During the weekend I went deep into understanding the changes Turtle Rock Studios have done to their 4-player co-op shooter Back 4 Blood and there’s a lot to take in, especially with the first expansion Tunnels of Terror now available. Surprisingly enough, the expansion is better than I thought.

Tunnels of Terror expansion is a great start

On paper, the Tunnels of Terror expansion adds 7 new dungeon-like levels mixed in with the game’s main campaign, two new Cleaners, three new special Ridden variants, legendary weapons, new cards, and cosmetics. Looking from afar, some might think it’s not worth picking up, but it actually adds more depth to the game’s already potent card system, which alters your Cleaners to a specific playstyle.

It doesn’t feel like DLC that you do for like an hour or two and simply set it aside. It actually enriches the overall experience. Ridden Tunnels, the new levels from the expansion, acts like an optional path as you progress through the game’s main campaign. During a level, you’ll randomly find an entrance to one of these Ridden-infested tunnels, and going in quickly ends your current level and starts a run to one of the seven new levels that came with the expansion.

The whole idea of these new levels is for you to extract with as many Skull Totems as possible, the new in-game currency for Back 4 Blood. In my first attempts with these levels, I quickly saw the appeal as I see the challenge when running it with random players, and the satisfaction of completing it with a friend or three with proper coordination. These levels leave you with hard decisions on the fly, which I enjoyed tremendously.

Should we back out with just two Skull Totems or keep going? Risk it all or cash in our rewards while we still can. It’s a nice addition to be met with these kinds of decisions as these tunnels not only reward you with Skull Totems to spend on new Supply Lines, but with resources and better guns to help you overcome the rest of your run of the campaign. This is where you can loot the new legendary weapons and attachments, which provide unique abilities that can be a game changer for many with the appropriate build.

With the expansion, I’m also seeing interesting card combinations thanks to old cards being changed entirely and the new cards that came with the expansion. I can make a beefy shotgun user or a character that constantly spits out items when attacked. It’s refreshing as I’m approaching this game more differently compared to how I played it last year.

The Tunnels of Terror expansion revived my appreciation for the game, and I feel more confident with Back 4 Blood as it feels like the game finally found its footing since the game’s launch last October, making me a bit more optimistic for the two other expansions still planned for release.

Recent patches improved Back 4 Blood

Expansion aside, the folks at Turtle Rock Studios have been busy releasing free updates. They have applied a fair amount of major changes to the game based on player feedback as offline progression is now a thing, and that the difficulty levels available are now balanced to a point that it no longer feels like a sudden surge in difficulty when switching from one difficulty to another. They now have Burn Cards, the Bolstered Health mechanic, and best of all, the ability to attach and unattached attachments at will.

The community seems rock solid as well as queue times for PvE are just a second or two of wait time for a full group, and the addition of the No Hope difficulty gives yet another goal to reach for veteran players. If you were always eager to give this game a go, the best time to do so is right now, especially with it still on PC Game Pass, which is now available in Southeast Asia. And if you’re lucky, you might get to try out the new levels as all it requires is at least one player in your party with the expansion for the new content to spawn in your session.

My only concern still lies on the PvP game mode Swarm in Back 4 Blood. The competitive side still remains as the worst part of the game and it shows as it takes a long time to get a game going. If I do get in a game, someone from the losing team will leave 90% of the time. Swarm is in a weird place, and Turtle Rock is really trying to give players incentives to play it as those without the Tunnels of Terror expansion can unlock the two new Cleaners for free. The only problem is you need to play 5 matches of Swarm to unlock Heng, and 25 matches of Swarm to unlock Sharice. Not worth the time and effort, I assure you. Just give the community what they want - Campaign Versus.

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