These ongoing issues are why I found it both frustrating and funny that alongside the DLC came an even harder difficulty for those who want it. As a saving grace, the AI teammates seem better now than they did at launch, meaning these overwhelming hordes are sometimes more manageable-at the very least predictable-when played offline due to the way the AI aims expertly and defends you like their monarch. Opening a door and being met with four mini-bosses at once isn't interesting, it's just exhausting, and doing that five times in a single hive makes it that much more of a slog. Sometimes less is more, but Back 4 Blood continues to reject the notion. It feels like a game of D&D being run by a dungeonmaster with a puerile idea of the rule of cool. Skull Totems can be redeemed for some of the game's most elaborate cosmetics to date. Rather than pit you in inventive new scenarios like splitting up the group or putting you in tough flight-or-fight situations, the AI director simply throws a lot more of the game's Mutations (special infected) at you. However, the game's legacy issues, like poorly balanced enemy swarms, continue to get in the way.Īcross the game's seven hives, each has a second "inner hive" region that is meant to be even harder, and they certainly are, but not in a fun way. Those factors should mean that the toughest roguelite runs demand at least one pit stop in a hive for better weapons. Legendary weapons can only be found in these hives, not to mention the game's new free currency, Skull Totems, which can unlock exclusive new cosmetics. Tauntingly, they often appear near safe rooms, giving squads of Cleaners a decision to make: head for the security of the bright orange door, or sink into the hellish hives for the game's best loot? For any high-level players, the decision should be an easy one. Spawning at random, hives act as high-risk, high-reward optional dungeons into which a full team must agree to descend together. Rather than offer up another underplayed side attraction to the main campaign, these Ridden Hives are smartly built right into the game's original, already lengthy story mode. The Tunnels of Terror expansion adds two characters, a slew of weapons, and seven new levels to Back 4 Blood in the form of Ridden Hives. Six months later, pacing and design issues still hinder the experience in the game's first expansion, Tunnels of Terror, but the moments of frustration are finally showing signs of waning alongside some fun additions to the game's core campaign. In one level, you may excitedly limp to the saferoom as a swarm scratches at your heels, the way any horde shooter should often feel, only for the next level to be a mess of enemy spam and poor objective design. Since Back 4 Blood debuted in October 2021, it's been players' best-looking and perhaps most extravagant Left 4 Dead successor since the original sequel in 2009, but it's also been a frustratingly inconsistent game to play.
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