Recent reviews by Kaocyde

I'll start off saying, I enjoy the game and will continue playing as long as my patience holds out. But the game needs miles of QoL improvement before it can be considered good enough to recommend.

To start off, there is no team speak. No text chat or voice chat. There's simply no excuse not to have a feature that has been standard in online gaming for about 2 decades. This is especially egregious considering how important communication is to a squad based game.

The other major issue is matchmaking. At least this game runs on only a 3-player squad, as trying to have 4 players at once would be a nightmare. Be prepared to sit and wait at least 10 minutes while the game finds more players. And once you have 3, don't be surprised if 1 of them uses a challenge card before dropping out 3 minutes in, leaving you short handed with a handicap. The "quick play" feature is anything but quick play. Unlike every other game where this feature would throw you in with a random group, here it just makes a new matchmaking group with a random mission. You still have to go through all the usual matchmaking nonsense, except without knowing what mission it is.

Until you complete the campaign missions, you're unable to join any other game modes or use the DLC class. This wouldn't be quite as bad, if the matchmaking mentioned before didn't make it seem completely luck based on whether or not you have a team for any given mission. And to make matters worse, each chapter seems to have less players in the matchmaking pool, so finding a full group takes that much longer.

But, if you manage to get a group that doesn't leave you short handed, the gameplay itself is honestly a ton of fun. The missions are fairly simple and linear, just like pretty much every other team based horde shooter ever made. Class abilities are varied enough that nothing feels useless, with enough customization to play through how you want. The whole reason I've stuck around this long, and still plan to play more, is because the actual gameplay is fun. There just needs to be loads of QoL if the devs want this game to live. Since it seems they still make occasional updates, I hope that means they'll fix some of these issues.

The game is a ton of fun. I haven't finished a single mission yet because it froze in loading once and completely crashed my PC to a reset 3 times within the hour I've tried playing. hopefully, they fix these issues that should have been fixed in BETA. But the industry has moved away from actually testing games and simply released unfinished, letting players only hope they don't take their money and run. I'll be refunding if these issues aren't fixed soon.

But the game is fun.

Update: The game is still a blast to play. Mostly all of the major issues have been worked out, though a few bugs still persist here and there. And the community has come together IN FORCE to preserve Democracy, both in game and against corporate greed.

I know people will hate this opinion, but i want this game to finally die. Don't get me wrong, I love playing it and the game itself is great. But it needs to fade. The game's focus is having a TEAM of players working together to get through each map. But, sadly, most of the player base after almost 15 years is nothing but sweaty speedrunners intent on being the first one to the saferoom, and possibly the only survivor. They burn through meds and throwables, triggering every alarm on the way, while everyone else needs to fight through the wake they leavebehind, now handicapped with 1 less player helping. Sometimes, the speedrunners make it. Most other times, they get pinned down by a hunter or smoker and need to be saved. Then they need to be healed, using up meds. And once healed, they go off running off to get pinned again and repeat the whole cycle.

This may seem like a bad side-note, but I'm glad Back4Blood has come out and made a system where each player has a role to play, and once more encourages players to work together. Even if the game doesn't have the detailed nuance of this one. No need for anyone to try and put the I in T-E-A-M. Let this game die, and maybe we'll get to see the sequel we want and deserve.

Spoiler alert: the 1st 10 minutes of gameplay is simply pressing left alt and saying "DAAAAW"

That said, this is still a good game. Nothing game changing or ground breaking. Kinda on the short side. But a good game overall.

Kinda mixed feelings on this. Nothing that affects gameplay is hidden behind DLC, it can all be unlocked thru grinding except cosmetics. Which is good, honestly.

The new ridden are decent, and the new corruptions are really nasty.
New legendary weapons are fun, even if they can't get parts upgrades put on. It'd be nice to get a sight ot laser target put on a few...but oh well.

The biggest change is the hives, and they completely change the run thru of a game...its really a mixed bag there.
The entry to a hive lands somewhere in the level. When you go in, that level ends, you dont have to get to the next safe room. It loads up one of 6 hive maps at random, and while the goal is still getting from A to B, there's totem collectibles along the way. With luck, you'll find a better gun or attachment, because the unique legendaries only spawn in a hive. Totems give points to buy more stuff at base (lobby), and act as a (STRONG) melee weapon while you carry it. Once you finish a hive (possibly including the 2nd, inner hive that could spawn in) its back to the campaign as usual. Problem is, almost every level likely has a hive entrance. So it's turned a run with 10-12 stages in it, to a run with 25-30....without actually adding much content to it.

The 2 new characters are decent....1 seems woefully underpowered compared to the others. But they don't really have a role like everyone else. Example - Jim is a sniper, he gets an accuracy boost and extra damage for maintaining a string of headshot. Holly is melee all day. She gains back stamina for every melee kill. Doc is a medic (no ♥♥♥♥), she gets 1 free heal on each teammate and gives back more health. The new ones are nice, but they're kinda lacking a place to fit into a group.

I just broke 1000 hours of play, and all i can say is

CONSUME PAYDAY CONTENT

A great game. Unfortunately, until rockstar does something about the modders ruining the game, it will never be worth recommending. Every lobby is full of people openly talking about which mods they're using, and rockstar doesn't care. They use the mods to nuke all players on the map and crash the game, but rockstar doesnt care. However, if a modder decided to do a money drop, and spawn tons of cash on top of you, then you get banned or have your account reset. Because if money is free, then Theres no reason to buy their shark cards. That's when rockstar cares, when it cuts into their pocket.

