like more of an expansion to the first game than being an actual sequel.
Now 12 years later we have a new game. No it isn't Left 4 Dead Minus 1, aka L4D 3, because Valve can't count to three. But the good news is that Back 4 Blood is basically Left 4 Dead 3 and like most triologies the first two games do everything better.
Back 4 Blood has a lot of modern "improvements" to the L4D formula like gun attachments and mods, better guns as you get further into the game, a crafting-like system, and none of these new systems are useful. You see part of what made L4D so good was that it was so simple. You have to get to the other side of the map without getting eaten in an area filled with things that want nothing more than to eat you. Simple straightforward and endlessly replayable. By adding a basic-bastard of a loot system into the formula you essentially ensure that the pace has to come to a screeching halt everytime there is a break in the action while every player frantically runs around with the nose pointed at the floor hoping to vacuum up all the loot possible. At very most downtime should be used to get ammo, and health and nothing more. This makes sure that any downtime is short and lasts only for as long as people need health an ammo before the next horde of hungry hungry hippos decends upon you.
The crafting system is basically like a deck of cards type thing. You get these cards slots for use on your character and each card will modify your character in certain ways. Again I think it's entirely wasted on a game like this because there isn't enough tactical reasoning needed in a horde of monsters. Mow them down before they eat you, overcomplicating this just highlights the flaws in the game as a whole.
Speaking of the game. This is another "Live Service" affair in which you are required to always be online even if you want to play a single player game with bots. Speaking of single player, the game doesn't want you to play alone. It even warns you that you CAN play alone if you really really want to, but you cannot earn any currency or achievements if you do so. Which means at very least you should matchmake with randoms online so that you can actually make some sort of progress on your profile.
Additionally the game is terribly balanced. There are two difficulties, recruit and veteran. Recruit is insanely easy, hilariously so in which even the biggest and spongeiest enemies go down before they can do anything to you. And Veteran is insanely hard, enemies have insane levels of health and the game overspawns the super zombies who can appear with no warning whatsoever. So you are either bored because it's too easy, or bored because enemies take too long to kill and progress through the level is slow, then your teammates or you will die to a super zombie you couldn't see coming and your team cannot do enough damage to it without someone at least getting knocked down.
The game is annoying to play and artificially restrictive against people who don't like other people. Thankfully Back 4 Blood is including on the Xbox game pass because otherwise this would be a very very big waste of your money as well as your time.
For what it was at the time L4D was a fun little co-op game that could be played with friends or randoms and the experience didn't really change all that much. You had the guy who ran off and died so far away from the party he was impossible to save, the coward who hung behind everyone else doing as little as possible, the one who had never played an FPS before and thus sprayed most of their ammo into the nearest wall or floor, and then your average fps player who desperately tried to hold it all together.
A year later in 2009, Valve released a sequel which was more of the same with different maps and a different cast but mostly the same exact gameplay. That too was also fun if a little samey, but it felt like more of an expansion to the first game than being an actual sequel.
Now 12 years later we have a new game. No it isn't Left 4 Dead Minus 1, aka L4D 3, because Valve can't count to three. But the good news is that Back 4 Blood is basically Left 4 Dead 3 and like most triologies the first two games do everything better.
Back 4 Blood has a lot of modern "improvements" to the L4D formula like gun attachments and mods, better guns as you get further into the game, a crafting-like system, and none of these new systems are useful. You see part of what made L4D so good was that it was so simple. You have to get to the other side of the map without getting eaten in an area filled with things that want nothing more than to eat you. Simple straightforward and endlessly replayable. By adding a basic-bastard of a loot system into the formula you essentially ensure that the pace has to come to a screeching halt everytime there is a break in the action while every player frantically runs around with the nose pointed at the floor hoping to vacuum up all the loot possible. At very most downtime should be used to get ammo, and health and nothing more. This makes sure that any downtime is short and lasts only for as long as people need health an ammo before the next horde of hungry hungry hippos decends upon you.
The crafting system is basically like a deck of cards type thing. You get these cards slots for use on your character and each card will modify your character in certain ways. Again I think it's entirely wasted on a game like this because there isn't enough tactical reasoning needed in a horde of monsters. Mow them down before they eat you, overcomplicating this just highlights the flaws in the game as a whole.
Speaking of the game. This is another "Live Service" affair in which you are required to always be online even if you want to play a single player game with bots. Speaking of single player, the game doesn't want you to play alone. It even warns you that you CAN play alone if you really really want to, but you cannot earn any currency or achievements if you do so. Which means at very least you should matchmake with randoms online so that you can actually make some sort of progress on your profile.
Additionally the game is terribly balanced. There are two difficulties, recruit and veteran. Recruit is insanely easy, hilariously so in which even the biggest and spongeiest enemies go down before they can do anything to you. And Veteran is insanely hard, enemies have insane levels of health and the game overspawns the super zombies who can appear with no warning whatsoever. So you are either bored because it's too easy, or bored because enemies take too long to kill and progress through the level is slow, then your teammates or you will die to a super zombie you couldn't see coming and your team cannot do enough damage to it without someone at least getting knocked down.
The game is annoying to play and artificially restrictive against people who don't like other people. Thankfully Back 4 Blood is including on the Xbox game pass because otherwise this would be a very very big waste of your money as well as your time.