I played the Back 4 Blood Alpha

 Back from the dead

So remember a few days back there was this thing called the 'Game Awards' that happened? Well you see it's this big show where they give us trailers and show off upcoming games and even play music sometimes. There's even the odd celebrity or two. I hear that they hand out awards too, but no one really cares about that stuff, so I just focus on the games really. And in that vein there was one title which really did the work of wooing me with it's very premise and that was Back 4 Blood. The cheekily-named successor to Left 4 Dead made by Turtle Rock Studios in the absence of any Valve funding. (They'd only fund a sequel if it came exclusively to VR with 4D options) I expressed some mild interest at the time, that's a lie I pretty much fell head-over-heels for it, but what I was really excited for was the promised closed Alpha which would be not too long after launch. Well as of the publishing of this article that Alpha ran it's course about a week back and I was lucky enough to be a part of the ride, so what exactly do you think I thought of the whole thing?

Well, firstly, I had a little bit of trouble with the settings, although for as embarrassingly weak as my rig is (there's nothing stronger than a GTX 1050 Ti in my box) I managed to erase practically all lag with a little bit of tinkering, so that certainly speaks to the accessibility of the game even in public Alpha. I also had a strange bug where I couldn't reliably use iron sights with my mouse, which was the most bizarre thing, but I have an Xbox controller so there was no big fuss there either. Hmm, let me see... The AI was terribly ineffective, but this game was clearly built for online play so I can't get too fussy. The sounds of the weapons were either too tinny, weak or- whatever the heck that vulcan minigun was supposed to be. (It sounded genuinely awful everytime I used it) Yep, I think that's about every major gripe I had in my experience; now with that out of the way I can focus on the many positives.

Firstly, yes, this is the Left 4 Dead 3 that you've been waiting for all these years by all accounts except name. From the moment you spawn inside of your first safe room you'll instantly know exactly where you are and what you're playing, and that familiarity might, if you're me, distract you from the actual new systems that this game shoves in your face without warning. Such as the store which is accessible in every starting area and makes use of the currency found throughout the levels in order to buy ammunition and special gear. (I.E. grenades, lockpicks and medkits) This is just about the start of the ways in which Back 4 Blood proposes to switch up the formula that you're used to by offering, among other things, actual builds to be run for characters.

Now don't worry, these characters aren't inbuilt with immutable skills that'll have people fighting over picks in the lobby (There's already been enough of that this year between Genshin and Avengers) although I did notice that Holly appeared to spawn with her baseball bat unlike the other characters, whom she referred to by its name an annoying amount. Instead Back 4 Blood operates with a perk card system which gives each character one unique trait and leaves the rest to be picked up the player each time that they enter a safehouse between acts. (Or they can be bought directly during the run in some very rare scenarios) These Perk cards are entirely random and part of a new Roguelite aesthetic that Back 4 Blood is trying on for replayabilities sake, and I like the idea even if the execution hasn't exactly stood out to me yet.

As you select your perk cards 'the Director', (Back 4 Blood's name for the AI who spins RNG and apparently dynamically places loot and enemies) picks three cards that the 'Ridden' abide by. Most of these I completely shrugged off each time they were pulled apart from the one which decked a bunch of them in bulletproof armour; that one actually sucked a lot. What I found a lot more interesting were the player perk cards which could range from something as innocuous as a damage boost to weak points to something as build-shifting as a sleight heal for melee kills or even one perk wherein when you heal another player you also get healed for the same amount of hitpoints. (Yeah, that one's pretty much a must-have) I really got a sense for how in the full game, when things are a little more refined, these cards could really change things up significantly enough to fuel replayability. And that's on top of a basic premise which already promotes replayability anyway as evidenced by the still thriving communities around the predecessors.

But that's all the stuff you can read on the box, how about how it all actually plays? Well just like with Left 4 Dead I found my play experience peppered with unforgettable dynamic moments that were the heart of this game to me. I had one standoff against one the deadly goliaths known as an Ogre who pinned me and another player down by camping a door we needed to leave out of, cue a scene of me managing to sneak between his legs and mounting a mad dash down the highway whilst his pursuits shook the screen with every step. Or how about the quest where we were tasked with blowing up a ship freighter, for which we all seemed well equipped until one by one we got picked off and only I was left to escape the horde whilst everyone else bled out around me. Or even the screw up where an AI teammate lowered a bridge for progression and then retracted it when half the team was crossing, killing us all. All these moments where over the course of several playthroughs across the one mission that was available in the Alpha, highlighting how much I expect to get out of running an entire campaign over and over.

For a very long time I had forgotten the heart of Left 4 Dead and what it was about the game that I found so alluring, but the silly fun of being swamped by so many bodies that you can't even see your bullets is easily summoned once more by Back 4 Blood. And why shouldn't it? These are pretty much the same devs. Whilst I have in the past praised games like Vermintide for evolving upon the Left 4 Dead premise and turning it into something new, like a melee brawler, there's something about the original that's just implacable. And whatsmore, I feel like there's enough space in this niche little corner of gaming for Back 4 Blood, Vermintide and even that new 40k themed title that's coming in the near future. Despite feeling similar they all serve vastly different genres and moods, and I respect a gametype that can be that diverse.

So safe-to-say I had a lot of fun with my few days playing Back 4 Blood, and though it's not the sort of game that I could grind out repeatedly, it was one that made me smile evetime I played. If that's the promise that this game can hold then you can consider me sold, and that goes doubly true if I get a chance to see the ways that a title like this will improve. (Because we all know what it means for us to be living in the live service age, no?) I see this as the sort of the game to keep on your harddrive for those days when you feel like doing nothing else but bashing-in some heads, and for me it takes a very special game to fill that sort of void. So given everything I've played so far, I'll say that Back 4 Blood is on the right track. (Although for a parting bit of advice I'd encourage given the Director a little more freedom, I'd imagine it could really become something incredible with some nurturing)