In a lot of ways, Back 4 Blood feels like an attempt to evolve the Left 4 Dead formula, and in a lot of ways it delivers on the promise: this is the same structure, that same familiar arc, but stretched out and reshaped with more interesting set pieces, more mechanical complexity, and a card system that adds replayability, even if sometimes I just wish they’d add a perk selection screen to the end of each level. In fact, it feels like there’s a middle difficulty level between Recruit and Survivor that might be well suited for people who want a challenge but don’t want to be sat, sweating, in their chair after each major engagement. I’d recommend everyone try Survivor difficulty because it makes the game enjoyable and punishing in a way that just works for me, but I’m glad there’s a recruit mode there for people who might otherwise find the game too tricky or might want to just play through it to get to the end. The Survivor difficulty – the middle of the game’s three – resolves this problem and is intense and relentless, however I’m a fairly long-term FPS fan and even with three like minded friends this game is hard. These experiences are that the Recruit difficulty is dull and lacks the challenge that makes the whole thing pull together. I want to preface this by saying that you should play on whatever difficulty you want, but I can only talk about my own experiences. This tension is robbed somewhat – for me – by the game’s difficulty settings. When someone drops you 100 copper in the middle of a fight so you can heal some damage at a wall-mounted health station while you’re also trying to drop sniper rifle rounds so your marksman can get back into the fight, and all four players are moving in different directions to kite their own groups of zombies around? That’s when the game is an all-timer and nearly perfect. The game thrives on this constant communication where you try to ensure people know you have two grenades ready to frag large mutated, but are also after some more shotgun shells as you’re empty? It’s nightmarish, and also the sort of interactions that define a play session. It’s another resource really, health and trauma coming together to make sure even with a ton of supplies, you’re still always on the razor’s edge, constantly just one rough engagement away from a full wipe. Making sure you keep yourself free of trauma is, like the real world, essential to living a long and healthy life. As with everything else in the game, you can get cards or perks that mitigate trauma, either making you more effective at healing it or more resistant to taking it. The best way to avoid trauma is to avoid being hit, but considering a death in Back 4 Blood is often a case of succumbing to a thousand tiny Ridden-inflicted cuts, it’s hard to avoid feeling worse for wear after just a few fights. These offer a single heal – traditionally given to the person with the most trauma – and additional heals for a slightly eye watering 400 copper a pop.īack 4 Blood. Trauma is the killer in this game, as it lowers your maximum HP and there are very few ways to heal it, with the most common being the expensive first aid cabinets built into walls throughout the levels. Not the life-ruining trauma of watching your fellow apocalypse survivors getting Ridden to death, but the mechanical trauma Back 4 Blood imposes whenever you take damage. The weapons, which you’ll trade often due to a star rating which mandates constant upgrades and switching during a campaign run, all behave fairly differently although none of them are truly incredible.īack 4 Blood is also a game about trauma. These are randomly tossed out into the world, but using them correctly is key to success in the game. Throughout your run through the zombie-infested levels, you’ll find the currency Copper, a bunch of throwable items, medical supplies and even just guns and attachments themselves.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |