Is it Worth Buying?

[White Lion]

It was always a dilemma to choose between Back 4 Blood (B4B) and World War Z (WWZ). After reading and watching many source of information, I picked B4B in the beginning. But players keep complaining about unfixed annoying bugs and the developers somehow abandoned that game. So I've blacklisted that game and hope WWZ would be my only option for a horde shooter game.

I notice that the developer is still responding to players' complaints and still accepting feedbacks. This is a major plus point for any multiplayer game. But I still do have some concerns which hinder me from buying it this summer sale.

It's now July 2023.

• Could you mention the graphic cards that you use and how many FPS are you able to achieve during the horde invasion? What is the graphic setting as well?
  
• Are AI players at least as good as the ones in L4D?
  
• Do AI players follow real players in a reasonable way or do they often get stuck and then teleported near the real players?
  
• Are there any annoying server connection bug during multiplayer session?
  
• What is the usual waiting duration to get all 4 random players in game lobby these days?

[Hadouken]

Originally posted by Death Star:

• 
  
• Are AI players at least as good as the ones in L4D?
  -> NO! AI is pretty stupid... but yes, like L4D AI in my opinion.
  after 4000 hours l4d2 i have to say, WWZ is the best PVE shooter in this genre!
  
  
• Do AI players follow real players in a reasonable way or do they often get stuck and then teleported near the real players?
  
  They allways follow you and as is saw never get stuck so far. but they are pretty useless in higher difficulty
  
  
  
  
• Are there any annoying server connection bug during multiplayer session?
  
  some ppl are complaining about this but in 500 hours i only had around 5 dc´s while i tried to connect. it depends on the own internet i guess...
  
  
• What is the usual waiting duration to get all 4 random players in game lobby these days?
  
  if you start a game alone it takes around 5-10 minutes. lobby is full pretty fast. the waiting is worth it, when the players stick together for more rounds! i had nice games with randoms for hours!
  and at least you can connect with the players.
  

[GumbyGlizzy]

Very worth buying. Steam alone averages about 2-3k players. PC and all consoles having cross-platform makes it even better. Has more players than Back 4 Blood. I personally didn't like B4B at all. The devs also support WWZ unlike B4B.

[MungoJohnson]

I use a RTX 2070 super with an i5 quadcore that is overclocked to 3.8ghz - I run well at 90 fps pretty consistently on all high settings. The game is pretty well optimised.

The AI isn't terrible, but they aren't very intelligent either - they aren't completely useless.

Rarely encounter server connection bugs - a few times my friends have been booted back to main lobby when connecting, but it isn't very common. Servers seem to be pretty stable overall.

Waiting for randoms on any difficulty can take a long time - this is the steam charts for World War Z - https://steamcharts.com/app/699130 - this does not account for the many players that play on Playstation and Xbox - it is usually quite easy to find people to group up with on just about any difficulty if you join the official World War Z discord and most people are very friendly there. Also, because of the summer sale, there are likely a lot of new players coming into the game.

The game is very fun, gives constant rewards in the forms of leveling classes, guns, prestiging classes, and some cosmetic unlockables. It can be very challenging on higher difficulties once you become more comfortable with the game, but it is very fun in my opinion. Been playing for 6 days now and I've been having a great time.

Also the devs seem pretty consistent with player feedback, which is always a nice bonus in my book. I'd recommend this game if you are looking for a fun zombie horde game to play with others - again, the World War Z official discord server makes it significantly easier to find people to play with.

[FUBAR]

I saw the same thread on b4b forums with everything in reverse.

[Yaltiaj]

B4B isn't bad, but WWZ is a far more polished product and has a lot more going for it.

[Bread]

Originally posted by Death Star:

• Could you mention the graphic cards that you use and how many FPS are you able to achieve during the horde invasion? What is the graphic setting as well?

I can help answer you this question, I'm on RTX3060 and I can run this game on Ultra at 4K60fps (my monitor only has 60Hz when its running at 4k resolution so I cant test 4k120fps) with absolutely no dips or stutters anywhere. It was honestly very pleasantly surprising. I cant answer the rest of your questions as the game has gotten updated since I last played (I had it on the PS4 back on 2019 but decided to pick it up again on Steam cause of summer sales).

[White Lion]

Originally posted by Bread:

Originally posted by Death Star:

• Could you mention the graphic cards that you use and how many FPS are you able to achieve during the horde invasion? What is the graphic setting as well?

I can help answer you this question, I'm on RTX3060 and I can run this game on Ultra at 4K60fps (my monitor only has 60Hz when its running at 4k resolution so I cant test 4k120fps) with absolutely no dips or stutters anywhere. It was honestly very pleasantly surprising. I cant answer the rest of your questions as the game has gotten updated since I last played (I had it on the PS4 back on 2019 but decided to pick it up again on Steam cause of summer sales).

Thank you for the info. I eventually bought this game. I have GTX 1070 SLI mode and Full HD monitor. Runs above 60 fps on max settings, even during zombie horde. So I'm quite amazed at the optimizations the developers have implemented.

[Clanky]

Originally posted by Bread:

Originally posted by Death Star:

• Could you mention the graphic cards that you use and how many FPS are you able to achieve during the horde invasion? What is the graphic setting as well?

I can help answer you this question, I'm on RTX3060 and I can run this game on Ultra at 4K60fps (my monitor only has 60Hz when its running at 4k resolution so I cant test 4k120fps) with absolutely no dips or stutters anywhere. It was honestly very pleasantly surprising. I cant answer the rest of your questions as the game has gotten updated since I last played (I had it on the PS4 back on 2019 but decided to pick it up again on Steam cause of summer sales).

