izigame.me

I knew going into this game that a large portion of the Left 4 Dead community had very negative things to say about it.
I loved Left 4 Dead series, it's one of my favorites.
Prior to purchase, I watched a video on youtube showing the difference in Left 4 Dead 2 and Back 4 Blood.
While L4D2 is a much older game, a lot of time went into the infected, movement of the infected, etc...
It's clear that this was not the case in B4B.
Those that never played L4D series wouldn't know the difference.
So, I will start with the positive:
1. The game is fun to a degree
2. The graphics and sound are great
3. The choice of weapons are great
4. I got the game on sale, $10 total for the base game and 3 expansions
5. Playing it with friends is fun
6. Wide variety of characters which is a double edged sword, I will go more in depth on this later in the review
7. Good Story
8. Good cut scenes
9. Game play is similar to L4D series(movement, weapons etc...)
10. A lot of thought was put into this game in some areas, but not others.
The Negative(There is far more negative than positive to this game):
1. Jumping right in and playing is not going to happen. The UI is terribly confusing. You start in a camp, with no direction on where to go, what to do or what game mode to start in. Like many other things I am going to complain about, this game is way, way, way over complicated in a lot of areas.
2. There is no in game tutorial while playing, no hints that really help like other games. You will spend a lot of time on youtube. Take Killing Floor 2 for example, it's just a better version of the original. You can get started right away, easily figure out the UI, trader, gameplay, finding an online game etc... Don't expect B4B to be anything like LFD when it comes to ease of use in order to jump right in and understand what the hell is going on. There are video tutorials in game, but they are not that helpful and still confusing. This is a lazy decision by developers probably by a much younger generation and it shows. Younger generations communication skills are lacking and this game shows it.
3. The characters choices are vast, but it's overkill and their specialties don't really matter much at all. I played acts with different ones intentionally and couldn't tell any difference. In fact, I found myself playing the ones which were the least annoying to listen to. That was the most important to me. I would have preferred less choices with better abilities.
4. The card system sucks! I don't know why games are starting to go with this crap!!!!! It's lazy!!!!
There should be the ability to customize your character more in depth. Instead you are tasked with choosing cards that might be kind of what you are looking for in your build. Also, there are way too many to look through and the filters don't help at all. It's mostly a bunch of random stats and the stats don't really explain themselves at all, so it's a lot of trial and error. Most of the cards, you can't even tell do anything at all. Some are obvious, 90% are not. This is one of the things I hate most about the game. And figuring out how to unlock cards is impossible unless you watch a video on it. It's very confusing and difficult.
5. There are too many special infected in the gameplay. Not only that, but they spawn in areas that don't make sense and these spawns are specifically to screw players over. For instance, you can be in a room and a special infected spawns almost where your team is which doesn't make sense. Also, I can guarantee you as soon as you use a first aid cabinet and get your health full, as soon as you leave that room a special infected will spawn right there and take some health away. So much just doesn't make sense in this game.
6. Developers got lazy with creating the special infected. Many look alike but do different attacks, The sounds they make are not obvious like L4D, most are just thrown together creations and it's another very obvious trait of this game that those who created the monsters got lazy or the wrong people were not involved in creating them in the first place.
7. There is too much stuff to inspect, collect everywhere. Food is everywhere, ammo, grenade types, weapons etc...
It's not really explained what the food does, trauma isn't explained, different healing types aren't explained well etc...
You will spend half your time looking at stuff. Exploring is fun, but it's overwhelming in this game.
8. Customizing weapons the way you want them isn't going to happen. The shooting range shows all types of options on how you can customize a weapon. The problem is at the beginning of each act in the safe room, your choices are very small. You can find upgrades out in the world, but they are also random. So, for instance: There are 4 types of shotguns. One is a sawed off pump that only holds 3 rounds. Unless you find an upgrade which gives you 5-6 rounds, this gun is never worth taking over anything else. So, it was a waste of time having this gun in the game at all because it's likely you will play an entire act with this weapon and not find an upgrade for it.
This transfers to all weapons, the upgrades are random, so making a weapon the way you want it is chance.
Then, even if you finish an act(There are 6 btw with the expansions, you lose your weapon and start all over).
9. Too many ammo types, in L4D, there was one ammo pile and it refilled all the guns. In B4B, there are different piles for each weapon type. So, if you find an ammo crate, you have to move your cursor over every ammo type and press e hoping you didn't miss the type you need, it's completely ridiculous and an overthought process. Dropping ammo or items also sucks, you have to press Tab and click items to drop them. The game doesn't explain this either.
10. The most important buffs you can purchase in a safe room are random. For instance: You can always buff health, ammo, stamina etc... But adding more slots to carry more med kits, pain pills, upgrade grenades are totally random.
Some acts you will be able to carry 4 pain pill bottles, some you will only be able to carry 1. It's lazy.
Weapon upgrades are the same way, totally random and you usually only get one type of upgrade for weapons and some are crap. So customizing your character in this game is mostly random with buffs and cards etc...
11. Picking up already customized weapons is crap because their stats are confusing. You have to press Tab, look at the weapon to see what it has, then drop it if it's worse than yours. Most games now days will compare your current weapon beside a weapon on the ground so you don't waste your time doing this crap. If you drop your weapon, someone else can grab it and then you may not get it back. Another lazy part by devs!!!!!!!
12 Creating a multiplayer game with friends is not easy, it's very confusing and overcomplicated.
13. All of the main infected pretty much look alike, there isn't much difference other than their outfits, also lazy by devs.
14. Sometimes the directives are not clear and it's not obvious what to do next.
Overall I give this game 6 out of 10 rating.
Too much time was spent on areas of the game which are not enjoyable.
Simplicity is the key, players don't want to spend hours trying to figure out how to jump in the game, play with friends, customize their builds etc...
This game is only worth purchasing if you can get it on sale. I would have been extremely disappointed if I purchased it for full price which is why I never did.
It kind of reminds me of Guild Wars 2, which was so different from Guild Wars 1 that it failed in a lot of players opinions and thrived in those who never played the original.
Companies need to remember where they came from, what made a series thrive in the first place and stick with that.
I understand changes have to be made to keep the game interesting, but this was too much and why it failed!