Co-op zombie shooter Back 4 Blood is the spiritual follow-up to the beloved Left 4 Dead series. It was created by the same team that worked on the original before forming Turtle Rock Studios. As a result, many of the mechanics and the shooting will feel familiar to fans.
Players are able to play through the entire campaign in solo mode and its excellent gunplay, thrilling firefights, and smooth framerate make for a great experience. However, Back 4 Blood is a much better experience when played in co-operative mode. Whether it’s with strangers, friends, or family, this shooter, like its predecessors, is designed around camaraderie and teamwork when taking down hordes of zombies and monsters.
Is There Crossplay in Back 4 Blood?
Crossplay is not a feature that’s often found in games that aren’t following the free-to-play model but Back 4 Blood has it. It supports crossplay across the PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. This means that If someone owns an Xbox they can play with their friends on the PlayStation and PC platforms and vice versa.
Enabling Crossplay
However, to be able to do this, one has to make sure the setting and options are configured to do so.
When players first launch the game they will have their own unique Back 4 Blood username this is so gamers on different platforms can find them.
Once a unique username has been created press the pause button on the controller and then select the Social option. From here one can add friends by pressing the Y button or the triangle button on the controller. This is where players can add to their B4B Friends list whether they are on the Xbox, PlayStation, or PC.
Matchmaking Preferences
Before starting a Campaign, Quickplay, or a Swarm by pressing the touchpad on the PlayStation or the View button the Xbox players should scroll down and select the Preferences option. This will take the player to the Matchmaking Preferences screen to ensure that the Crossplay option is set on On.
Party Privacy
If players want to make sure that they are only teaming up with friends they will need to adjust the Party Privacy settings in the Social tab:
- Open – Any player can join the player’s game session at any time
- Friends Only – Friends can join the player’s session at any time
- Invite Only – Other players will need to be invited to the player’s session
- Closed – No other players will be able to join the session which is better suited for a solo run
The developers seem to have gone to great lengths to make Back 4 Blood as tailored to an individual's play preference as possible. There are a ton of options and a good selection of characters available to players. for those that don't mind playing with random strangers but don't want to expose themselves to headache-inducing screams over the mic they there's even a mute option under Voice Preferences too. It's early days and there is certainly room to grow but it seems that Back 4 Blood has the staying power of its predecessors.