Left For Dead... - The Tragedy of Back 4 Blood

[Applause] all right this is gonna get bad the trailblazing left for dead and its 2009 sequel redefined Cooperative Shooters carving out A New Path in the genre that later paved the way for countless Co-op Centric experiences despite their best efforts though no development team could recapture the unique thrill of zombie killing in the valvone franchise as such the company's decision to cease regular support on Left 4 Dead 2 marked the end of an era a much coveted Left for Dead 3 wouldn't reinvigorate things either leaving other Studios with the task of carrying the torch but the likes of Killing Floor 2 and World War Z while admirable in their own right arguably paled in comparison to that which came before with the industry still itching for a comparable zombie experience left for Dead's original creators took it upon themselves to revisit the genre through the lens of a new IP back for blood build has left for Dead's spiritual successor back for blood followed this same basic structure pitting up to four playable Heroes against zombie hordes and campaign and competitive modes however developer Turtle Rock Studios switched gears in some respects crafting more capable protagonists introducing card-based progression and updating the classic l4d formula with modern systems the anticipation ahead of back for blood's debut suggested the Beloved Zombie series had truly returned via another name yet the former's October 2021 release left much to be desired content-related shortcomings and a handful of technical woes plagued to Turtle Rock's new property during its first few months on the market resulting in a rapidly declining user base that never returned to full strength this is the tragedy of back for blood this video has been brought to you in part by naraka bladepoint naraka is a battle royale unlike any other Battle Royale on the market with a unique melee focused fighting system and hero skills battles fodder up close and personal with Limitless combat 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discounted on Steam and epic between March 15th and 21st we'd like to thank naraka for sponsoring this video after shipping the original Left 4 Dead as a valve subsidiary in late 2008 the california-based turtle rock studios stuck around for a while longer to help produce Left 4 Dead 2 DLC the company regained its independence in 2011 retaining quite a bit of talent but losing the Left for Dead IP fortunately the team once more revitalized Co-op Shooters upon deploying the asymmetrical multiplayer title evolve in 2015. unfortunately evolve harbored little in the way of staying power its online server shutting down a mere three years after release Turtle Rock had no intention of giving up on Cooperative games however speaking with Eurogamer Studio co-founder Chris Ashton said back for blood spawned from a longing to revisit the co-op zombie space more than anything the crew wanted a second chance at the genre and hoped the public was just as ready no one within Turtle Rock had any interest in simply retreading old ground either changing the attitude of zombie-laden horror seemed far more inventive allowing for the rejection of tales where dire circumstances steered The Narrative to instead concentrate on what would come after the Apocalypse in short the Left for Dead Creator focused its efforts toward fighting against the typical end of civilization Motif an attempt at clean-slating the genre with fresh ideas while simultaneously embedding the moment-to-moment feel of a turtle Rock production doing so necessitated essential adjustments to the blueprint previously established and left for dead for one the Everyman archetype fell by the wayside exchanged for more soldier-oriented protagonists named cleaners who also board immunity to the parasite responsible for back for blood's Undead hordes the immunity engendered a different overarching objective as well while left for dead survivors searched desperately for a safe place the cleaners prioritized creating safe places ultimately the developers weren't driven to reinvent the wheels so much as they aim to enrich the genre by pushing it forward but crafting a richer experience still Reigns Supreme an idea made manifest through a larger scope expansive Cooperative features and a deeper narrative whose environmental storytelling benefited from eight playable characters each of whom inspired multiple playthroughs given their disparate responses to certain events and yet Turtle Rock's biggest changes to its previously crafted tried and true formula reared their heads throughout their core systems that powered the action in back for black thank you smaller but not totally insignificant tweaks to Left 4 Dead's winning recipe including the Advent of sprinting and aiming down the sights the latter of which bolstered the addition of weapon attachments the one element that largely went unchanged at least conceptually was the AI director or as back for blood dubbed it the game director not too dissimilar to his counterpart the game director could dynamically modify every aspect of the experience from