Nov 22, 2016
Killing Floor 2

My favorite gun in Killing Floor 2 is the medic s HMTech-201 SMG. It makes a tinny plink plink plink sound as it arcs glowing blobs in a tidy line, kicking toward the sky like a scalpel swiping upwards. It s one of the least deathcore weapons in KF2, where others are carrying bloodied sawblades, katanas, or double-barrel shotguns, but it s delightful to me.

My little medi-SMG is imprecise but controllable, to the point that I can waste almost no bullets if I m in the zone. A delicate tap of my mouse button to launch one bullet into a failed science experiment s head, popping it like an overripe melon, and then another gentle squeeze to land one in the chest to put it down. I play Killing Floor 2 to chase that zone, to feel the satisfaction of violently clearing up a mess of pasty mutant zombie flesh without ever looking down my sights if I don t want to. It s an excellent way to kill time.

Gib and repeat

Killing Floor 2 is primarily played in Survival mode, with a simple ruleset that sends increasingly challenging waves of monsters called Zeds screeching and slobbering at a group of players. (That s typically six or fewer players, though custom servers can have 50 or more players, at which point you re just goofing off.) Between waves, players can spend in-match money on armor, ammo, and weapons.

It s fun in its cautious moments, players grouped up, back to back, healing each other, trying to pick off scuttling, arachnid creatures and cloaked acrobats as they burst through every doorway. But it s also fun in chaos, when a hulking Fleshpound scatters the team, or a faceless Cronenbergian demon grabs you from behind and you spin around to pop its head off with a Desert Eagle. There s a lot of yelling over comms.

There s enough joy in Killing Floor 2 s weapon handling and explosive gore to make it fun for hours, even if the fun doesn t vary much map to map.

The basic strategy is uncomplicated: stay grouped, conserve ammo, have a good healer, know when to run away and know what parts of the map give you the most room to maneuver. But getting teamwiped, ending the game on wave four of ten, is also uncomplicated. Your medic went down early, someone backed into an unseen horde and got cornered while reloading, someone took a face full of fire from a Husk, a type of special mutant with an arm cannon.

Killing Floor 2 is a fundamentally repetitive game. You re playing the same challenge again and again, with magnetic enemies and a few predictable specials that ll charge forward, swing their glowing red arms around, and so on. It lacks the journey of progressing through a Left 4 Dead 2 campaign, where a modder can play with the pace and vary the scenery, even introduce platforming sections. But there s enough joy in Killing Floor 2 s weapon handling and explosive gore to make it fun for hours, even if the fun doesn t vary much map to map.

Levels of pain

I am somewhat disappointed by the difficulty settings. Normal is too easy me and three random players can take on ten waves without much trouble but feels more satisfying in the moment than Hard or above, which offer the real challenge. Hard mode is hard because the mutants are faster, smarter, and have more health. I like the first two attributes, which require more precision on my part, but the increased health means my little SMG sprays more feebly into absorbent heads and torsos, and it just isn t as enjoyable.

Of course, medic isn't the best class to handle a big Scrake busting through the door in the first place and that's part of the teamwork but even as a more potent damage-dealer, I get less fun out of unloading ammo into big damage tanks than I do kiting lesser enemies and rhythmically blasting their heads off. The big guys do, at least, shake up the routine, and can severely punish the team for bunching up in a tight corridor.

The leveling system is another half success. Every five levels earned with a class they re called perks, but I ll call them classes, because that s what they are unlocks a choice of bonuses. At level 5 as a medic, for instance, I can choose to increase my health or increase my damage resistance. There are also basic stat bonuses, such as extra damage with class-specific weapons. The bonuses encourage puttering around in Normal difficulty servers to level up which will be too easy for experienced FPS players to really enjoy and discourage making swaps to better your team composition. I m plainly doing my team a disservice by going into a match with a level 1 gunslinger instead of a level 10 medic.

These are petty complaints when KF2 also lets me wield a microwave gun that balloons enemies until they burst.

But sometimes I want to be the gunslinger, because the gunslinger s starting dual revolvers are fun as hell. With no reticle overlay, aiming requires drawing two mental lines from each barrel, crossing each other because each gun points slightly in the other s direction. Hitting a mutant head to the left with my right-handed gun, then one to the right with my left-handed gun, is a beautiful moment that everyone deserves have.

