I’ve been playing a lot of Killing Floor recently, and I like it quite a lot. It’s not perfect though, and while undoubtedly loads of fun it makes a few stupid mistakes that I think make it deserve its 70% metacritic rating.
The best way I can describe Killing Floor to someone who hasn’t played it would be ‘the B movie underbelly of Left 4 Dead’. It’s an FPS with zombies meant to be played co-op. Where L4D limits you to 4 people though Killing Floor allows 6 (actually limitless with a bit of jiggery pokery), and that’s the end of the comparison I’m going to make between these two games as it’s entirely unfair – they are completely different..ish.
Killing Floor is purely a defence game. Hordes of Zombies come shambling/running/crawling towards you no matter where you are. You basically fight off waves – each wave progressively harder than the last in typical game fashion. In the top left right corner is a counter showing how many zombies are left in the current wave – your sole goal is to survive until that counter reaches 0 every round. When it does hit 0 a trader will appear allowing you to go buy weapons, ammo and body armour. The really clever thing about The Trader is that she spawns in a different place each round and is only open for 1 minute. What this means is that you will probably have to fight your way towards her so you have enough time to make your purchases at the round end.
Whether a game like this is any good or not really depends on the zombies you’re actually fighting and here there are lots and are all quite different. There is the Normal Thing, the Slicey Man, Spider Bastards, Boomer Clone, Invisible Women, Chainsaw Butcher, Screechy Horrible, and Big Angry Poundey. I really like them all and they do make for varied battles, which makes it fun. Plus a lot of them are genuinely scary – Screechy Horrible especially; she’s the one that keeps me awake at night with her black eyes and torturous scream. There is however one more zombie – The Patriarch aka The Boss Zombie, coming after you after you finish the last round. He has a chain gun and rocket launcher for arms, can turn invisible plus can re gen his health. Basically, I hate it. I don’t enjoy fighting it, I wish it wasn’t in the game. It’s just rubbish.
The Patriarch is a fine example of a design choice that you know a team of Valves calibre would have fixed and this is basically the tone of the whole thing. Unpolished. Things that with just a bit more time, thought, spit and polish, would have made for a much better experience. Garish red text fills your screen in Arial font when a round is over. Horrible cockney voice acting with various mentions of “guv’nor” and “blowing the bloody doors off” clangs every time I hear it. Netcode that doesn’t work properly on extremely common hardware*. Doors not working properly. Rigid player animations in third person mode. All issues that could be fixed, or just made a bit better, if a ‘proper’ dev team had it.
There are various problems with Killing Floor, and some make it difficult for me to recommend, but I can recommend it. Look at those screenshots for gods sake – there are zombies, guns, explosions and flamethrowers. It’s a game that unapologetically plays heavy metal as you kill hordes of monsters. It’s a game where heads explode in slow motion when you shoot them with the smallest of guns. It’s a game that’s an immense amount of fun, especially when people are actually working in a team. It’s not perfect, but it’s still getting patched and is only £15, and that’s a £15 that is well worth spending.
* Thompson routers barely work for a start (which basically means BT home hubs and o2/be boxes). They make for various problems which are well documented on the forums. Tripwire know about the issues, but are blaming the router vendors instead of fixing it; this not only extremely pisses me off, it means that I’m not buying any DLC out of silent protest until it’s fixed.
I haven’t played the update yet, but I so hope they’ve made it so players can pass through each other. As it stands, if you’re on a server with no votekick/admin it’s a griefer’s wet dream.
I still love this game though, despite how unpolished it is.
You really didn’t elaborate why you think that The Patriarch is rubbish, you also had a small dyslexic hiccup when describing the HUD layout for specimens remaining.
Now about The Patriarch… He may have his weird AI issues like committing suicide on kf_office, or getting stuck on the open doors in kf_prison. Though I don’t think that Valve would’ve done much more with the AI using just the Unreal 2 engine. You have to understand that the Unreal 2 engine is a fairly limiting engine when it comes to AI scripting and pathing.
Some may argue, “Well why not remake Killing Floor on the Unreal 3 engine?” Well unfortunately the Unreal 3 engine is extremely taxing on your computer. Even Global Agenda the new MMOFPS(running on the Unreal 3 engine) being released at the end of the year requires a GeForce 8800 to be remotely bearable.
As it stands I enjoy being able to run this game on a GeForce 5 series GFX card, 1gig ram, single core processor, and still listen to my own music with little or no lag.
As for this review… well I’m under the impression that you hold Valve up on this golden pedestal in a shrine at the back of your closet. Generally reviews are meant to be unbiased, or at least that’s what I believe makes an interesting review.
“You really didn’t elaborate why you think that The Patriarch is rubbish”
- I suppose I could have been more specific but “I don’t enjoy fighting it” should be justification enough. It’s a bland and ill thought out enemy.
“you also had a small dyslexic hiccup when describing the HUD layout for specimens remaining.”
- Do explain
“Now about The Patriarch… He may have his weird AI issues like committing suicide on kf_office, or getting stuck on the open doors in kf_prison.”
- It’s not ai issues which make him bad. It’s the fact that he’s so far removed from the rest of the bads. By suddenly employing all these super abilities it’s like a completely different game and a sudden and significant difficulty spike.
“Though I don’t think that Valve would’ve done much more with the AI using just the Unreal 2 engine. You have to understand that the Unreal 2 engine is a fairly limiting engine when it comes to AI scripting and pathing.”
