The Best Zombie Safe Room Notes In The Back 4 Blood Beta

This is one of my favorite bits of graffiti messaging in Back 4 Blood because it reminds me of some of the best L4D safe room messages. People using markers and notes as a replacement for the internet. Also, it doesn’t matter if the world is covered in deadly zombies and is slowly dying; mom jokes are still going to be a thing.

There is a lot going on in this image. You can see someone wishing Mary a happy birthday, someone else wanting to “Make it Blue” whatever that means, and finally, a person warning people to never take off their shoes. But maybe the saddest and weirdest message is a simple note left by a lost soul who, for some reason, misses “all the memes.” They even drew a sad face. Honestly, the death of memes in a zombie-infested world sounds like one of the few upsides to me.

As you play Back 4 Blood, you might notice that only some birds seem to have survived the zombie apocalypse. Cows, horses, sheep, cats, even capybaras are all missing or dead. Now, in reality, this is because Back 4 Blood is an FPS co-op shooter focused on killing zombies and not an open-world game like Red Dead Redemption. Of course the devs didn’t include livestock and pets walking around everywhere. But this message is a fun nod to the people in this virtual world noticing all the animals are gone. Now, will any of them notice that people can die and respawn?

Okay, this is sad. I think someone lost their pet lizard. RIP to a real one. Moving on. Don’t want to dwell on this…

I spotted one note in Back 4 Blood that asked someone named Evans to “Stop hoarding the meat sticks!” I’m not sure what a meat stick is in this context. It could be some beef jerky, I guess. However, considering that it appears many of these safe rooms are low on supplies, maybe these meat sticks are some other kind of meat. And if there aren’t many animals around anymore, well, either a lizard got chopped up and eaten or someone is snacking on human flesh. Nice cupcake though! And don’t forget to kill Philip. (I hear he’s the guy making these meat sticks out of human flesh.)

Not all of the in-game graffiti and messages are left behind by random folks who are bored and stuck in a safe room. You can find more official documents and maps covered in notes too. For example, I found this map at the main hub area in the game. Unfortunately, based on the messages added to this map like FAILURE and FUCK THIS PLACE I’m not sure things are going great for our plucky little group of zombie killers.

It turns out that scribbling notes and spray painting messages onto random walls during a zombie outbreak might not be the most long-term way to communicate with others. I spotted a bunch of messages in a bathroom during a mission, but sadly someone had been violently killed in the room. All the written notes on the wall were now covered in blood and hard to read. I marked in green what appears to be the word “assholes” but it’s hard to say for sure. Damn zombies! Not only do they kill and eat us, but they also ruin our low-fi message boards. Is nothing sacred?!