It feels empowering to crush a horde of snarling monsters in the wake of an Armageddon. Leave aside the genre for a moment. It’s becoming hard to coordinate and play a decent co-operative game with friends, because everyone operates on a different console. The thing you should know about me is my appreciation of a game that allows cross-play.
The forces of the apocalypse genre and cross-platform play combined brings… *drum roll*… ‘Back 4 Blood’! 12 years after ‘Left 4 Dead 2’, and post a successful open beta, ‘Back 4 Blood’ is finally available across platforms—the Xboxes, the PSes, and the PC. ‘Back 4 Blood’ introduces zombies in a higher definition than before, in completely new scenarios. To fight them we are now armed with new weapons and characters.
The main campaign of this game is divided into four acts, each with multiple chapters. As the game progresses, the hordes of zombies get more aggressive, and there are newer infected variants to defeat. Simultaneously, the game introduces us to the different characters or “Cleaners”. Each Cleaner has a superhero film-worthy intro. Introducing Mom, with her extra life. Evangelo, who runs a lot. There’s Doc and Karlee, who are villainously dangerous. Eight in total, as of now. They are built to suit all types of combat preferences.
While the right player combinations are important for campaign progression, it is not sufficient to get ahead. The game introduces a deck-building system with a variety of cards. There are cards that offer health upgrades, and some that are specific to a combat method. I considered this addition as excessive “nerd” for what was a pure brute-force game of slashing zombies.
But the cards help! Aggregating card benefits help in reducing the panic-inducing chaos of zombie hordes, and additional equipment slots work wonders in bleak situations. It provides an opportunity to change the experience of a chapter run, making it fun during a replay. We’re only halfway through Spooktober, but I doubt we’ll see a better FPS zombie game this generation. I rate ‘Back 4 Blood’ a 10/10 for having me reach back for more.
Anusha Ganapathi
@quofles
(This economics graduate spends her leisure time preparing for the zombie apocalypse)