Here’s my hot take, Back 4 Blood’s Versus Mode has some serious design flaws, but Left 4 Dead’s Campaign Versus mode did too. There’s a very vocal group of players that are incensed over the idea that Back 4 Blood won’t have the same PvP mode that Left 4 Dead did, but if you ask me, both modes should have been scrapped in favor of more PvE content.
My experience with Back 4 Blood PvP Versus mode has been one of confusion and ambivalence so far. The 4v4 game mode is played on a small map where the survivors, called Cleaners in B4B, have to stay within a small area and fend off wave after wave of AI enemies and player-controlled Ridden (zombies). Once the Cleaners are eventually killed, the teams switch sides and the Ridden players now get a chance to play the Cleaners. Whichever team survives longer wins the round, and matches are played best two out of three.
Related: Back 4 Blood Developers Say It Won't Be Getting A Versus Campaign
In between rounds players have the opportunity to upgrade their classes either with points earned during the match or with cards drawn from their deck. There are four classes of Cleaner to choose from, each with their own unique deck of cards. Cards are purchased with currency earned from playing the game, and decks can be assembled back at the hub town before entering the PvP queue. Each round, the Cleaners get to choose a card from a selection of four cards four times that give a stat bonus or perk, such as faster reload or an upgrade to the melee attack. The Ridden players will also choose a class. Players can choose from three special classes or a normal Ridden. If you choose a special Ridden, you’ll then choose from one of three subclasses of Ridden. Each class then has three upgrade paths to choose from each round, and you’ll spend points earned during your Cleaner round to purchase upgrades…I think.
If that all sounds confusing and overwhelming, that’s because it is. Until you get a handle on all the available perks, classes, and upgrades, you’re going to need to do a fair amount of speed reading in order to figure out what all your options are during the setup phase. Every round I’ve played so far has lasted between 1-3 minutes, so you’ll actually spend more time setting up your character than you will actually playing the game sometimes. There’s a lot of friction here at first, but I can appreciate that the idea was to make a robust game mode with a lot of choices that gets more satisfying and complex the more you play it. It’s a steeper learning curve than you might expect for a game about shooting zombies, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad thing.
My big problem with the game mode is that holding a position for three minutes isn’t very satisfying or fun. It’s the exact opposite of the Back 4 Blood’s campaign, which compels you to always move forward and fight your way through impossible odds. As a Cleaner in Versus mode, all you need to worry about is finding good gear during the scavenge phase (which is completely random) and staying huddled with your teammates. There’s some depth to class building and card selection, but the gameplay itself amounts to little more than “stand there and try not to die.”
For the Ridden, it’s not much better. As long as you attack with the waves and avoid trickling in, it doesn’t take a lot of strategy or skill to single out and isolate the Cleaners. Communication definitely helps, but as long as you focus targets with your team, it feels like that’s pretty much all there is to it. I obviously can’t speak from an expert position after just playing a few days during a beta, but my sense is that B4B’s versus mode is really missing what makes B4B fun.
I could probably leave it there, but I can’t but burn every bridge at both ends, so let me also state that the solution isn’t to copy Left 4 Dead’s Versus mode either. L4D Versus was horrifically unbalanced and quickly devolved into a test of your speedrun skills. It was more inaccessible to new players than even the most hardcore shooters, because if you didn’t know very specific strats, you simply couldn’t compete. L4D’s Versus mode definitely captured the spirit of the PVE mode better, obviously, but that didn’t make it a good game mode. I know there were people that loved it and still play it, but it was and still is an unbalanced mess.
I don’t pretend to know how to make a good Back 4 Blood PvP mode, but I do know I’ll likely completely ignore it in favor of grinding the campaigns with my friends, just like I did in Left 4 Dead.
