Turtle Rock Studios' hotly-anticipated team shooter Back 4 Blood is kicking up a storm right now, with millions of players gunning down enemies like nobody's business. While the Left 4 Dead spiritual successor does have its problems, it's still a well-received title, especially for fans of the classic zombie FPS games from Valve. However, not all who log in are team players. Some seem more interested in harassing or "griefing" others, causing misery among the community. With that, it's recently been announced that the developer will eventually allow players to "vote-kick" a nuisance Cleaner.
According to a recent report, Turtle Rock will be looking to implement a way for the rest of the team to vote on whether to kick another player out of the match. This latest development comes after the Back 4 Blood fan base said it wanted a vote-kick system included, in an effort to reduce the amount of unwelcome interactions when playing online. However, the studio has said that while it will definitely look into adding such a feature in a future update, a spokesperson has said that this may take some time to actually roll out, adding that there are "design and player" considerations that need to be taken into account. Continuing, the representative did say that the studio understood the need for it, but a release date for the update is not possible at this time.
Some may suggest that those who are experiencing harassment during online matches may fare better if they stick to single player mode, in which AI bots take over the role of the other three players. However, Back 4 Blood's offline mode limits progression, which has caused a bit of a negative response from the community. As a result, players who wish to unlock additional features need to play online with others.
Back 4 Blood is forever being compared to its predecessor Left 4 Dead, and for good reason. Given that the former is made by the same people who put together the latter, not to mention the similarity in each one's title, it's understandable that fans will draw such comparisons. One thing that L4D did have when it was launched was this vote-kick ability, so having it included in B4B will perpetuate the comparisons, but it is a necessary feature to reduce online harassment.
With the zombie-infested FPS being made available on Xbox Game Pass from day one, it's hardly surprising that it became instantly popular. While not a perfect game by any stretch, and with players concerned about online griefing, it's still a huge success, and it looks as though the studio is at least taking fan issues seriously.
Back 4 Blood is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Games Radar
