Back 4 Blood, Left 4 Dead and Ambience

Recently I’ve been watching zombie things. Shaun of the Dead is my favourite zombie movie, but there are plenty of other ones. I’ve also been playing zombie things, namely Left 4 Dead 2, as well as trying out Back 4 Blood. While one is the spiritual ancestor of the other, these games invoke very different feelings.

In this article, I am only going to compare aesthetics, ambiance and the general background setting. The gameplay is best left for later.

Different timelines in similar apocalypses

While yes, Left 4 Dead and Back 4 Blood are set in very similar universes, the timeline is all a bit off. In both Left 4 Dead games, the apocalypse is just starting and people are swiftly being turned into zombies. People are panicked and are trying to evacuate, only to end up left behind to face the hordes alone. In Left 4 Dead, you are playing as a survivor.

In Back 4 Blood, you start off at a large camp and are asked to venture outside for various reasons. Time has clearly passed since the apocalypse started, but things are seemingly beginning to be calming down. Here, you’re playing as a Cleaner, clearing the zombie hordes, picking up the pieces and trying to start anew. The fact that you’re known for clearing things up heavily suggests that it’s been like this for a while now.

Duty VS Survival

The biggest difference is the overall tone of the game. In Back 4 Blood, you appear in a fortified anti-zombie base, and leave it to go and do missions. A foothold has been established, and the plan feels like we’re going to slowly reclaim what we lost. There’s hope to be had, and even if the base does get attacked, one would feel like they can at least defend the area.

Compare that to Left 4 Dead, and Back 4 Blood almost sounds fun. Every safe house they find in Left 4 Dead, it’s always temporary. Maybe you’ll get a nap or two in, but no safe house is permanent, and the zombies know you are there. All the survivors do is push on, from safe house to safe house. While they scavenge as they travel, it’s not as lucrative as the scavenging in Back 4 Blood. We’re simply grabbing more ammo and medication and moving on.

I’m not scared.

Okay, sure, I’ll jump should I get pounced by some stupid head-humper, and the overall zombies killing us is scary. But Back 4 Blood just isn’t as scary as Left 4 Dead is. As the name of the game suggests, Back 4 Blood is about reclaiming what we lost, as well as basic things like fetching supplies. The zombies look scarier, everything is grittier and dirtier. But after a hard day of slaying zombies, I can return to camp, kick my boots off, have a nice cup of tea and wait for all of this to blow over.

In Left 4 Dead though? There’s no waiting. It’s just a slow, tedious slog from one safe house to another, hoping that maybe they’ll find a still functioning evacuation site. Or at least a better safe house. The best ending in Left 4 Dead isn’t a great one. The original survivors may have managed to finally have a safe house to call home, but it is tied up to the loss of one of their own, Bill sacrificing himself so the other three can survive.

It’s an almost hopeless endeavor, and that just can’t really be compared to the much safer world we find in Back 4 Blood. Because, no matter how scary things get, at least there’s a base we can run back to.