Review of "Bloodbath Revenge": A box of "Fighting Zombies" brand chewing gum

More than a decade ago, I spent countless days and nights fighting "The Road to Survival" with my friends, marveling at the excitement of working together to fight zombies, and looking forward to more works of the same genre being released.

Over the past decade, we have killed Nazi zombies, fought humanoid mice, ravaged mine worms, and waged world wars against zombies around the world.

More than a decade later, Turtle Rock, the first developer of "The Road to Survival," announced that they would release a new game called "Back 4 Blood," which, as the name suggests, is what they see as the "Left 4 Dead" of this era.

So, what was the experience of "Bloodbath Revenge"? Here is my opinion.

*As of the completion of this article, my official version of the game has a duration of 12 hours, and the test version of the game has a duration of 20 hours

*In terms of completion: difficulty level for new recruits, difficulty level for veterans completing Chapter 2, and difficulty level for nightmares not successfully advancing to the first save point

*In 32 hours of game time, friends play black for 26 hours, passersby match for 4 hours, and play alone for 2 hours

*The content in the article only represents personal subjective experience, and the evaluation platform is Xbox Series X+PC, with experience in controller, keyboard and mouse control

If you are a friend who has heard of the radio before, you should know that I have been looking forward to "Blood Revenge" for a long time, and I tried it out as soon as the game was tested first. Although only two levels were released in the beta version (about one sixth of the official content), I still played and overcame the veteran difficulty of the beta levels repeatedly. It's not an exaggeration to say that conquering these two levels has brought back the excitement and impulse I had when I killed zombies in the Death Center.

It should be noted that although "Vengeance" does not have a powerful AI director and distinctive enemy design, the card system and more props together bring more strategic dimensions, giving it the opportunity to shine in areas where "The Road to Survival" has not been heavily explored, and even the opportunity to explore different paths using the same kernel without replicating the latter. Thinking of this, my mood was like looking forward to the autumn in Shanghai - knowing its brevity, but also wanting to feel its beauty.

But the reality is... autumn in Shanghai this year did not come as expected.

Just entered - fresh content that keeps up with the times

If you consider "Blood Revenge" as a box of chewing gum, then at the beginning of the game, it is likely to impress players.

The mainstream level of texture and lighting effects make the first impression of "Blood Revenge" ahead of other similar works. Hopefully, the dim lighting of the castle, scattered water on the ground, and the highlighting of dilapidated vehicles and temporary buildings can make players feel a faint sense of despair, belonging to the post apocalyptic shelter; But within the Hope Fortress, the dancing campfire and the searchlights on the high ground give hope, as if as long as there are these strong light sources, people will always struggle.

Of course, describing the scene with text is inevitably a bit pale, just like using only firelight cannot fight zombies - we need someone who can handle it more. At this point, there is a number of weapon models in Blood Revenge that can be compared to a mobile arsenal.

, have you seen this row on the table? It's all hot weapons

Even if we don't include cold weapons such as knives, guns, sticks, etc., there are still dozens of weapons in "Blood Revenge". They have different characteristics according to their types, such as pump action shotguns with small ammunition but large dispersion and high power; Although the AK assault rifle is difficult to maintain stable pressure, its high damage makes it the best choice for quick clearance; This game even has a bolt action sniper rifle as a hard commodity. If one shot hits, it will destroy the sky and the earth, and if the other shot doesn't hit, it will fall to the ground.

At the same time, there are a large number of weapon accessories in the game, each with its own function: the magazine can reduce loading speed or increase ammunition, the muzzle can enhance bullet damage or penetration, the stock can increase movement speed during aiming or reduce recoil, and so on. If players can find suitable accessories, they can completely install a silencer and 2x sight on their revolver, which is equivalent to a silencing sniper gun.

light machine gun with built-in accessories

The design of , which can only be replaced and cannot be disassembled on its own, is a bit annoying

In addition to weapons used as core output tools, there are also various props in the game. From old friends like homemade bombs and defibrillators, to fresh gadgets like flash bombs and toolkits, the diversity is astonishing. New props have their own uses: firecrackers are a cost-effective choice to lure away ordinary zombies, flash bullets can quickly deter special infected individuals, electric shock absorbers can help users break free from enemy controlled attacks on their own. As for tool sets, in addition to being used to open supply rooms and boxes, they can also help players avoid machine alarms in many scenarios, thereby changing the attack behavior itself.