I love most of Killing Floor 2 s weapons none as much as the HMTech-201 SMG, of course though there are some slight disappointments. I expect the rail gun to launch a red hot slug that rips through the air leaving a vacuum in its wake, but it gives off more of a defiant spit. Some of the guns, such as the SCAR-H assault rifle, feel gratuitous when there are more entertaining weapons in the same category, like the AR-15 and Kalashnikov. These are petty complaints when KF2 also lets me wield a microwave gun that balloons enemies until they burst.

The melee weapons are fun, too, and I especially enjoy the katana. It s not a complex melee system, but not undercooked. You can swipe left, right, down, and up by tapping WASD before attacking, perform light and heavy attacks, and time blocks with attacks to knock back specimens. Removing multiple Zed heads at once with a well timed katana swipe is a sight to behold, especially if it triggers one of Killing Floor 2 s slow-mo moments, which occur when any player on the team does something cool.

KF2 s gore system flings around limbs and giblets with grotesque glee. I especially love how blood splatter builds up as the waves go by, painting entire rooms and areas red. The squishing sounds and liquid explosions which are even better if you can turn on Nvidia Flex without taking a massive performance hit are a big part of what makes Killing Floor 2 satisfying even when it s repetitive.

Mod squad

What takes KF2 from good to great and this will invite some ire, I m sure is Tripwire s commitment to making multiplayer games that work like multiplayer games should. Yes, there are microtransactions. You can buy gun skins and costumes. I haven't done that and never plan to, though, because I don t have to buy anything to connect to a server which spawns Half-Life 2 Striders as enemies, and I don t have to buy anything to play on a map modeled after Super Mario 64 s hub world. At a time where matchmaking is usually all we get, watching an expansive server list populate is heartening. And just like in the good old days, if I don t have a server s map or mod components, it downloads them for me. It allows sub-communities to develop around servers, something missing in most modern shooters.

Join a ridiculous 50-player server on a ridiculous player-made and enjoy the headshots.

Killing Floor 2 s harshest critics bought it in Early Access and were disappointed by how Tripwire bullishly implemented changes and features they didn t want, such as the microtransactions. The PvP mode, where one side plays the specimens, also drew criticism and they re right, it s not much fun. Deeper than that, I ve read complaints about balancing and the loss of particular tactics from the original. I last played Killing Floor years ago, and not for 500 hours, so I can t honestly speak to those complaints. But I don t personally play Killing Floor 2 to min-max my tactics and beat it flawlessly on the hardest mode. I like running around healing my team, doing a bit of crowd control with a flame thrower, kiting and beheading monsters, saving the day with a slow-mo shower of gore.

If you want a perfect replica of Killing Floor, with its specific classes and balancing, Killing Floor 2 isn t that. But it is a visual spectacle, and a challenging, fun co-op shooter with an active mapmaking community. You can play it for the struggle against overwhelming odds, you and a few friends beating back hundreds of hellions, constantly pushed to the edge of death. Or you can play it like I ve started to, when I ve had a long day: put on a podcast, join a ridiculous 50-player server on a ridiculous player-made map that includes a literal staircase to heaven, and enjoy the headshots.

Killing Floor 2

Killing Floor 2 arrived on Early Access in April last year, where Tyler labelled it "a superb mutant bloodbath" that's "like Killing Floor but better." It wasn't without its shortcomings such is the iterative nature of Steam's pre-launch initiative however, a year and half on, it has its sights set on a November 18 launch.

It's also got a new trailer which, although depicting PlayStation 4 Pro footage, showcases the stage it's at now. Expect blood, guts, zombies, pistols, assault rifles and... perhaps you're better having a gander yourself.

It's typically Killing Floor, then. In the run up to full release, Developer Tripwire Interactive has been outlining the direction in which Killing Floor 2 is headed via updates on the game's Steam Community page.