3080ti and ya it runs everything on ultra 60fps no dips runs great. i bought it/got it free on epic games? i dont remember then just recently purchased the deluxe version on here so it's worth it especially if it's on sale. PVP seems like it's empty though and it used to be pretty populated.

[Clanky]

Originally posted by Xtreme:

Originally posted by Bread:

I can help answer you this question, I'm on RTX3060 and I can run this game on Ultra at 4K60fps (my monitor only has 60Hz when its running at 4k resolution so I cant test 4k120fps) with absolutely no dips or stutters anywhere. It was honestly very pleasantly surprising. I cant answer the rest of your questions as the game has gotten updated since I last played (I had it on the PS4 back on 2019 but decided to pick it up again on Steam cause of summer sales).

Thank you for the info. I eventually bought this game. I have GTX 1070 SLI mode and Full HD monitor. Runs above 60 fps on max settings, even during zombie horde. So I'm quite amazed at the optimizations the developers have implemented.

optimization is extremely important, but lots of games are just not optimized very well or at all. glad this one is optimized well. Hoping HellDivers 2 will be optimized as good as this has been.

[Boboscus]

I play exclusively solo, maxed settings, capped frames to 120, no issues, AI isn't as good as L4D's but it's good enough and can actually clutch if you aren't terrible yourself. In game upgrades are required to properly play harder difficulties, I managed to finish 1 run on hardest, but I haven't really tried for more as it's fairly difficult and RNG can screw you up. I even played PVP modes for some achievements and those were insanely fun, they're the classic modes with a twist of random/timed hordes through the map, then you have to deal with that as well as other players in the same time, really fun.

[White Lion]

Originally posted by Boboscus:

I play exclusively solo, maxed settings, capped frames to 120, no issues, AI isn't as good as L4D's but it's good enough and can actually clutch if you aren't terrible yourself. In game upgrades are required to properly play harder difficulties, I managed to finish 1 run on hardest, but I haven't really tried for more as it's fairly difficult and RNG can screw you up. I even played PVP modes for some achievements and those were insanely fun, they're the classic modes with a twist of random/timed hordes through the map, then you have to deal with that as well as other players in the same time, really fun.

It's fun as long as no cheaters join the game. So far I haven't encountered one. Hopefully never.

[Meekadox]

I've played both (and recently L4D for the first time) and I'd say they scratch different itches.

WWZ I'd say is the most zen and relaxing for me to play casually as on more moderate difficulties, its a good time of running through and killing zombies.

B4B is a lot more intense so if you're looking for those wars of attrition where it feels the pressure never lets up that will be more your style.

Both of these games are pretty buggy, but I'd say the Back 4 Blood bugs are way more frustrating if you lose a 4-5 hour Act 1 run to it getting bugged on the finale mission. In WWZ most of the bugs I've identified are crashes which will get rid of like 25 mins of progress tops. There's not as many bugs in the favour of players either as Saber do still patch this game whereas in B4B, you can reliably clear the game as a melee killing all of the horde with infinite stamina, assuming randoms snipe specials.

From my experience, the AI in Left 4 Dead are atrocious as I've been downed and all 3 had pathing issues getting to me. The AI are okay in this game but as a general horde clearer, they are worse than the Left 4 Dead and Back 4 Blood ones, but do have glitchy behaviour that can save runs, E.g reviving Greengold in unreachable positions. The Back 4 Blood AI is insanely strong with the effects they get over other players, such as giving you infinite ammo/items and suffering no trauma so if you're a solo player who never quickplays with randoms, Back 4 Blood is probably the best of all 3.

Servers can be annoying as I remember there was a glitch where people had left but the server was still showing them in it, making it impossible to get a full team. This is probably fixed now.
The Back 4 Blood servers aren't bad but waiting for people to slowly pick their one burn card which is 5 mins added to a 7-20 minute level is infuriating.

Don't wait in the lobby for a full team. The only games in this genre I've seen where this is possible is VT2, DRG and L4D.
Queueing is not great in WWZ as the queues are very split between the 5 difficulties, challenges, and hordes not to mention some people will queue for specific maps.
In Back 4 Blood the queue is decent but annoying as you can't start solo and must queue. - no one will be playing Act 4 except for people going for skins.

Basically grab these games on sale as they're still great games and all of them are a blast to play.

[Meekadox]

As for how WWZ plays:

Gameplay wise there's more emphasis on the horde being the threat than specials.
PVP is more or less dead as in B4B.
You have strict classes who have roles to play in a team, but enough variability in these classes that different teammates will feel different.
There is a fair bit of grind, but I'd say the key grind is level 5 guns for the ones you use so they are silenced and level 30 classes.

The maps are really visually stunning and look really cool as they're based a lot on real locations. Most of the time its quite bright like the good L4D2 maps.
The horde is fun to shoot at if not a bit simple.
Setting up well is key for playing this game.
Specials are a lot more tame than L4D and B4B once you get what they do but they can seem a bit janky I guess with the bull's turning or the way the booster zombie works to newer players.
There isn't a designated push back button, but the light weapons function a bit like this.
The characters basically have no character but are actually based on the book.

[-=TOP_GUN=-=MAVERICK=-]

Dont even think, this game is ♥♥♥♥ as ♥♥♥♥♥♥ from start to this time still it is ♥♥♥♥. If you think devs listen to you, you are dreaming. Lots of bugs from more than year and still its in process of fixing. This game is dead AF. Dont even waste your money on this ♥♥♥♥ as i did

[EvilZombie]

Isn't B4B no longer been supported despite full of issue and wwz is dumpster fire ... i suggest you get zombie army 4 and wait for s2 and s3 for sales