Left For Dead... - The Tragedy of Back 4 Blood

The trailblazing Left 4 Dead and its 2009 sequel redefined cooperative shooters, carving out a new path in the genre that later paved the way for countless co-op-centric experiences. Despite their best efforts, though, no development team could recapture the unique thrill of zombie killing in the Valve-owned franchise; as such, the company’s decision to cease regular support on Left 4 Dead 2 marked the end of an era. A much-coveted Left 4 Dead 3 wouldn’t reinvigorate things either, leaving other studios with the task of carrying the torch. But the likes of Killing Floor 2 and World War Z, while admirable in their own right, arguably paled in comparison to that which came before. With the industry still itching for a comparable zombie experience, Left 4 Dead’s original creators took it upon themselves to revisit the genre through the lens of a new IP—Back 4 Blood.

Billed as Left 4 Dead’s spiritual successor, Back 4 Blood followed the same basic structure—pitting up to four playable heroes against zombie hordes in campaign and competitive modes. However, developer Turtle Rock Studios switched gears in some respects, crafting more capable protagonists, introducing card-based progression, and updating the classic L4D formula with modern systems.

The anticipation ahead of Back 4 Blood’s debut suggested the beloved zombie series had truly returned via another name, yet the former’s October 2021 release left much to be desired. Content-related shortcomings and a handful of technical woes plagued Turtle Rock’s new property during its first few months on the market, resulting in a rapidly declining user base that never returned to full strength.

This is the tragedy of Back 4 Blood.

Intro 0:00
Sponsorship 2:10
The Tragedy of Back 4 Blood 3:42

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[theotherjared]

Turtle Rock knows for a fact that handing games over to the community is how to extend its lifespan indefinitely. Explicitly disallowing mods was the worst possible decision they could make.

[andysledge]

Crowbcat put it perfectly, these guys had almost no involvement in L4D

[DeadFishFactory]

People always underestimate what Valve does. They always attribute Valve's successful games to the minds of other studios, but a game idea and its execution are very different things. Valve may not always come up with all of the best game designs or ideas, but they are the masters at the implementation and execution.

[darthcinema]

This and Evolve prove that without Valve, TurtleRock is incapable of making good games.

[Splarkszter]

Funny was that they said "from the makers of L4D" while the only "devs" from that studio that worked on L4D in total where like 3 or 4 people all others were valve employees. So that it's also a scam.

[atomicforgery]

They were Back 4 Blood, but they couldn't Evolve. So in the end, they were Left 4 Dead, if only there was a way to stave off this Darktide.

[evanpeacock]

Back for blood used the left 4 dead developers it had as a marketing tool. It turned out that they had less than 10 previous left 4 dead developers out of the over 200 left 4 dead dev team. Crowbat made a very good video comparing the two and the reasons why it failed with side by side comparisons.

[sealboy]

L4d didn’t need hit markers. That’s really important in a game about shooting zombies.

[o.c.]

12:21 Look at that zombie die like a Minecraft mob, it really makes you feel like you're playing a 60$ game

[shmookins]

From a shady "celebrating 10 million players!" comment to soon after saying "we are quitting this game!" says a lot.

[ShadowdashX]

No mods meant it was dead on arrival for me. Also no solo play. Some people from the beta test, myself included, just didn't like the micro-managing aspects of the card/copper systems. Also locking new survivors and infected behind a paywall was a dumb decision. Because each character had their own play styles and "perks" it meant if someone had already picked the character you had leveled up and learned, you'd have to try a new one.

[SlientChaos]

This was to be expected. The idea that Turtle Rock Studios had some gamers briefly convinced that they could go back to their Left 4 Dead roots like they promised with Evolve speaks volumes as to how consistently they've pulled the wool over our eyes for years.

Tragedy? I'm gonna have to call it a foregone conclusion, given Turtle Rock's track record.

[jagore]

The difficulty spike in this game was insane and they never nailed a decent balance between snoozefest and frustrating as fuck.

Also unlike other horde shooters it never felt like campaigns failed due to death from a thousand cuts or many mistakes.

Often you would be doing great, have tons of supplies and ammo and health, and then one shitty throw of the dice spawns enough tallboys and retches or whatever in just the right order that your party goes from 100 to 0.

On higher difficulties this was even worse. I went from feeling alright about this game completing it the first time to fucking hating it struggling to get anywhere in higher difficulty campaigns because the relentless special spawns would just blow your party up randomly somewhere in the map.

And its not like my friends and I are strangers to these games. We were running the highest difficulty in L4Ds, Vermintide, and Darktide. It was always B4B that gave us problems and they always felt like bullshit out of our control.

[LegioXXI]

The lack of modding was the biggest dealbreaker to me. Sadly its a common theme with modern games. Can't sell as much in-game stuff if people just can mod the game.

[TicciSpice]

The thing is, once I played Back 4 Blood for an hour or two, it was like the hole in my heart grew even bigger and the itch to play Left 4 Dead was soooo big.

[spqninjapl]

The times when I was unemployed, was living with parents spending hours locked by myself in room playing L4d and L4d2.. Good old times :D

[doctoroptical]

I played B4B when it came out and it was fun for maybe an hour. Trying to join a match was a chore in itself and i got tired of not being able to find anyone who would play the campaign start to finish even in chunks so i uninstalled it and havent bothered with it again.

[ibringnegativity]

It's amazing how so many zombie coop shooter comes after L4D2 but still can't topple L4D2. You can just check steam charts to see how many players are still playing L4D2 right now

[toaolisi]

I think it's more compelling when your average joes work together to survive the apocalypse. Back 4 Blood's characters looked and talked like Saint's Row characters. Very campy banter despite the morbid infestation around them. It didn't feel right that they seemed so desensitize to the dire situation.

[dillonbacon]

Left 4 Dead 2 - “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” at its finest