The long-awaited Left 4 Dead spiritual successor Back 4 Blood is available now across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. The game has proven to be an instant hit, with Back 4 Blood smashing L4D's concurrent player record on Steam, and that combined with its availability on Xbox Game Pass guarantees that there are quite a lot of people playing the game. However, some Back 4 Blood players are expressing concern about a certain requirement when it comes to playing the game online.
When players boot up Back 4 Blood, they are greeted with a message that says that "Voice chat is recorded and used for moderation, user safety, and to operate and improve the services. By using chat, you agree to this use of data." Basically, anyone that decides to play Back 4 Blood online and use voice chat must also consent to having their voice being recorded. While this is being used to curb potential abuse, some players may still be uncomfortable about having the game record voice chat.
It's unclear if this extends to people playing Back 4 Blood in party chat as well. One would think that it wouldn't, but when playing Back 4 Blood in party chat, players will discover that they are hearing two voices at once whenever their teammates talk. This is because it seems like voices are coming out through game chat as well as party chat simultaneously by default. To fix this, Back 4 Blood players have to go into the audio settings and turn the mic volume all the way down. The implication is that Back 4 Bloodmight be picking up player voices even when they're in their own party chat. Whether or not that's an accurate conclusion or it's just some weird audio thing is unclear at the time of this writing, however.
One solution to this if someone wants to play Back 4 Blood but doesn't like the idea of being recorded is to play the game alone, but unfortunately, the solo experience is less than ideal. Back 4 Blood solo players can't unlock new characters, and in general can't earn any real progress in the game. As a matter of fact, Back 4 Blood solo players can't even unlock achievements.
Basically, anyone that wants to truly play and enjoy Back 4 Blood will have to play it in co-op, either with friends or with randoms online. And choosing to play Back 4 Blood online means one is consenting to having their voice recorded. This is an issue for some people, whereas others will feel that it doesn't matter as long as they don't say anything that would get them in trouble. Regardless, at least Back 4 Blood is up front about it and makes sure players know that they're being recorded right off the bat so they can decide to keep playing or not.
Back 4 Blood is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
