Back 4 Blood is too hard, Turtle Rock promises to fix it

The Back Four Blood is a hard game — even the developers at Turtle Rock agree. In a recap posted to Reddit of the studio’s November update stream, Turtle Rock said that it will scale some of The Back Four Blood’s more punishing systems back to easy its brutal difficulty curve.

However, the studio stated that it wants its players to still struggle but in an ideal world, this would be done so that it feels more fair than frustrating.

Difficulty needs to be our “baby bear” in The Back Four Blood’s Goldilocks story. It needs to be “just right.” We want it tense. You want it to be difficult. You should feel uncomfortable, not just squeezing into the saferoom. This is the rush. This is not something we want to make impossible. It should not be unjust. This is our goal.

To achieve its goals, Turtle Rock said it will pair back several aspects of the game’s difficulty. The future will see fewer Ridden Mutations. Studio also fixed an issue that caused Trauma damage to be received at an unusually high rate.

Turtle Rock provided a more nuanced description of its plans to expand build diversity. The Turtle Rock stated specifically that they want to help players take their time and not rush through the map.

The team has a solution for the Trauma problem and will be monitoring difficulty via player builds and other metrics. If anything, this recap showcases Turtle Rock’s interest in polishing To the back 4 blood with player feedback — even if that means nerfing fan-favorite builds, or other initially unpleasant changes.