Killing Floor 2 is the followup of the hugely successful Killing Floor which has sold over 3 million units since its release in 2009. Its a wave based Zombie FPS game that will visually delight and terrify you with its moments of pure terror and excitement. Hidden Gem Games were lucky enough to get their hands on a key for the early access release of Killing Floor 2. …And now that its ended, Big Man Murph is ready to share his thoughts of it!

‘It was absolutely amazing.‘

…Want more than that?

Well here’s what Tripwire Interactive want me to talk about – The Visceral Gore, 6 player co-op & solo play, Terrifying Zeds, Unique Blend Of Weaponry, Expanded Perk System and the Brutal Melee Combat. These are of course worth mentioning and I will. Here’s some of the stuff that they forget to shout about; Level Design Masterpieces, Amazing Attention to Detail, Sound Prompting and Huge Replayability!

Killing Floor 2 has already been dubbed the ‘bloodiest game of the year‘, a title that would seem well deserved. There is so much more gore in game thanks to a new high powered persistent blood system. Instead of pools of blood and wall spatter ‘disappearing‘ after a minute or so, they linger on, reminiscent of previous blood-bath battles. It’s only after you play a few rounds of butchering enemies that you realise just how important an aesthetic the gore actually is. Visually you’re able to see the areas where high volumes of Zeds have been slaughtered, a cool feature that honestly makes me very happy. You’re also able to send entrails, severed limbs, and blood flying as you blast through hordes of enemies. (More on this later)

‘Killing Floor 2 also boasts a smarter artificial intelligence, dishing out powerful attacks, working as a group to weaken the player’s party and pushing the challenge level and fear factor to new levels‘ – I can indeed confirm all of this is true. I’m so glad that they even talk about AI, most games don’t even mention it and its a ‘make or break the game’ feature that deserves assessing. Heres what I liked…

The units seem to split very well, and don’t all try go the same way and the same direction.

They seem to ‘take out’ certain players by hoarding around them.

The ‘Stalkers‘ don’t just come at you, they attack you then go around and attack you from another side – which is very clever behaviour from an invisible unit.

The enemies use different attacks depending on how close you are. (Flame thrower when you’re close, rocket launcher when you’re far away)

The chases are more exciting – Zeds will take shortcuts when they can. Also on harder difficulties certain clots sprint continuously.

The Flesh Pound and Scrake are much more lethal then they were in Killing Floor. …You have to take them out the right way or else!

I’d rather not talk about the ‘Unique Blend Of Weaponry‘ just yet, because truthfully the early access only gave me a ‘taste‘ of the full arsenal of guns that are coming. All the guns available were very fun to use but the most interesting weapons are still not released. But what I will say is that the attention to detail of all the weapons in the Early Access was astounding. (More on this later)

Similarly the ‘Expanded Perk System‘ wasn’t fully expanded either but I did get more of a feeling of it than with the weaponry. The perks from the original game have been reimagined and now include specialisation. For example; do you want to be a fighting medic or a healing medic? These talents will bring on different play styles and give players a progression path that is expansive and full of rewarding milestones. Also worth mentioning that progression is also much easier by comparison to Killing Floor and there are a lot more levels to progress towards.

In terms of the ‘Brutal Melee Combat‘ – Tripwire Interactive are showing a birra love to all you berserkers out there; finally giving you control over the different types of melee attacks you can perform. Not only that but they’ve also included a nail gun for you guys as well! …I wouldn’t have said that they reinvented the wheel here, but maybe I was just using it wrong. What I did appreciate is that your swing animation of your melee weapon was all dependant on your motion at the time of pressing it. So swinging in the middle of sprinting will give you a different attack than a stationary swing…

Level Design Masterpieces – Although the early access was limited to only 3 maps, I can still say that they were the best levels I’ve seen in a game in a very long time. You can literally get lost in the levels because they are so open, when its time to flee you’ve usually got lots of options. This is completely unlike most maps I’m used to playing where you take ‘the route‘ to your destination, in KF2 you make a new one almost every time. Not only that but every area is completely usable and defendable. This makes for more immersive gameplay, instead of ‘get to the same place we always go‘ you can move and migrate – weld doors and when they break move on to the next area. I’m so glad to see how right they got this because its often games are ruined by their poor level design. As impressive as the graphics, the gore, the lighting and all the other features are… Without a fun playable map – the game is useless… On that note I’d like to commend Adam Hatch, Lead Level Designer at Tripwire Interactive, on some truly top-class maps. I cannot wait to see what else he has in store for us!

