Killing Floor

In recent years, there has been a huge rise in the number of shooters that focus on pitting the player against large hordes of the undead. Games such as Left 4 Dead spring to mind, as well as Call of Duty’s ‘Nazi Zombies’ game mode. Being a great fan of zombie games in general, I decided to invest in Killing Floor, the online shooter from Tripwire Interactive.

Killing Floor is largely an online cooperative game which challenges up to six players to survive several waves of deadly specimens. At the end of each successive wave, players have the opportunity to quickly purchase new weapons and ammunition and prepare themselves for the fight ahead. The action is fast-paced and the environments are detailed given the game’s age. However, despite offering a promising premise, Killing Floor fails to impress.

Despite its age (bear in mind it was originally a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004), Killing Floor offers a variety of sprawling and exciting environments which really help to bring the game to life. Maps based on a deserted West London help to immerse the player and provide the game with a 28 Days Later feel. Conversely, other maps such as Evil Santa’s Lair help to create a more amusing atmosphere similar to that which is experienced when playing a game such as Team Fortress 2. Additionally, I must give credit to Killing Floor’s soundtrack and character phrases in general. All of the playable characters come equipped with ridiculous and somewhat hilarious phrases and in this sense, the game really doesn’t take itself seriously, and this helps to make it far more entertaining. Moreover, the soundtrack features some fairly heavy music, which adds to the fast pace of the game and makes mowing down enemies more exciting.

However, I feel that this is where the positive aspects end. Unfortunately, it seems that the developers may not have taken Killing Floor seriously enough, providing players with a game that offers virtually no replay value in return for a fifteen pound price tag. Everyone knows that Nazi Zombies gets boring after playing it for a while, yet that doesn’t matter as it is part of a much larger game. Killing Floor, on the other hand, offers players nothing more. Sure, you can play for a couple of rounds, but the game soon becomes rather uninteresting. What’s more, it almost seems as if the developers have realised this, by offering players new character models, maps and weapons; yet it is the fundamental gameplay that is at fault and no amount of extra additions can solve that.

In addition, Killing Floor is infuriating. Having survived up until the final round, the game then pits you against one final enemy, the Patriarch. But compared to the previous rounds of enemies, he is almost impossible to defeat. It is as if the game wants you to feel like you have won, only to slap you across the face and demand that you start again. Countless times my squad was wiped out in a matter of seconds, with very few opportunities to fight back.
Killing Floor, then, leaves the player feeling like they have only purchased a quarter of a game, which then goes on to cheat them at the final hurdle. You could argue that this is to make the game challenging, but then that begs the question as to why the previous nine waves were so ridiculously easy compared with the final round.

Evidently, when the game was first released around the time of Left 4 Dead, it was probably quite entertaining. But with so many similar games out there which cost far less, I really wouldn’t waste my time with this one. Perhaps a more apt name would have been ‘Killing Flaw’.