After six years of waiting, (even ten for some) the sequel to the hit wave based shooter, Killing Floor, is finally here. Killing Floor 2 launched onto Steam Early Access in April, and Tripwire Interactive was kind enough to send us some preview copies so we could check the game out and tell you what we think.
So for those of you who don’t know, what is Killing Floor all about? The story is fairly simple: It takes place in London, England, and follows the wake of a military cloning experiment gone terribly wrong. The test subjects for said experiment began mutating, eventually became hostile, and broke out of the cloning facility to rampage across Europe. Gameplay involves up to six players cooperating to survive waves of crazed mutants, buy powerful weapons, and eventually fight a boss. The idea is incredibly simple, but it’s 100% pure shooter bliss. The original Killing Floor is one of my favorite co-op games of all time, and Killing Floor 2 takes everything I loved about the original, and kicks it up a notch. If you enjoyed the original, I can safely say that you’ll probably enjoy Killing Floor 2 just as much.
Currently, Killing Floor 2 has four maps to play on, four perks to choose from, nine playable characters (which are totally cosmetic), and online\offline play with one mode available. After playing on all four maps, I must say they’re all very good. Honestly, the four maps we’re given are better than all of the original Killing Floor‘s maps combined; These more varied, and just easier to navigate. My favorite of the Killing Floor 2 maps is definitely Outpost–There’s something about snow maps I just love.
The four perks we’re given off the bat will be familiar to KF veterans: Commando, Berserker, Support, and Medic. Hopefully we’ll see more perks added later–I’d be especially happy with the return of the Sharpshooter perk. Perks can be equipped at any time while not actually playing a match, and give you bonuses with perk specific weapons (Support uses shotguns, Commando uses rifles, etc. etc.). Each perk can be leveled up individually, and with more level ups comes new abilities to help you and your team, and more weapon bonuses. A new addition to Killing Floor 2 is that all perks will start with a predetermined loadout specific to that perk, rather than just the normal old pistol.
Another new addition is the ability to customize your characters. Previously, you could only choose from an array of different characters, but in Killing Floor 2, you can also customize each character to your liking. Don’t like Mr. Foster’s normal old gasmask? Paint the UK flag on it! Don’t like Reverend Alberts’ drab black coat? Make it bright red and give him a fedora! This is a great addition that allows for a lot of personalization and really epic looking characters.
So how about gameplay? Well, currently there’s not that much different from the original Killing Floor. A lot of the mutants have been redesigned to look more menacing, and there’s a ton of variations on the grunt enemy–known as Clots, I believe–that really add more flavor to the game. Plus they all look outright creepy, compared to the original’s only kinda creepy enemies. There’s some new weapons added to the mix, as well as some old classics, like the SCAR-H, the flamethrower, and of course, the katana.
Currently there don’t seem to be many weapon options for each perk–only about 4-5 weapons per perk–but I’m sure we’ll see more added soon enough. The guns themselves feel great, although sometimes they feel like they don’t do nearly enough damage. At the end of each wave, the game directs you to a trading post where you can buy ammo, armor, and new weapons. There’s nothing really new about trading, except for a new, more readable interface, the fact that it’s a futuristic pod now, rather than a normal shop, and the shopkeeper is French.
There don’t seem to be any new types of enemies yet, and if there are, I haven’t encountered them. One thing I strongly dislike is when Clots get close to you, they will grapple you into place and start doing damage. Now, this is nothing new to the game, but the fact that they lock you into place until you kill them is something I really disliked in Killing Floor, and I’m rather disappointed that it’s in the sequel. The ideal method of dispatching enemies that get too close to you is the melee bash, but this mechanic seems very buggy at best. Sometimes the time between you hitting your enemy and them getting knocked over is delayed, and sometimes it just doesn’t work at all. I always ended up just shooting my gun wildly until I could break free, which isn’t exactly fun.
There is a new boss–also known as The Patriarch– in Killing Floor 2, and I find him a lot more interesting and intimidating than the Patriarch in Killing Floor. I’m hoping that multiple bosses are added to Killing Floor 2, rather than just a single one, as that can get quite boring. Maybe three or four bosses with a random chance of spawning at the end of each round? It would certainly avert repetition. I do feel like the boss in KF2 is a bit too difficult. His guns drain your health like nobody’s business, and sometimes he’ll run full speed at you, and it’s impossible to get away from his melee attacks because of it. Other times he’ll run at you and lock you into an animation where he slowly drains your health. There seems to be no way to stop him from doing these attacks–even if you shoot him repeatedly–so it’s incredibly irritating.
The graphics and animation in Killing Floor 2 are excellent. I’m a stickler for good animation, and the animations for running, reloading, and switching weapons all look great, and have a lot of weight to them. The graphics, compared to Killing Floor, look amazing. Everything just looks so much more polished. I read that Killing Floor 2 was supposed to have one of the craziest and most “realistic” gore models in gaming to date, but so far I haven’t seen anything aside from the average head explosion and limb amputations. Maybe it’s still being worked on, or maybe I just haven’t experimented enough.
It seems as though Killing Floor 2 is also optimized very well. My PC is rather dinky in comparison to what would be considered good these days, but I was actually able run the game on ultra settings with very few problems–which is just great. My computer did seem to have a very hard time loading levels quickly, though. It usually takes up to a minute just to load one level, when others I played with could load in a matter of seconds.
So, is Killing Floor 2 a worthy successor to Killing Floor? Heck yeah it is! While there isn’t an absolute ton of new content as of yet, Killing Floor 2 is just overall more polished and plays better than its predecessor. The guns feel great, it’s challenging, great fun with friends, the enemies looks way better, the maps are well made, and the customization options are a welcomed sight. I’m disappointed by the lack of any new game modes or enemies as of yet, but hopefully this will change soon. For $30, I’d say Killing Floor 2 definitely delivers, and I can’t wait to see what else is in store for the game.
An early access code was provided by Tripwire Interactive for the purpose of this preview