If you've been spending any time on Turtle Rock's co-op zombie survival game Back 4 Blood, you might have noticed it's a surprisingly tough shooter. As it so happens, the difficulty is actually higher than intended, and the studio is working to get the level of challenge back on track.
While some updates for the game have already been made in order to reduce the difficulty, more are on the way. It seems a big source of the unintentionally tough encounters with the undead is how often special Ridden are being spawned in. The team mentioned this on a live stream recently; despite a patch that ought to have reduced the number of these enemies, they're still popping up much too often.
"Sometimes a bit of difficulty can add a lot of replayability, but as of right now there are issues and bugs we’ve encountered in development that are making it far more difficult than intended," says Turtle Rock in a Reddit post. It explains that, as well as the inflated spawn rates of mutated Ridden, trauma damage — persistent damage that builds up over time — was being applied too quickly. Thankfully this has been ironed out, but it seems more updates to the game's difficulty are on the way.
Have you been struggling with Back 4 Blood at all? What do you think of its difficulty? Get to a safe room in the comments section below.
[source reddit.com, via kotaku.com]
Comments 13
They broke the game after the last update. Playing on veteran with random lobbies was already difficult at launch cause of the spawn rates and now it's pure broken.
Would have been happy with a pure l4d copy with some new weapons and maps but they've made it all too complicated with the card system for example.
I would pay to see the devs livestream themselves playing on veteran or nightmare
Couldn't really answer the question since I was highly disappointed with the game during the beta. Like the person that posted first above me, I would have been much happier if it was just a prettier Left 4 Dead copy than an inferior and more complicated version of it.
Also, just like other developers in the industry, they don't quite understand difficulty and replayability. Having to do something over and over again because it's ridiculously hard is not replayability. It's frustration, not added value.
I know there are people that are really pleased with the game. I'm glad some are really happy with it. It's gotten some pretty good reviews as well. I wished I could agree with it after playing the beta since I was a big Left 4 Dead fan, but all I saw was an inferior version of a classic.
@BRT15 the card system is a stroke of genius..it gives you a choice to choose a random one out of the deck you have slowly built up (i'm mentioning that for readers who dont know) so you can have a fighting chance to survive the horrors that await..i was blissfully unaware that the difficulty was broken untill it started getting mentioned but for me the hardest thing by far is finding people that dont just arse about deliberatly setting off alarms..can do without the tossers..
@KilloWertz i thought the beta was underwhelming but i'm enjoying the game a lot more..despite initial teething problems..
They ruined the game on the update. Disabled my own single player progress with my bots - now only online when it connects and I can’t even progress my own game. Absolute joke for them to disable the single player bit only for it to say it will be available again soon. Genuinely want a refund
@KilloWertz "Having to do something over and over again because it's ridiculously hard is not replayability. It's frustration, not added value."
This is exactly why I wasn't enjoying the game, prior to some fixes. I've played a couple of levels since, with just 1 other friend and bots, and can confirm that I'm actually enjoying the game way more. Not entirely sold on the card system still, but it does allow for me and my friend to play in different ways, him as a medic and me as assault, which has given it a bit of variety, but seems the best perks are hidden until you start to 'buy' or unlock more cards
@Northern_munkey I got stuck in a match last night with people that set off every car alarm, every door alarm, and attacked every snitch. I spent a solid 10 minutes fighting back to back hordes and having to revive the idiots that kept doing it because they couldn't be bothered to stay together and fight...
I love the game but the player community is pretty bad right now.
Then wtf did they nerf the good cards like Money Grubbers and Inspiring Sacrifice!?
Those cards were essential in completing ACT 1 on Veteran for me!
@torne i play with my mate but when he isnt about i just try and play with the "randoms" and i've had a few really good games but as a general rule it gets frustrating when the idiots are out en mass..
The stage on Act 3 where you’re in the base and you have to open gates in order to get to the safe room surely needs to be adjusted. It’s a near constant spawn of zombies climbing over the fences including TallBoys and the fat chargers. Ridiculous
Saying that, I think this game could turn in to something cherished. It’s fun but it needs that difficulty fixing quickly.
@Northern_munkey I do the same thing. If my friend is on we play together but if not I try and play nice but it's a rough go
@KilloWertz I shared your thoughts after the beta myself, but I was completely turned around with the full release, it really is SO much fun.
The card system is fantastic, and adds a much needed depth to what L4D had, which as wonderful as that game is, seems quaint, and overly simple today. There's a layer of strategy and team synergy that wasn't there before. Having trouble on a level? Why not try mixing up your decks instead of banging your head against a wall over and over again in hopes of getting through it.
But these constant updates, nerfs, buffs, tweaks to difficulty, is going to get annoying.
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