Look at these two rows, we've never fought such a wealthy battle before

As for the ammunition and economic system that I initially sneered at, it was only after experiencing it that I realized the fun was even more surprising. Although the behavior of "looking for money everywhere in the zombie fighting game" may sound foolish, the coins accumulated by players in each round will become the basic resource for conquering the next level. Obtaining enough coins in the previous level will make it easier in the following levels.

Making money is everyone's goal

In short, Revenge of Blood will leave players with a relatively good first impression, as it has many fresh and interesting content. Although RPG quality ratings such as ordinary, rare, and epic may make players hesitant, in actual combat, players will find that no matter what weapon is used to hit ordinary zombies, it is a problem of only a few bullets, and they will be relieved.

Start Chewing - A commendable card strategy

After experiencing the new toys and easy to get started games, Vengeance will present its most important system - the card system - to players.

At present, there are over a hundred cards in the game, and player side cards can be roughly divided into four categories: reaction, discipline, wrist strength, and luck. Among these cards, there are both relatively "simple" gains such as increasing bullet damage and bullet penetration, as well as flower cards that "every melee kill within a certain period of time will increase movement speed", and cards that "reduce endurance recovery speed by 20% but increase the health of all team members" that balance the advantages and disadvantages.

Some early cards that can be unlocked

The above examples are just a corner of the iceberg with a large number of cards. It is not an exaggeration to say that the card system is the most fun and valuable system in Revenge of Blood. The diversity ensures that players have the desire to try various combinations. I believe many friends will be guided by the early "push to turn into a knife" (considered melee, can instantly kill ordinary zombies) and "melee to restore 2 health points", hoping to create a "stand and roll back health" Build. This is indeed achievable. After unlocking some cards, players can make the following card effects take effect simultaneously:

• Abandon the ability to open the mirror and aim in exchange for damage reduction and health
• Abandon sprinting ability in exchange for a larger melee attack range
• Improved melee attack speed and power
• Reduce your endurance recovery speed to a quarter, but double your endurance limit, and melee killing enemies can quickly restore endurance
• Close combat kills restore health
• Get temporary health from close range kills
• Obtain damage reduction when possessing temporary health points

This is the effect of seven cards, and just these seven cards, I believe you can also feel the intention and style of this Build. In the game, players can combine up to fifteen cards to form their own deck. In addition to melee standing and healing, players can also stack their movement speed to run quickly, improve their firearm damage through various effects, and even use card combinations to create a "meat shield" effect - standing can make ordinary zombies scratch without fear, who is the monster?

On the left side of are several decks that I have built myself

At the same time, these decks are not all foolproof. Standing and masturbating to regain health may allow for seven in and seven out movements in the tide of corpses, but it is difficult to continue to roam the battlefield when encountering special infected individuals; Stacking movement speed and damage is certainly an excellent effect, but players need to ensure that they are not harmed, because even being scratched by an ordinary zombie will result in a long period of "silent fire"; As for those decks that stack luck crazily and attempt to dominate the apocalypse by collecting enough money, they need to find ways to ensure that they still have basic survival abilities, after all, from a combat perspective, they are just a whiteboard.

It is precisely because each deck has a balance between strengths and weaknesses that cooperation, one of the most important pleasures in the four player zombie game, is amplified. Each person chooses the appropriate deck, and everyone helps each other by learning from their own and their teammates' deck. Imagine a small team: melee healing deck+characters responsible for clearing ordinary zombies and clearing paths ahead, stacking firearm damage deck+characters in the middle of the team to help pathbreakers quickly kill special infected individuals, medical exploration deck+characters responsible for helping teammates recover health and perceive supplies, and as for the last person... all accumulated lucky cards form the team's finances, responsible for flipping up and down to pick up coins in the scene.

Some luck cards, many of which have effects related to copper coins

This kind of team collaboration is satisfying just by thinking about it. The ammunition and economic system mentioned earlier also played a role here, as players can share their props, ammunition, and coins with their teammates at any time, which further enhances the sense of teamwork, as if "the four of us are good teammates who support each other in the apocalypse of zombies.".

Therefore, for different levels and situations, and even different players' gameplay habits, the card and ammunition economy system of "Blood Revenge" has a "beautiful" playing space, seemingly with the value of repeatedly playing and trying to build different decks.

But please note, what I'm saying is "look".

Gradually boring - simple and rough level design

After several exciting attempts at self-organizing cards and successfully conquering the early and middle stages of the game, I am ready to unlock more cards to enrich my card library and try to conquer the latter half of the game.