changing spawn points and the appearance of fog latent maps to enemy placement and challenges based around player Behavior notably this level of AI guided control encouraged the creation of back for blood's most prominent feat card based progression Turtle Rock Studios breathes life into this transformative card mechanic later in development then iterated on the feature for no less than a year and a half according to lead designer Brandon Yanez regularly playing the game LED he and Chris Ashton to question how users could influence the title's RNG or random number generator rather than leave every game-changing decision in the game director's invisible hands the parathot allowing players to make their own choices would liven up the action hence the card and progression system earlier iterations of the card concept were shelved during production in a rock paper shotgun interview Janus recalled Turtle Rock's experimentation with scavenge cards that scattered more items around the world for users to uncover much confusion grew out of this particular setup with play testers struggling to identify that resources like bandages Spawn from their collected cards the team scaled back scavenge cards as a result concentrating on bigger item drops such as the combat knife which swapped out the unarmed bash attack for a heavier blow with a melee weapon the progression system received plenty of fine tuning throughout its 18 months or so of development even so playing the optimal Deck with the right character weapons and attachments could provide the means for an overpowered playthrough though Yannis insisted a great deal of balancing went into ensuring op runs didn't become the norm fine-tuning back for blood's Cooperative Foundation went hand in hand with fleshing out the progression mechanics as Ashton told polygon progression systems typically prioritize the individual and in doing so divided teammates the zombie games developers chose a different route one wherein progression features based around Co-op could bring Squad members closer together as opposed to tearing them apart it hardly translated to the preference of individual users being cast aside on the contrary cars were designed in such a way that players could customize cleaner builds to their likings be it a healing focused or tank-oriented hero yet in spite of its investment into deep functionality Turtle Rock made room for very accessible gameplay options a classic Mode boasting basic cards removed from a necessity of perk cars was instituted for those who simply wanted to have fun with a co-op zombie shooter in some cases fun could only perform so much of the heavy lifting with WB Games attached as publisher Turtle Rock Studios took the industry by surprise upon announcing a new IP in a March 2019 press release the team used an FAQ post to preemptively mitigate any confusion about suspected left for dead connections yet it didn't Quail talks and headlines or on message Wars of back for blood representing a spiritual successor naturally this line of thinking birthed incredibly high expectations which reached the stratosphere when the game resurfaced with a cinematic trailer and gameplay footage during the 2020 Game Awards reporters who enjoyed Hands-On time with the title couldn't help but draw comparisons to Left for Dead thanks in large part to the analogous creature designs settings core gameplay tenets and AI director like overseer it made sense on paper like many seasoned Studios Obsidian Entertainment and Frontier developments included not owning the rights to its original creation puts Turtle Rock in a position to revive an older premise under a new moniker bolstered by novel ideas still some series veterans held out hope for Left 4 Dead 3 by another name so the instances were back for blood followed a path all its own were not always met with resounding Applause its live service elements initially caused quite the Uproar among prospective players especially when Turtle Rock confirmed an always online requirement that even applied to solo mode acknowledging the criticism in a Eurogamer sit down weeks ahead of release company co-founder Chris Ashton said developers were investigating the possibility of an offline mode for a post-launch update the executive tempered expectations though and made no promises given the difficulties involved in seeing the task through to completion because Turtle Rock handled back for blood's deeply woven progression model server side it too would necessitate management offline for a dedicated offline mode wading through the ins and outs of such a feat raised many questions Chief among them being whether players who didn't connect to the internet should gain access to all of the game's available cards or none at all the team solved the problem not long after release yet the lead-up to launch still saw the co-op shooter sitting on the sour end of Left 4 Dead comparisons one of the most disappointing Revelations came during the Early Access preview as players learned back for blood lactom mode equivalent to the valve titles Uber popular versus Turtle Rock's competitive matches instead revolved around