After consulting player feedback, shields, for example, will be the focus of future updates however the tenth and final character class sounds most intriguing. Survivalist is a hybrid class that spreads its skills across all fields "jack-of-all-trades-but-master-of-none" that essentially lets players create their own build. Here's Tripwire on that:

"Players who choose to play the Survivalist will have an interesting start to the game; by default the perk start with an HE grenade, a machete (for its knife), and a random tier 1 weapon. The Survivalist s passives include Weapon damage (.6% per level in current testing), Global damage resistance (1% per level), Heavy Body Armor (1% per level), and Zedtime Reload (3% per level)."

Killing Floor 2 is due November 18.

Killing Floor 2

The Killing Floor 2 Tactical Response update is now live, bringing new SWAT perks and weaponry to the game, a new map, tweaks to existing perks and Zed resistances, plus new achievements and loyalty rewards.

The SWAT perk adds the FN P90, MP7, MP5RAS, and Kriss Vector submachineguns to the game, along with a flashbang grenade that carries a high chance of stunning Zeds, and a tactical knife, for when the situation gets really out of hand. Which seems to be pretty much always. A new elite variant of the Horzine Security Armor and Horzine 9mm pistol will also be given to everyone who plays Killing Floor 2 during early access, and there's a new set of "cardboard armor" that will be available for purchase in a new cosmetic bundle.

The new map, called Infernal Realm, is actually a community creation that's been adopted into the official lineup. The title offers a pretty good hint of what to expect, as players will face off against Zeds surrounded by bones, hanging corpses, brimstone, and hellfire. And the trader is a totem made of bones. That can't be a good sign.

Almost all of the pre-existing perks have been tweaked to some extent, but Tripwire said Firebug, Support, and Medic were given more attention than most in order to better balance their skills. Zeds have also had their resistances revised, their movement and evasion tactics made more challenging, and their spawn groups adjusted, creating a much more intense experience on higher difficulty levels, it said. And watch out for Hans. Really. He's been at the gym or something.

The full Killing Floor 2: Tactical Response update changelog is available on Steam.

Killing Floor 2

The co-op zombie-slaughtering FPS Killing Floor 2 first appeared on Steam in April 2015 and it's come a long way since, with the addition of new maps, new monsters, and the Versus Survival PvP mode. Through all of it, and some pretty enthusiastic words about its progress, it has remained in Early Access. But those days are winding to an end, not soon but soon-ish: Tripwire Interactive announced today that the game is set to go into full launch on November 18, the same day it'll release on PlayStation 4.

If you've been been following along with us then you probably already have a pretty good idea what KF2 is all about, but key features include a proprietary, high powered persistent blood system that will send entrails, severed limbs, and blood flying I'm getting my wallet out already with solo and six-player co-op play and 12-player humans-vs-Zeds (that's Killing Floor nomenclature for zombies) action, set across numerous different game modes. The killing gets done with an arsenal that includes military-grade firepower, historical guns, and off the wall 'Mad Scientist' weapons, and also through brutal, flexible hands-on combat.

We reviewed the initial Early Access release of Killing Floor 2 in May 2015, and even then it was really good: Not quite ready for prime-time, but "already a superb mutant bloodbath." You can't ask for a better starting point than that, and so I'm really looking forward to what the final release brings to the table. The base edition of Killing Floor 2 will retain its $30/ 20 early access price on Steam and elsewhere, and it will also be available in a Digital Deluxe edition for $40/ 30, and at retail, with the deluxe edition content, for the same price.

Killing Floor 2

After a busy week getting excited about new video games, spare a thought for video games that are already (sort of) out. Killing Floor 2 is still in Early Access, but that doesn't mean it can't go on sale, nor does it mean that it's safe from Steam's weekly free game trials. If you hit the Steam page right now you can download and play the co-op shooter free-of-charge until the end of the weekend, which is nice.

If you like it, the game's discounted until the end of the weekend, too. All tiers have 33% off, meaning the base game is available for $20. If you wanna fork out $27, you'll get the digital deluxe edition.

In other Killing Floor news, a VR offshoot was announced at E3 earlier this week in the form of Killing Floor Incursion. You can read more about that over here.

Killing Floor 2

At the PC Gaming show during E3 2016, Tripwire's John Gibson took the stage with Anna Sweet from Oculus to announce that soon players will be able to blast open heads and scatter entrails in virtual reality. Developed for the Oculus Touch, Killing Floor Incursion. Check out the trailer above, which shows how you'll be able to collect weapons like knives and pistols, and use them to defend yourself against shambling monsters.