Boredom begins.

As I mentioned earlier, "Each deck has its own long and short boards.". The shortcomings here are not only determined by things that players control, but also by things that players cannot control. Take an extreme but simple example: on a plain where zombies flood in all directions, stacking numerical decks is almost impossible to work. But in contrast, the melee healing deck here is like high school students on the kindergarten basketball court - they can play whatever they want.

And in Revenge of Blood, there are too many such "plains".

Compared to the fresh content and valuable card system, the level design of Blood Revenge seems like a joke. For example, in a certain level of the game, players need to defend a bar, which is very accessible to zombies. A small indoor space has five doors for zombies to pass through and three unobstructed windows. Even if Sean comes, he can only be said to be hopeless and waiting to die.

, my dear god, look at those windows and doors

In such defensive levels, decks that require card point tactics find it difficult to have room to play. Unfortunately, levels that are unfriendly to card tactics almost run through the entire game, resulting in corresponding decks being directly discarded. And there are too many open levels in the game, which increases the value of decks based on melee or movement. Players who come and go will find that everyone will unconsciously adjust their deck to a similar combination of true gold and silver.

But I think the production team is also aware of this, as they are clearly trying to encourage players to use non all win decks through more means. For example, from a personal perspective, I can clearly feel that developers encourage players to use stacked damage decks in certain levels - because I have seen six special infected individuals at the same time and in the same scene.

Special infected individuals are special enemies in Revenge of Blood. Ordinary zombies can be killed with just a melee attack or a few bullets, while special infected individuals often require a magazine or even more bullets to eliminate them. So if there are multiple special infected individuals on the field at the same time, the effect of high damage decks is self-evident.

encounters a boss in an indoor level, and a high damage deck can save the game

The problem is that building monsters is a behavior that is easily disliked by players, and such enemy refresh mechanisms are more like slapping a declaration on the player's face that "don't use that deck, give me this deck", just like throwing a feverish person to the South Pole and the opponent can recover their health& nbsp;

, who knows what I'm going through

Yes, I can understand the development team's ideas. Without the divine level rhythm control system of AI directors, the most cost-effective way to make players feel challenged while fully utilizing the card system is to increase the number/number of enemies and reduce the player's breathing time. But without the support of qualified level structures, such decisions will inevitably lead to a singularity in the use of card types by all players - not every team of players necessarily has tanks with outputs and nannies, but every player is either a tank or an output or a nanny (imagine the 12 output shooting game "Watchman"). Although this may not be what developers want to see, in reality, the bystander game of Blood Revenge has become like this.

Of course, the shortcomings of level design and the unreasonable number of enemies can be ignored in beginner difficulty. So if it's just a player who wants to go through the new recruit difficulty and see the plot with a few friends, they can basically ignore the shortcomings mentioned in this section.

... spit it up, chew another one after a while

If I were to summarize "Bloody Revenge," I would say, "Good ideas are executed poorly.". Coincidentally, I am interested in  Turtle Rock's previous work "Evolution" also had the same attitude.

Some friends may ask, what about the earliest "The Road to Survival"? Of course, "The Road to Survival" is indeed  Turtle Rock development, but this is a work that uses Valve's engine and Valve's AI directing system. Creativity is certainly important, but being able to execute this idea and make appropriate choices about the content is equally important.

Although is rare, there are also interesting levels

Perhaps to ensure sales, or perhaps to ensure the number of players online, Vengeance announced a long-term update plan before its release, with subsequent content including new characters and levels. I think this also indirectly announced that the game will not support community creation content such as MODs, but the Road to Survival has a long-lasting vitality due to community creation; The confrontation mode, which may have been highly anticipated by some players, only uses the fixed map shrinking circle strategy in the official game. Perhaps this is also a manifestation of developers' lack of confidence in their level design; As for the card system that I was very optimistic about in the beta version, it is completely impossible to fully utilize its strength in the official version, after all, everyone only needs that set of "Superman" decks.

The final result made me sigh: I thought I was waiting for another version of The Road to Survival, but actually it was more like another version of War Hammer: The pestis of the Last World.

Revenge of Blood is like a box of "playing zombies" brand chewing gum: it's fresh to the taste and chews hard, but after a while, it becomes tasteless and sticky, making people just want to find a chance to spit it out as soon as possible.

But even with such chewing gum, you can always occasionally take out one and chew it for a while.