Back4Blood / Left4Dead 3?
You know there is something of a certain level of nostalgia when you cast your mind back and see yourself so close to safety, the crackling fires of burning cars now becoming distant echoes in the black of night. The sound of flames piercing the night accompanied by the heavy pounding of feet on pavement. Your allies running, limping, and panting with exertion with each step taking them closer to safety, and then for no reason you get an evil thought... What if you didn't make it? Better yet, what if they didn't make it? What if you made three other people waste a good forty minutes for no reason? So you swerve off from the safe room, jump onto a car bonnet (hood) setting off the car alarm and then sprint into the room, closing the door behind you. You then drop a Molotov as a horde of ravenous undead burst from nowhere and descend upon your teammates. As you laugh like a maniac as they struggle trapped against the inferno before them, and the reanimated necrotic bodies try to tear you limb from limb.
The anger and resentment still ringing in your ears as the completion screen comes up. Despite having the lowest kill count you are the only survivor? Now that was the joy that was Left 4 Dead, and we may have a cheeky return of the brilliant FPS survival runner.
Now the closed alpha for Back 4 Blood went live all the way back in December, so if you get a chance you can take a look at the following short gameplay.
For those who have played Left 4 Dead, you will know roughly what to expect, but Back 4 Blood added a new enemy, the AI. Previously in Left 4 Dead you had to cheeky mosey on around to see where the AI had randomly dropped certain special enemies or group of hordes for no reason other than its own binary enjoyment which usually wasn't an issue, until you hit the higher difficulties. The dreaded AI now has a cheeky card system before the game where it will show you the options it has to play, whether it be added hoards, extra enemies, or even flaming enemies to sling at you whenever it thinks you are taking it too lightly. With these cards it adds into your own counter cards and passive abilities such as extra ammo or special melee weapons instead.
This new development gives you a more tactical system to play with your group. Also, on the higher difficulties boasts the need for proper planning and preparation before diving straight in; unlike the previous installments with unlimited dual pistols and ever lasting one hit punches to get you out of every situation from normal to easy modes. Now, this is only a teaser as I haven't played the alpha myself so I will be keeping this short and sweet, but this is definitely a title to keep an eye on going forwards. I mean most of us will have played Dead Island, State of Decay, or any number of zombie based games and few have given me the same enjoyment as Left 4 Dead did way back when. Despite a new name, team name, and the fancy glossing over this is shaping up to be one of those daft games you just jump into with friends and have a laugh with, which I think is exactly what the gaming community needs sometimes. Back 4 Blood is shaping up to fill the void in our hearts.
Stay tuned for a deeper look into Back 4 Blood once the beta is out. There's good news and bad news surrounding the beta. The initial game release was expected to be in June, but it has been pushed all the way back to October to give the team more time to make sure game is finished and polished. I can't complain though, seeing as usually publishers ruin our dreams with unfinished games (cough Cyberpunk), but at the same time they have announced the game will have an open beta this summer so that will be one to look out for.
Stay tuned for a follow-up once the beta is released!
