Edit (8/22/23)
It's been roughly a year and a half, three annual pass content updates and around 400 additional hours of playtime since initially writing this, so I'm updating to better reflect the game as it stands today.


1-4 player "navigate from A to B while fighting off hordes of (fill in the blank)" coop first-person shooter that's IMO fun, challenging and worth taking for a spin. It feels comfortably familiar to me, even with the gameplay additions of a card system and the requirement of a bit more planning.
Also, a heads-up to prospective purchasers: After fulfilling their annual pass content obligations over the course of 2022 with the releases of Tunnels of Terror, Children of the Worm (Act 5) and River of Blood (Act 6), Turtle Rock have announced that B4B will not be receiving any more content updates. They say the game will remain online and playable for the forseeable future, but there are currently no plans for releasing any new content/Acts. While I'm personally ok with it since IMO the game now has enough content to be considered complete, this news coupled with the game's lack of modding support makes me adjust my verdict from "Yes, definitely buy" to "I love it and would still recommend it, but only at a significant discount". As always though, your mileage may vary.

• Enjoyable co-op gameplay that rewards tight teamwork.
  
  
• Solid gunplay that requires precision, good reflexes and mindfulness of your surroundings. The guns look, sound and feel good to me.
  
  
• A card system where you create customized decks that you select at the start of an Act to complement your own playstyle and/or to help you offer extra support to your team. Originally you would choose 1 card to play from your deck at the start of each map, building up the player's strengths slowly over the course of the Act. This was eventually changed to a system where the player selects their deck at the beginning of an Act and all cards are granted from the start. Some players aren't happy with this change, and I see their point, but I think I actually like this way better. It does remove a layer of strategy but imo it makes the system more accessible, and the burn cards (unique one-time-use cards you also unlock in supply lines that can be played at the start of each map but can't be placed in decks) can be useful even with a full deck start. It would be cool if players who prefer the old system had the option to choose it over the new one though.
  
  
• Friendly AI was originally under "What Stinks", but B4B's bots are now imo fairly decent. They're certainly much better than they were at launch, believe me. That said though, as with most bots in games of this type it's a mixed bag. On the plus side, they'll routinely drop ammo, heal you, ping enemies and weapons/items, and mostly hold their own in fights. As of the River of Blood update they'll now also pick up player-pinged items like toolkits/duffelbags and will use toolkits on pinged alarm/stash doors. However, they will also constantly position themselves directly in your line of fire, toss throwables either too early, too late or against walls like they think they has teh wallhax, and almost always fail spectacularly in any serious manner of clutch. Overall, they're more competent now but still no better than you should reasonably expect.
  
  
• Tony Todd, Motorhead and Robert Johnson. I approve.
  
  
• Hoffman and Karlee, the only characters with actual personalities.

• The fact that there will be no further first-party content along with no official modding support. As mentioned earlier I'm personally ok with the amount that's available now, but no modding support was already a sticking point for a lot of ppl even before the announcement of no future content. While It would still be great if modding support was added, considering the disappointing reality that Turtle Rock allowed themselves to be absorbed by TurdScent not too long before this announcement was made I gotta say, in a way I'm kind of glad they ended support before their new overlords could pressure them into cramming the game full of icky, tumerous microtransactions. Don't worry though because TurdScent failed to inject any of their greasiness into the game, so hooray for that at least. In addition to the many obvious reasons this aquisition is saddening, it kinda stinks knowing that B4B could very well be the last good game we ever see from TRS.
  
  
• Centralised servers with no options for player-hosted LAN or listen servers. "Live Service Games" is a concept that I would enjoy watching die a slow painful death.
  
  
• Playing with randos. Whether they're on PC or console, at least one out of every three players you team with will play as if they're doing a solo run and all other players in the team are bots whose only purpose is to support them as they leeroy ahead hoovering up all the goodies. The higher difficulties are usually a better choice for matching with skilled players, but on Recruit and even Veteran difficulties you're often going to be teamed with ppl who don't seem to have much interest in the concept of teamwork. Turning crossplay off means you won't get matched with console players (Not saying all console players are bad, but in my experience the one player I described above is more often than not a console player), but it also shrinks your overall player pool and it won't magically raise the competency level of the PC players you match with. In other words, whether crossplay is enabled or diabled you're still going to have to suffer some fools when playing with randoms. Of course, if you have 3 or more pals who own and enjoy the game, you need never experience this.
  

The game had a rocky start to be sure: Truthfully if I had written the initial unedited review just after B4B launched, the What Stinks section would have definitely been a longer list. The difficulty was ridiculously imbalanced in the ridden's favor and I'm certain there were plenty who ragequit this game, refunded and never looked back in those early post-launch days. I honestly can't blame them either, the game would repeatedly hold you down and bad touch your booty while giving zero ♥♥♥♥♥. Good news though, they did eventually succeed in balancing things out pretty well. You can play on Recruit or Veteran difficulties and have fun without a whole lot of sweat, or play on Nightmare or No Hope difficulties and indulge your inner masochistic tryhard. Another common and valid complaint from those early days was that the game lacked content, but the releases of Tunnels of Terror + Act 5 + Act 6 have IMO granted B4B enough content to be considered a full game. That said, it would be inarguably fantastic for official mod support to be introduced to the game now that they're not planning any further content additions. Considering the live service ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and Warner being the publisher however, I don't hold out much hope for it. Most likely B4B WILL remain online and playable for the forseeable future, I just think it's important to point out to those who are considering buying it in 2023 and beyond that at some point the plug will be unceremoniously pulled, the servers will come down and the game will be no more. One of the many reasons why I personally feel anyone who advocates for "games as a service" should be strangled in front of their family on Christmas morning.

To sum up: Back 4 Blood still gets a solid thumbs-up from me but at this point, I'd suggest waiting until you can get the base game + annual pass for $30 or less in a sale.