When playing Killing Floor, its difficult not to compare this directly to Left 4 Dead, they both feature the same basic objectives, zombie archetypes, modern day setting, but there are several small differences that make both games play in a vastly different way. Whilst Left 4 Dead is one of the most polished zombie shooters on the market, Killing Floor feels like it was jury rigged, pieced together from different bits and pieces, but it has an indie charm that Left 4 Dead just doesn’t have.
The aim of the game is very simple, you and 5 chums try to survive wave after wave of zombies coming at you as they get progressively grow higher in number. Deadlier variations come at you in the later stages, making sure that the odds are always stacked against you, even as you gain access to weaponry such as the AA12 shotgun, dealing 18 shotgun rounds of fully automatic death in a matter of seconds.
Of course you can’t expect these weapons to be easy to get access to, so a lot of time is spent saving up your ‘dosh’, making part of the challenge surviving as long as possible with basic weapons so that you can reap the rewards in later rounds.
As the word dosh suggests, this game is unbelievably British which can be absolutely hilarious and irritating at the same time. After hearing someone shout “LOADSA MONEY!” across the map for the 10th time in 15 minutes you’ll find yourself wanting to kill your team mates more than the blood thirsty zombies coming at you.
Not much can be said for the selection of music either due to the generic selection of repetitive metal tracks that blasts in your ears constantly, giving the impression that the target audience Tripwire Interactive intends to attract younger players.
Unfortunately this fact rears its head early on, as childish team-mates attempt to lock you inside rooms by welding them shut, leaving you to be ripped apart by the zombie hoard lurking behind you. That type of behaviour is preferable to the abuse you’ll receive in chat if you don’t play the game exactly the way your ‘buddies’ want you to, but luckily the ignore function comes in handy at these points.
In terms of story, well, there isn’t really one. All the game suggests is that some experiment went wrong which lead to zombies breaking loose and killing most of the population of the United Kingdom and it’s your job to clear the mess up. Yet this story never pops up when you’re actually playing the game, so you could easily be forgiven for not knowing what is actually going on.
When it comes to gunplay Killing Floor is actually one of the most rewarding games around as each weapon feels incredibly powerful, even the starting pistol that has just enough recoil and stopping power to make it feel as though you’re wielding a small cannon. The slow motion feature takes this to a whole new level, as during particular kills it activates allowing you to headshot several zombies in rapid succession with enough time to watch their corpses fly into the wall at high speed. Beautiful.
Overall, Killing Floor is one of the most entertaining zombie survival games around and the charm of the game easily outweighs the negative aspects of it, making it an essential purchase for fans of the zombie genre.
