If I could, I'd give this a middle thumb but due to the lack of variety and actual fun I will give this game a thumbs down. I feel like the game could be way better in nearly every aspect, but they decided to roll with whatever they had because they knew this would sell cause it’s the “spiritual successor” to the iconic Left 4 Dead franchise.
Promoting the game like it was pretty much L4D3 was one of the biggest mistakes they possibly could have done. You go into the game with the expectation that this would be like left 4 dead and on the surface, it is. 4 player co-op shooter with zombies. They didn’t try to improve upon the now generic and boring formula, they decided to make another forgettable boring game. Oh, and before I forget to mention; They are recording the ingame chat. Just letting you know incase you didn't know.

The entire community gave them plenty of critique and as far as I am aware they listened to no one. They didn’t balance the infected, didn’t change the maps, didn’t add weapons or fix hitboxes. They pretty much changed NOTHING from the alpha or the beta as far as I remember except the horrendous performance. They didn’t even change the goofy stun animation when a reeker dies next to you. You fly away like a cartoon character and they haven’t changed it since the alpha. The performance in the beta and the full game is way better than in the alpha, but there are still quite a few hiccups with the performance, especially during Act 2’s and 4’s finale.

The game is also a buggy mess. I cannot stress enough how many times we had to kill ourselves on purpose cause the final boss was glitched and wouldn’t let us hurt him. The hitboxes are also incredibly broken especially when it comes to the bruisers. It also really bothers me that you cannot play alone with your friends. I know you can, but the game is buggy and it just doesn't work so we always get randoms that got their mic volume at 500% and destroy my ears. The game has been out for 4 days by the time I publish this review and they still have not fixed it.

The gunplay is fun, but kinda feels hollow sometimes. You sadly cannot remove attachments on your guns which is also really annoying especially when you pick up a 4x zoom scope for an AK by accident lmao. Stamina is also a pain in the ass in the game. You can level it up if you pick cards that give you +10% stamina but stamina is still a problem. Speaking of the cards system. It’s unique and sort of cool. At first I was against it, but now that I’ve seen it with my own eyes I kinda like it. It adds to the replay value but most of the time you get some annoying cards that add a fog that is so thick you can’t see a metre in front of you.
The map design for the most part is bad. They look nice, but they are really bad when it comes to gameplay not to mention do they constantly reuse maps and the only thing they change Is the time of day. At least Hard Rain in L4D2 added some heavy rain to the backtracking but Back 4 Blood doesn’t. The atmosphere in general in the game is just average. Left 4 Dead somehow managed to be creepy and incredibly fun all at once when you played it, but Back 4 Blood instantly gives off a cheap and unfinished vibes. You open the game and the second you load into Fort Hope you can just feel how cheap the game is.
The characters are all right I guess. Nothing really outstanding outside of maybe Holly, Doc and Jim. They definitely do not have the charm and chemistry that Bill, Zoey, Francis or Louis had. The melee still feels weightless and it seems like they only have one animation for it. Left 4 Dead 2, a game that released in 2009 unironically got better melee animations than Back 4 Blood that released in 2021. That ♥♥♥♥ blows my mind. It is not fun to use melee weapons at all so I avoid them at all costs.

The Infected are incredibly underwhelming when it comes to design and variety. Overall there are only 3 different categories of infected. Stingers, Tallboys and Reekers. Tallboys are pretty much a mix of Chargers and Tanks, Stingers a mix of Hunter and Spitter, Reekers pretty much only (suicide) boomers. In each of those categories you got 3 new infected and they look pretty much alike so you can never see the difference in-game. Some infected are still ridiculously overpowered or underpowered. There is no actual balance. Stalkers are basically hunters which you cannot prevent from pouncing you except when you somehow dodge them, but that is not proper counterplay because they are faster than you can react. Brousers are incredibly overpowered and frustrating to play as / against. They can rush ahead with their power several metres catching up to the survivor so they make barely any distance and then hit 5m infront of them LITERALLY taking 1/4 of the cleaners health. They can take down an entire team if you're not careful and overrun by ridden or stuck in a small space. They take more than 2-3 mags to take down which is just bad and unfun. But on the other hand, cleaners can throw stun grenades which stun you for 10 seconds and then just throw molotovs and kill you without you having a chance to react. Hockers are alright but annoying to go against aswell ESPECIALLY when they hide on a roof or behind a wall cause there is realistically nothing you can really do against them. The entire tallboy category is just a huge problem. They do too much damage and got too much health. Then there is the Ogre, which is pretty much a huge tank but he is overall ironically the weakest enemy in the game. If you hide in a house and shoot from inside there is nothing he can do about it. However, if you are close to him he is quite strong duh. He sounds quite cool right? Well I thought so too until I realised that every time he appears it is always scripted. He can’t appear randomly and that just ruins it at times because you can just run past him if you know what is about to happen.
The swarm mode is also incredibly stupid. Maps are horribly designed and 9/10 times open where all the infected struggle to do anything and cleaners can just camp in the corner of the map where they can oversee 50% of the map and shoot anything that moves. But on the other hand, sometimes infected can take the high ground by camping on a roof, behind a wall or some other spot where you physically cannot reach them or react fast enough to counter their attack.

I've also noticed that there is no system like in L4D2. Back in L4D2 you couldn't get 4 hunters or 1 jockey, 1 hunter, 1 charger and 1 smoker that could kill you all in one move because that is quite unfair but here? If there's a horde you get run over by dozens of zombies countless of hockers, stingers, walmart boomers and brousers all at once which is just frustrating.
Also allow us more customization. I wanna change my crosshair to my liking and not either some dot or some ugly cross. They are also way too big which looks really off. The servers are also quite laggy currently which is a bummer.

I bought the 100€ version and hope they improve upon everything but due to them not really changing anything from the Beta or Alpha I won't expect too much. You also HARDLY get anything from the 90 or 100€ version lmao. Like all you get is a few sprays, 3 ugly and 1 good skin and a useless title and emblem alongside one of the worst pre-order weapon skins I have ever seen in my entire life. The only good thing about these versions is that you get to play 4 days earlier but that is still a ridiculous price for that pitiful content.

Overall I’d give this game a 6/10. It is fun but NOT a worthy successor to the Left 4 Dead franchise and it is NOT worth 70-100€.
Edit: 40 hours later and everything still remains true.