Gibson also showed off a trailer for a new content pack for Killing Floor 2. The Bulls-Eye content pack includes an expanded Player vs Zed mode, a new Sharpshooter perk, and a new character, Rae Higgins. They're also throwing in two community-made maps from their Grindhouse mapping contest. The Bulls-Eye pack went live on Steam during the announcement, so you can jump right in right now and start playing! Or, preferably, once the show is over. Check out the trailer above.

If you haven't bought Killing Floor 2 (it's currently in Early Access on Steam), here's some good news. You'll be able to try it out for free from Thursday, June 16 to Monday, June 20. The free weekend will also see the game discounted if you want to pick it up. Killing Floor 2 is planned to release this fall.

Killing Floor 2

You might not have been planning to brutally slay the living dead in Killing Floor 2 this weekend, but here's a reason to consider it: Tripwire is hosting a double XP extravaganza. Kicking off April 28 at 1pm EST, the XP boost will run in concert with an increased item drop rate (once per 24 hours) until May 2 at 1pm EST.

The weekend coincides with a significant patch to the Early Access shooter, which fixes a bunch of ongoing, niggling issues which you can read about in more detail over here.

More interesting is a new map uploaded to Steam Workshop by Tripwire level designer Matthew 'Fever' Lefevere. Dubbed 'Museum', it's a moody, dimly lit arena-like setting based in yeah, you guessed it a museum.

In other KF2 news, the studio rolled out a Versus Survival multiplayer mode earlier this month, in the form of the Revenge of the Zeds update. That also includes a new official map as well as fresh weaponry. You can read about that update in more detail over here. Now seems like a decent time to try the hyperviolent shooter, if you haven't done so already.

Killing Floor 2

Back at the PC Gamer Weekender in London last weekend, Tripwire President John Gibson and Antimatter Games producer Jack Hackett took to Nvidia's stage to talk all about how Killing Floor 2 is progressing and what to expect from their upcoming shooter, Rising Storm 2: Vietnam. Skip to around three minutes in to bypass the introductory banter if you want to get right to it: Tripwire's origins, what's coming next for Killing Floor 2, and an extended talk about Rising Storm 2 (starts at 16:00).

Killing Floor 2 is currently in Early Access on Steam, while Rising Storm 2 is set to release "sometime later this year." At the end of the talk, we see the first Rising Storm 2 gameplay trailer, which you can check out separately here. Gibson also drops a little surprise: playable Zeds are coming to Killing Floor 2 "very soon."

Killing Floor 2

Tripwire Interactive will be hitting the stage at the PC Gamer Weekender to talk about Killing Floor 2, Rising Storm 2: Vietnam and the future of the company.

President John Gibson will take the mic to discuss Killing Floor 2's journey through Early Access, and hint at what's next for 2016. John will be joined by Jack Hackett, producer at Antimatter Games, to reveal something "new and exciting" for Rising Storm 2: Vietnam.

Tripwire's Killing Floor was one of our favourite co-op shooters of its day, and the sequel stays true to the spirit of the original, with monstrous guns, hordes of enemies and buckets of thick, pooling blood. The sequel is sure to grow and expand over the coming years, so this is your chance to discover more about Tripwire's plans.

Meanwhile Rising Storm 2 will take Red Orchestra's high-lethality multiplayer combat to Vietnam. What surprises can we look forward to in the new setting?

Speaking of exclusive details, developers will be dropping plenty over the course of the weekend. A ticket grants you access to all of our sessions, which include exclusive showing of Star Citizen, Hitman, Stellaris, Frozen Synapse 2, Divinity: Original Sin 2 and many more. If you'd rather sit down to play some games, we've got plenty, including early access to Dark Souls 3 and Total War: Warhammer.

The PC Gamer Weekender takes place at the Old Truman Brewery in London on the 5/6 of March, which means you only have a couple of weeks to grab tickets! If you use the code PCG20 you'll get 20% off the price of a standard ticket. If you'd rather rinse our gaming zone for the full two days, you can pick up a PC Gamer Weekender Plus pass and enjoy a digital subscription to PC Gamer. 

