Killing Floor



Killing Floor, released 2009, is a zombie team-based FPS developed by Tripwire Interactive.

Brief summary of the game
First things first. It's an FPS. It's team-based. It has zombies in it. But, it's a completely different thing from Left 4 Dead. It started out in 2005 as an Unreal Tournament mod, and has evolved to become a standalone game. Each match turns around a particular layout: Up to 6 teammates (May be changed with mods up to more than 50 players making it a massive clusterfuck) try to survive for a number of waves (usually 7 or 10) as zombies spawn trying to kill them. Simple, right? Well, not really. There are different types of zombies, and one big motherfucker at the end. Will focus on this later in the article.

Plot
As almost all of the other multiplayer games, there's almost no plot in this one, apart from the fact that zombies have started appearing and you've been sent and blah blah blah. Usual shit. It's set in Britain though, which is a nice change.

Graphics
Killing Floor looks like shit pretty good. The models are high quality and the textures are sharp. It's a PC exclusive but it sure doesn't look like Crysis. However, this can turn into an advantage because most of the shitty computers will be able to run it. The game also has a grain effect which can become somewhat of a nuisance sometimes, but doesn't really bother. The following images have been taken at resolution 1024x768 and everything else on the highest graphical setting available.

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Sound
The game has a pretty neat heavy metal soundtrack. Problem is, you won't hear it busy with all the gunfire. Sound effects are decent, and weapon sounds specifically are very satisfying. There may also be some sound-upgrading mods available.

Fun fact: the hilarious quotes spoken by the player characters in their ridiculous British accents have been traced by /v/ to this particular video.

Gameplay Mechanics
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There are seven unique player perks (classes) available. Each class receives combat bonuses as well as discounts for their allocated weapon type(s), increasing with perk level.
 * Medic: Uses SMGs which can also heal teammates; faster and stronger healing; moves faster; and has much stronger armor for tanking with
 * Support: Uses shotguns to take out multiple enemies at once; can carry more equipment; and welds doors faster to lock out zombies
 * Sharpshooter: Uses marksman rifles, the crossbow, and pistols to kill high-threat enemies; has massive headshot bonuses
 * Commando: Uses assault and battle rifles; sees cloaked enemies; sees enemy health bars
 * Berserker: Uses melee weapons; moves faster; and has general damage resistance
 * Firebug: Uses the flamethrower and other flame weapons; has resistance to fire
 * Demolitions: Uses explosives to kill groups or single high-threat enemies; has explosive resistance

There are also different kinds of zombies. They're also referred to as "specimens" or "zeds".


 * Clot: Basic cannon-fodder specimen which moves slowly and is very frail, but can grab players and prevent movement allowing other specimens to close in and finish them off.


 * Crawler: Crawling spider-hybrid specimen which often spawns in odd places. It is able to lunge at players to quickly close the distance and deal instant damage.


 * Stalker: Cloaked naked woman with claws, spawning in odd places and doing a fair amount of damage. However, the cloak is not perfect and can be seen through by Commandos or even just experienced players


 * Gorefast: Beefier version of the Clot with the ability to charge when close and to dish out a lot of damage, especially considering their abundance. When decapitated, they will often take a while to bleed out before falling.


 * Bloat: Similar to the Boomer from Left 4 Dead, an obese man who vomits on players. However, instead of attracting enemies, it simply deals a fair amount of damage and obscures player vision. Decapitation is easy relative to its body health, and it nullifies the Bloat's main threat: his ability to vomit.


 * Siren: Zombified eyeless woman in a straitjacket who screams when close to players. This scream does a huge amount of armor-piercing damage in an area, as well as destroying rockets and grenades in mid-air.


 * Husk: Burnt man with an arm-mounted fireball launcher, chipping away health from afar.


 * Scrake: Obligatory chainsaw-wielding specimen who has very high health and will fuck you up with his chainsaw. He will "rage" and rush at players when at low health, so watch out.


 * Fleshpound: Armored giant with blenders for hands, also with very high health and an even more powerful attack (enough to kill an unarmored player in one hit, on higher difficulties). It's thus best to work as a team to take him down. He will "rage" and rush at players, using a more powerful attack, if too much damage is taken within a short period of time.


 * Patriarch: Final boss appearing on the final wave, armed with a deadly chaingun and rocket launcher combo, as well as powerful melee attacks. Both ranged attacks are always well-telegraphed, with specific lines spoken and with a visual weapon-prep sequence. Welded doors can slow him down, but he will use his rocket launcher to blast through faster than it can be repaired. The Patriarch can also cloak, often using this ability to charge at players - listen for his footsteps. When he takes too much damage, he will cloak and either run away to heal, or attack the closest player a few times then run away to heal. He has only three healing syringes available, so you can either wear him down or simply kill him before he can run away to heal.

The gameplay is a blast, and you won't care about losing. If you play on pubs, you'll lose a lot for sure, because like in L4D the vast majority of players don't know what "teamwork" is. For that reason there is /v/'s official Killing Floor group; you can find it here.

Lasting Appeal
The game is extremely subjective to how long it'll last. There are, of course, quite a lot of maps, so entertainment valued gets refreshed. However, most of the time it's the same maps being played, so get ready to play through KF_offices quite a lot of time. But playing the same map isn't that bad. Actually, it doesn't get old. The game is taken in "pills". What do I mean? That usually you'll find yourself playing for about 2 hours (2 hours and a half for me), then feel the need to take a pause and then go back killing some more zombies.

So, is it worth it or not?
The game sells for €17,99. Most people who buy it at this price will be alright with it. However, it's often on sale and should be available on the cheap if you wait, so if you see it on sale, be sure to get it because it's a fucking steal.

DLC / Expansion packs
The game has both free DLC that added new maps during Summer '09 and paid DLC only used to support the developer. That's because the DLC has no utility at all, it just changes your character model in-game. There are Five paid DLCs at the moment: the Nightfall character pack, Outbreak character pack,PostMortem Character Pack,London's Finest Character Packand the Steampunk Character Pack.