Back 4 Blood Zombies Aren’t Saying Racial Slurs – But They’re Close – COGconnected

Its not unheard of that people can hear words in a random collection of sounds pareidolia is an extremely common phenomenon, after all. And if youre a voice actor hired to record generic zombie-like moans, random sounds are exactly what you were hired to create. But the human mind evolved to spot patterns, whether you want to hear them or not and that lesson is one Back 4 Blood players had to learn the hard way.

Now, whats probably happening is that the voice actors were given a generic line like nnngaaah, but well, just listen for yourself:

Just a slight tweak to the script an unfortunately timed i sound and a more guttural ah is all it took to change an otherwise-inconsequential line into something more ear-catching.

Luckily, players have received the line in good faith: it was very clearly a mistake that went unnoticed in development, and not some hidden bit of lore or symbolism. While it may be funny to draw a parallel between mindless zombies and brainless racism, that probably wasnt the angle Turtle Rock Studios was going for with the inclusion of this line. Its interesting that something like this wasnt caught before the product shipped, but considering how obscure the line is, its not an impossibility.

Regardless of intent, its clear that a statement as jarring as this probably shouldnt stay in the game for very long. Players react strongly to stuff like this (understandably so), and that could distract from everything else the game is trying to accomplish. Its a memorable quirk, sure, but something like this should probably stay a memory.

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Back 4 Blood Zombies Aren't Saying Racial Slurs - But They're Close - COGconnected

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero