What do you get when you cross a deck-building strategy game with a cooperative first-person zombie shooter? The recently-released Back 4 Blood of course, from developers Turtle Rock Studios and publishers Warner Bros. Games.
As the spiritual successor to the Left 4 Dead series, players here are tasked with stepping into the shoes of a ‘Cleaner’ who bands together with three others, in a bid to rid the city of the ‘Ridden’ (zombies) following an apocalyptic outbreak. It’s an experience that you can go through alone but, it’s not nearly as fun as when you’re bringing together your mates to shoot, smash and bash your way through the deadly hordes. The AI bots that will aid you on your journey if you do go solo, can sometimes prove to be more annoying than helpful; though they are good at pointing out useful gear such as extra ammo and health stations.
Almost every moment throughout the majority of the levels feels frantic, as you clamour to survive against insurmountable odds. There’s no better feeling than being the member of your group who manages to take down the never-ending waves of zombies without collapsing to the floor, before whisking around your fallen comrades and picking them up so they can get back into the action.
There’s also a weapon for every play-style. If you want to unleash your inner Negan and put a nail-studded baseball bat to good use, then you can do so - and with frankly brilliantly-brutal results. If you prefer a stealthy approach and want to sit behind a Sniper, picking off unsuspecting Ridden whilst your friends get lost in the fray, then that’s an option, too. Plus, there’s everything in-between: shotguns; assault rifles; grenades; you name it, there’s likely a weapon very much like it on offer.
What you’re really going to have to keep an eye on if you want to make your playthroughs a success however, is the building of your card deck. Your strategic manoeuvring through coop play will only get you so far if your set - which sits in place of a talent or skill tree - is lacklustre. Choosing cards that boost the amount of ammo you can hold for example, whilst running a melee-heavy build, is useless and ineffective.
There are of course cards that will help you no matter which weapon you use and some that will even grant helpful boosts to your entire squad. Keep an eye on the new cards you can unlock through gaining supply points after each successful run, too. The most effective group of Cleaners is one made up of four gamers who have built an intricate deck.
Graphically, Back 4 Blood is a beautiful accomplishment. It doesn’t quite look hyper-realistic, but that’s not really what you want from a game of this type. It falls more into the comic book-esque art style that is eye-catching and memorable, delivering bloody set-pieces that are evocative and heavily cinematic.
Those playing on PC will also have the opportunity to enjoy DLSS via NVIDIA, which increases frames and gives a slight upgrade to the smaller details when you’re playing with a lower resolution than you would like, without sacrificing performance. It's an incredible piece of technology and, whilst Back 4 Blood doesn't quite need as much graphical horsepower as some other top tier games, it’s still great to have the option should you wish to indulge.
Back 4 Blood is available now on PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. A code was given to Female First for the game on PC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
The game was reviewed on the MSI GF65 Thin 10UE gaming laptop with NVIDIA RTX 3060 graphics card.
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