swarm an eight-player PVP offering somewhat akin to its predecessors survival mode Ashton informed fans on Discord that the reason for such an Omission came down to the sheer amount of defensive equipment in game defending worked far better for our game than running from A to B the executive wrote considering the differences between back for blood's special written creatures and Left 4 Dead's traditional zombies the decision made sense dissatisfaction weighed heavily on the community regardless with some hopeful players arguing that Turtle Rock didn't understand its audience after a four-month delay which allowed the studio to avoid making any painful cuts to plant content WB Games and Turtle Rock deployed back for blood on consoles PC and Xbox game pass in October 2021. the final product demonstrated that developers at least had some idea of who would invest in their new IP however the title short-term successes did not guarantee long-term gains that's all for today but back for blood still has a lot more to reveal in the coming thank you foreign average reviews the bulk of the positivity stopping short of glowing reception the story campaign and gameplay received solid marks across the board scratching the Left for Dead itch in more ways than one with its faithful reimagining of the zombie killing action critics and players even grew attached to the deck building and looting mechanics but so much of what didn't hit the mark overshadowed the various facets that did technical woes and balancing issues plagued the game at launch for example plus its prioritization of fun with friends hampered the experience for those who wanted to play solo because of the comparatively limited progression system that AI teammates usually proved inept during a mission's most challenging moments further exacerbated the dismay and back for blood's one player offering the PVP focused swarm mode similarly lacked long-term appeal when compared to the much coveted verses from Left For Dead and of course fewer willing to set aside their Fury over the mandatory online requirement Turtle Rock later rectified a number of these issues in post-launch patches offline and solo progression finally entered the mix in a free December 2021 update this self-same update addressed balancing troubles too adding adjustments that tackled complaints leveled against the recruit veteran and Nightmare difficulty settings while such Post Release adjustments were tantamount to back for blood's potential staying power even more integral to its longevity was the annual pass a forty dollar package that promised three separate expansions each one comprised of new cleaners special enemy types weapons and cards for a Time the paid extras and free updates did little to sway the interest of existing players evidenced by large quantities of steam users flocking to Left 4 Dead 2 just weeks after Turtle Rock Unleashed its spiritual successor the former's Resurgence resulted in concurrent player counts eclipsing back for bloods on more than one occasion on PC at least this trend seldom let up since the Allure of the newer title rarely outpaced that of the valve game okay kill all sons of right hopes were high that developers could maintain the Newfound momentum even after shipping all of the scheduled annual pass offerings the prospects of additional content releases seemed bright for a Time given 10 cents acquisition of turtle Rock's parent company slam fire Inc in December 2021. co-founders Phil Robb and Chris Ashton maintained control of daily operations and assured fans the buyout would allow back for blood to blossom into a long-standing franchise that thrives well into the future cursory sales data suggested this wasn't beyond the realm of possibility in March 2022 Turtle Rock and WB Games touted back for blood's 10 million player Milestone wearing the achievement like a badge of honor though actual sales numbers eluded the conversation how much Xbox game pass factored into the celebratory figure never garnered mention but U.S tracking data from the NPD group revealed the zombie title sold appreciably enough to be named 2021's best-selling new IP on consoles superficially impressive stats held little Sway in the long run early in February 2023 Turtle Rock issued a statement announcing the end of production on back for blood the AAA Studios relatively small size meant it lacked the resources to continue building new content for the apocalyptic Adventure especially since work had begun on a bigger Bolder and better Endeavor consequently back for blood May dwell in Left for Dead Shadow and perpetuity a weight that could burden the brand should an opportunity for its 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Channel: GVMERS

Views: 356,852

Keywords: Back 4 Blood, Evolve, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Left 4 Dead 3, Valve, Turtle Rock Studios, Tragedy of Back 4 Blood, Back 4 Blood What Happened, Back 4 Blood Documentary, Death of Back 4 Blood, Left For Dead, History of Left 4 Dead, L4D, B4B, Back For Blood

Id: veQ3XiwxG8M

Length: 18min 17sec (1097 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 17 2023