Killing Floor 2 – It all began with Corporation Horzine performing their devious and underhanded experiments to enhance the human form. But something went awry and their pet project turned into a living nightmare. Test subjects turned into ZEDs, horrific creatures with a voracious appetite for human flesh and now, they are everywhere.

The lucky few that survived have gone into hiding, but not all is lost yet. A motley group of civilians made up of ex-soldiers, mercenaries have banded together and sworn to fight the outbreak. Once an outbreak is reported, you’ll play one of the characters dropped into the ZED-filled hot zones to eradicate all threats using any means necessary.

Killing Floor 2 is a gruesome 6 person co-op shooter with an in-depth class system and a massive selection of weapons to pick from. Players new to the game will have to pick one of 10 classes (also known as ‘perks’): berserker, commando, support, field medic, demolitionist, firebug, gunslinger, sharpshooter, survivalist and SWAT. In each class, there are skills that unlock every 5 levels until the level 25, which is the highest you can go. You won’t feel like you’re making a big impact at lower levels until you’ve reached level 10 when your skills start to matter. For example, field medics will build greater resistance to toxic bile while the support class can be further improved as an ammo supplier when the team runs low on ammo.

Each game has 10 waves, starting off with smaller ZED types like the Clot that group up to grab and immobilize you. They’re easier to gun down however, than later waves filled with bigger ZEDs like the Scrake and Fleshpound. The former are slow giants with chainsaw hands, ready to saw you in a million pieces. The latter are abominable mini bosses that flash red when low on health and charge at you with grinder arms. They could very likely wipe out a whole team if not handled properly. Waves at later stages randomize ZED types, which keeps things fresh until the final wave where you finally come face to face with the boss.

The game will randomly pick one of two bosses – Hans Volter, a sadistic man dressed in an exo-suit with a vast amount of health and a large arsenal of toxic bombs that he likes to throw around. Watch out for these bombs,  they’ll eat away your health pool quickly. The other boss is Horzine CEO, the Patriarch, a heavily mutated and deformed mass of muscle, equipped with a chain gun arm that also works as a missile launcher. Each boss will appear and fight the team until his health is low, it will then sneak away to regenerate. This will happen three times throughout the battle before your team can annihilate it.

There are currently 13 uniquely designed maps that you can play, some of which are favorites brought over from the first Killing Floor. Although you’ll see red everywhere from severing limbs and decapitating the heads of ZEDs, the maps are designed with vibrant colors to make battling ZEDs some form of art. An example is Burning Paris, a map where you’ll perform the bloodiest show of gibbage with a backdrop of a burning Eiffel tower on the verge of collapse as your medic shoots healing bullets bursting blue gas as it hits you. The colors are amazing and hypnotizing in this game.

What I enjoy about Killing Floor 2 is the satisfying gunplay designed with great detailed effect whenever you reload or swap weapons. When you perform a particular killing move such as popping heads off a group of ZEDs consecutively, a special moment is triggered that every player would enjoy called ZED TIME. For a short period, in-game time will slow down and graphics will turn monochromatic, giving players an opportunity to take a breath and come up with a strategy. This is great when you’re up against a bigger ZED type like the Fleshpound, allowing to you escape your death or maximize damage and movement speed for certain classes like the Berserker and Commando.

What is lacking in game is mode types. The only other mode is versus where players are split into humans and ZEDs. On the human side, it’s business as usual. For the ZED team, players will be randomly assigned a ZED type that could feel underwhelming if it’s a small ZED or very powerful if larger, potentially causing a lot of damage to the humans if played strategically. Although players will embark on this mode for the laughs, it has dropped in popularity because it is poorly balanced, which results in mostly ZED wins.

While Killing Floor 2 is a challenging game…

• You get so much satisfaction from the gruesome action.
• Special moments like ZED time amp up moments of panic.
• There is a massive range of weapons to pick from.
• The game provides hours of addictive play while still staying fresh.

Difficulty: Challenging

Killing Floor 2 is available on Steam.

Source for Images: Official Website