All tickets come with a free Steam key for Dustforce (90% in our review!), and Sega will be giving out scratchcards that guarantee visitors a free game from Sega's vast collection. Book now, before it's too late!

Killing Floor 2

Killing Floor 2 is about cleaning up hordes of unruly test subjects with bullets, fire, swords, and anything else destructive enough to remove a mutant s head, and doing it all with friends. It s still hacking its way through Early Access, and since Tyler wrote about it in April, the team at Tripwire has continued working on the guns and gibs. Last week, I got to play Killing Floor 2 s next big update, which is coming to players in December and brings back an old friend: the Patriarch.

Killing Floor 1 fans will remember the Patriarch boss, who seems to have put on some weight and mutated a few more times since then, but is otherwise mostly unchanged. He s a huge bullet-sponge: fast, powerful, and with a tendency to run away and heal just when you ve almost got him.

He will come at you in those first couple of minutes with his basic attacks, Tripwire Interactive vice president Alan Wilson told PC Gamer. Once he s taken a bit of damage, so long as he can get away, he ll disappear, stab himself with a healing syringe in a quiet corner, and cover his retreat by throwing a bunch of lower-level monsters at you. We want it to be a mix of [fighting and] damn we ve lost him —because if you keep up with him and keep piling damage on, you can actually kill him there and then.

He's a big sucker.

To test out the Patriarch, I joined Tripwire and smashed through KF2 s two new maps: the Black Forest and the Farmhouse. The Black Forest is heavily wooded and crossed with running streams and creeks. Railroad tracks and a lonely mountain cabin break up the woodlands and create chokepoints for mutants to swarm through. As time goes by and the bodies pile up, the woods get darker and darker until flashlights are a necessity.

Along the way, I admired the gun animations and behaviors—heavy and believable, fun to spray at mutant heads, or carefully aim and steady—and the work Tripwire has done to iterate on KF1. We re doing a sequel to a well-beloved game, so we can t depart from the core formula, said Wilson. Basically: mutant freaks; if you see anything that looks fucked up, shoot it, burn it, chop it to pieces; general mayhem; have fun, look cool while you re doing it. Going KF1 to [Red Orchestra 2] to KF2, we ve done a lot of work at the engine level with weapons, weapon feel, sound, all the rest of it.

The update s second map, Farmhouse, is straight out of every horror movie you ve ever seen. I was a little disappointed to see the map s similarity to the farm finale area in Left 4 Dead, but the genre cliches instantly set a familiarly creepy tone, and lend themselves to the design of a fun map—mutants come swarming out of the dense corn field, and the barn, hayloft, and farmhouse add vertical space. If it s an homage to anything, it s an homage to every single creepy horror movie that ends up in an old farmhouse, Wilson said. The sort of place that everyone jokes, when the man comes out with a chainsaw, you run away. Don t go and hide in a small cupboard.

One of my shots of the farmhouse.

When the Patriarch finally lands at the end of a game, he s a towering pile of flesh and circuitry. He absorbs a lot of damage, sure, but that s par for the course with Killing Floor bosses. Patriarch is in many ways the same character from KF1, but he s learned some new tricks. When he spots players hiding from his rocket launcher attacks, for example, he turns the launcher into a mortar and lobs rockets up and over players cover.

His invisibility power is back, too, but he uses it in more interesting ways. Rather than simply a tool for retreat, the Patriarch uses his invisibility to attack unpredictably. Now when players lose sight of Patriarch they can t be completely sure: did he run away to heal, or is he about to pounce on them from behind?

More importantly, however players beat Patriarch will be a very different approach from how they attack Hans, the current final boss in Killing Floor 2. Any map will have a 50/50 chance of spawning Hans or the Patriarch, and that uncertainty is part of Tripwire s strategy for giving players an ongoing tactical puzzle.

It s going to be interesting to see now, how players will form new teams, Wilson said. They ve worked out how they like to handle Hans. Now they have to work out how to handle the Patriarch, but they also have the challenge that they don t know which one is coming at them. If they gear up to fight Hans and the Patriarch comes at them, they could be up shit creek… How do you strategize for an end boss when you don t know who it is?

More of what's coming in the Patriarch update.
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