I just want to say that I enjoy the game. It admittedly isn't perfect, but very few games are. It has its pros, it has its cons. but they tend to go hand.
The skill card system is great, letting you customize your abilities to suit your playstyle, as are the upgrades to weapons. you can focus on shotguns, sniper rifles, assault rifles, or melee. And each character has their own abilities to add to the mix. At no point in the game is who you chose simply cosmetic. Unfortunately, This means that if someone chooses your favorite character, having to pick someone else is not simply a cosmetic change, and will likely affect how you play through. If Holly is your favorite and someone else chooses her, you may not be as effecting trying to be melee focused with someone else. So it would probably be best to develop a few varying styles to play through.
In Left 4 Dead, once you found your prefered primary and secondary weapons, that was it for the rest of the game. hold them forever and never change. Here, your loadout will be constantly changing as you find better quality weapons, and better upgrades. Again, with nothing being perfect, this mean dropping into a game with quickplay can put you at a handicap for a while until you've found some decent weapons to match the rest of the group. Upgrades tend to also go to whoever runs ahead to loot them, while leaving their team behind. Good co-ordination and team play would make this minimal, but with random pick-up games that's pretty rare.
The cross-play is seemless, and playing with Xbox and playstation players means you're rarely lacking for a good team, even in the pre-release days that I'm making this review. I thought console players would be a liability, due to the limits of using a controler instead of keyboard and mouse to aim, but they tend to hold their own as well as anyone.....even if you have to listen to a random kid with a hot mic talking to his mom for the whole match. But that's what player mute is for.
Despite not usually being a PVP person myself, The PVP is well done. Matches are stacked against the survivor team, and the undead always win. But that's the point. After the sides are switched, its a matter of which survivors held out longer. Quick matches means you move on to the next one, with very little delay. I haven't seen a group holdout for more than 5 minutes yet, and a co-ordinated team of undead descending on the survivors, wiping them out in under a minute, is outright terrifying.

All This said, I definitely recommend the game. The $60 price-tag may be a little steep for some, so i would suggest they watch for it to go on sale. But it is a quality game worth playing.



**EDIT** - With the game currently being free on GamePass, almost every console player is unwilling to put an effort into learning to play and will become walking evidence of darwinism. Too Dumb To Live. They will walk past medboxes with no health, ignore info folders, and generally disregard anything pinged by you. They generally need to be carried thru any and all levels, and turn every mission into an escort mission, all while they talk about how great they're doing over the mic. Crossplay might need to be put aside for a while, at least until it goes off gamepass.

EDIT: 6 months later - new DLC is coming out next week and crossplay is still pretty bad.

I want to like this game. Really, I do. And i truly hope they improve on it. But right now I cannot give this a good review. Right now, it feels less finished than Cyberpunk 2077 was on release.
Combat wants to be fun and technical. But in the end, it turns into nothing more complex than a below average button masher. There are plenty of combos and moves to be unlocked...but no way to see how they're done while on missions.
The missions themselves are dull and repetitive, nothing more than running a mostly linear path with a few enemies scattered about. The enemies themselves are horribly balanced, either dying in 1-2 hits or soaking damage forever until they manage to knock you down and stun-lock you to death.
As a few others have mentioned, enemy A.I. is an utter crapshoot. Enemies will idly stand around with you in plain view as you slowly pick them off 1 by 1 with ranged attacks, and completely forget you exist if you leave their designated combat area. The latter issue becomes even more noticable in some boss arenas with blind spots to hide in, watching everyone turn their backs and go back to their set starting position.
Gameplay bugs seem to be Rampant. Fires (which are damaging if you walk over one) apparently become invisible at random, with no indication they exist until you are taking damage. Sliding is also an issue I've run across frequently, with a character steadily sliding across the ground when i stopped walking. This is most noticeable while stopping to aim at the higher up crystal clusters.
Currently, the Lore of the forgotten realms and the Drizzt series in particular is the biggest draw this game has...but even that seems phoned at times in for longtime fans of the books.

There is so much that needs fixing in this game, and I'm hoping the issues get addressed. It really feels like it needed another few months in development and has had little to no actual playtesting. As stating before, Its a game i really want to like, and i'm hoping it improves. I would also love to see additional content added in (Artemis? Pwent?), but right now it is nowhere near being worth the money spent on it.

What can be said about this game that hasn't been said a hundred times over in pretty much every review made? If you enjoy endless PvP and just want to kill other players and everything you see, this is the game for you. Otherwise, you've just paid $40 to be fodder for the other, more experienced players to enjoy killing. Bring friends along, or go ahead and delete the game now.

Rare created a huge world, fully explorable, with an endless stream of PvE quests (though, they are admittedly repetative). But none of that matters. What matters is the fact that you will never enjoy any benefit from sailing around and collecting treasures. The instant you get neat any outpost, you will be killed, your ship will be burned and sunk (not always in that order), and everything you gathered will be looted. You'll have nothing to show for the time and effort.

Many player are hoping for PvE servers. This won't happen. Rare has made it explicitly clear that this is a game for PvP players. Proof of this is on the ferryman's ship. On a sign that gives advice on how to get away from other players camping you, it suggests you scuttle your ship. That's right. The official response to being camped is to kill yourself. This is what Rare thinks of their customer base.

This will also be the last product from Rare I ever give a second thought to.