The ‘Amazing Attention to Detail‘ is praise for the game as a whole and would usually fall into other paragraphs. Killing Floor 2 goes way beyond the standard attention to detail and deserves a lengthy paragraph about just that. I’ve already mentioned some of the details in the weaponry – both gun and melee. What I forgot to mention is that Tripwire Interactive actually got weapons experts in to model the reloading animations of all the guns in the game. So every time you see a reload, its an actual reload that is physically possible (unlike other games that juggle clips during reload). I mentioned the swinging of the melee weapon varies on the movement of the player. Similarly the ‘fall’ or ‘hit’ animation of the Zeds works like this as well. Every shot brings out a different animation in the enemy (different animations that can be played at the same time) – they react to the latest shot while still being in the animation of the first shot. This makes for super realistic deaths of the creatures. The Dismemberment system of zombies is really something special as well -There is something along the lines of 20 detachable parts for you to blow off enemies. The levels and the layout are just so realistic. You can spend time in between waves appreciating the little details; posters, pictures, art, textures, etc.

Firstly I’d like to say that I come from an audio background and have studied a great deal in college and in my own time – so maybe I’m just a nerd for mentioning this… The sound prompts in game are truly something spectacular. The voice acting (which is very well done as well) is more than just quirky and funny, its INFORMATIVE. Everything a player sees with their own eyes is like a prompt. You walk into a room and see a gun or ammo or armour – Your character says it out loud to inform the other players. You see a Fleshpound or a Scrake coming? Your character announces it to the team. Catch fire or need healing? Your character calls out for help. Its done so well that players don’t even notice this system, they just turn and respond. Thats only one part of the prompting though, I’ve found that none of the creature sounds or noises overlap – so you can always hear exactly whats coming – and more importantly where its coming from. Similarly with the weapons – each weapon makes its own distinct firing noise – so at any point in the game you can locate and help your team mates if they sound like there in trouble. You can actually close your eyes and still know exactly what’s going on. Once again – realism and attention to detail.

Replayability is another key issue in a wave based game like Killing Floor 2. Thankfully, it has nothing to worry about in this department. Every feature discussed so far adds to the replayability factor; the weapons, animations, dismemberment, perks, perk specialisation, combat, AI, attention to detail, etc. No round is ever the same, no death is ever the same, no experience is ever the same. Gameplay is addictive and you always want to play ‘one more game’. Peoples main concerns of ‘it needs more characters‘ and it needs more ‘maps‘ and completely null and void. Mod tools are going to be released and the community are going to create tons of additional content for the game. Regardless, if Killing Floor is anything to go on – Tripwire interactive are probably going to release lots of extra skins and gun packs and character dlc for the players that NEED the extra customisation. That is why I can safely say that Killing Floor 2 is going to have HUGE replayability when its finished. I was playing half a game for a full week and I didn’t find it boring or repetitive.

Check out the video below of some of my favourite Killing Floor 2 moments.

This was only a small taster of what the finished game will be like, and I’m excited to see it in its entirety. Despite not having access to the full ‘content’ I was more than happy with what was available – knowing that more was on the way. What I can say is this… The game works flawlessly and every aspect of it seems to be well fleshed out. More Customisation is needed and is coming. But you cannot fault their excellent gameplay and bug fixing so far. At the moment with only three maps and about half the features promised, Killing Floor 2 is already better than so many finished titles.

The game is set to be released tomorrow and in even in its current state its definitely worth the price. The game is visually stunning, exciting and fun.

Until next time,

~ Big Man Murph