-It’s no good saying ‘it’s ok because it’s the Unreal 2 engine’. Fact is that KF was released in 2009 for £15 so I have to judge it as a 2009 game that costs £15. It makes no difference to the user how well they have used a specific engine, all that matters is the quality of what’s there.
“As it stands I enjoy being able to run this game on a GeForce 5 series GFX card, 1gig ram, single core processor, and still listen to my own music with little or no lag.”
- yes it is a merit that it runs on whatever hardware, but that doesn’t change my opinion on how good it is to play
“As for this review… well I’m under the impression that you hold Valve up on this golden pedestal in a shrine at the back of your closet. Generally reviews are meant to be unbiased, or at least that’s what I believe makes an interesting review.”
- The fact is that Valve do a good job of making polished games and I used valve as an example because they have also made a solid zombie shooter. Any well established development team could have taken Killing Floor and polished it to a state that’s better than it is now. Also, an unbiased review is different from one where I discount all other previous experiences.
“Any well established development team could have taken Killing Floor and polished it to a state that’s better than it is now.”
The fact is that Killing Floor is a $20 game, less than half the price of L4D. We had no idea that this game would be quite so successful. If we did, we would have spent an extra few months just polishing the game. Now we’re patching it left and right, with 8 patches having been released in less than 4 months, including the new “Heavy Metal” content.
We appreciate your mention of the price, but please do not directly knock us as a development team based on a single game. Please see Red Orchestra for an example of a “properly” polished game we have released.
“Netcode that doesn’t work properly on extremely common hardware*…
* Thompson routers barely work for a start (which basically means Bt home hubs and o2/be boxes). They make for various problems which are well documented on the forums. Tripwire know about the issues, but are blaming the router vendors instead of fixing it; this not only extremely pisses me off, it means that I’m not buying any DLC out of silent protest until it’s fixed.”
Thomson/BT/o2 boxes are not common outside of the UK and Ireland, but they are the only network hardware that has shown any issues with our game. All of the common hardware in the rest of the world is working when configured properly: Cisco/Linksys, D-Link, Netgear, Belkin, 3com, etc.
“The fact is that Killing Floor is a $20 game, less than half the price of L4D. We had no idea that this game would be quite so successful. If we did, we would have spent an extra few months just polishing the game.”
- If that’s your reasoning to releasing something with the air of “unfinished” about it, well that’s fine. The problem is that you can’t excuse yourself to everyone whose paying money for your game.
“Now we’re patching it left and right, with 8 patches having been released in less than 4 months, including the new “Heavy Metal” content.”
- That’s an admirable effort but I can only talk about what’s there now.
“We appreciate your mention of the price, but please do not directly knock us as a development team based on a single game. Please see Red Orchestra for an example of a “properly” polished game we have released.”
- Well Killing Floor is making 50% of your releases so far.
Look, I honestly like Killing Floor. I think it’s a fun game and one that has lots of potential. The point of the article was to point out that while it is fun, it does have problems (as I think the introduction makes clear). And yes it is cheap – but that can still only make for so many allowances.
“Thomson/BT/o2 boxes are not common outside of the UK and Ireland, but they are the only network hardware that has shown any issues with our game. All of the common hardware in the rest of the world is working when configured properly: Cisco/Linksys, D-Link, Netgear, Belkin, 3com, etc.”
- Oh that’s ok then. As long as it’s only the UK that’s affected. Come on. To be honest I wouldn’t have minded so much if the response on the forums was less audacious than “email your providers or get a new router”
wow heated debate
look we like the game and play it a lot. all we’re saying is it’s not perfect
i even forked out £1.50 for the dlc on the premise that it would go to support your future endevors.
as for the game engine thing, bad worken tools?
if you cant take criticism right and use it to improve, then you’re in the wrong business
footnote
my speling and grammer is bad, i know :)
bah bad workmen blames tools!!
If you’ll notice on our steam accounts, both me and Craig have played/do play a hefty amount of Killing Floor. So we obviously enjoy it alot. But this is a review, and I stand by what Craig said.
Craig does reccomend it at the end, but it is important to tell the consumer about any problems encountered. With the tech problems he had a valid point about the router. It must be tough for a small team to deal with technical issues, but the response he got was less than helpful. The game was fully compatible with that type of router pre-patch, so to be told that it was entirely his provider’s fault shows a negligence to admit mistakes on your part. I like what you guys do, please don’t act as though constructive criticism is beneath you. The fact Craig even compares you to Valve at all is a testament of what we think you can achieve.
We’re not expecting you to be perfect, we enjoy what’s there and wish there were some little changes for the better (i.e. allow levelling on the big servers again, collision turned off between players in the shop to prevent griefing, etc.). But the fact is there will be people who won’t find that same experience, and will feel cheated by the reviewer who left out details that might be crucial to their enjoyment of a product they paid for.
All the best to you folks, but Craig gave a balanced and fair review to a fun game that still isn’t all there. PCG 203 gave a good review of it but still gave it a 72%, which on their chart is “A decent effort that, but for a little more polish, coulda been a contender”.
Hey guys, thank you for your input. We are looking into the Thomson/BT/o2 router issues to see if there’s anything we can do on our end, but we’re pretty certain the issue is with the router, as putting a machine into the DMZ fixes the problem. In instances like this, more often than not, big companies can put pressure on hardware manufacturers to fix their routers. Since we are not a huge company, we don’t have that kind of leverage. Please get anyone having these issues to help us push Thomson/BT/o2 to work with us to fix this issue.
Thanks Again,
Dayle Flowers
Well, the review wasn’t bad, but holding valve in such golden light doesnt work when left 4 dead has about as much added content as my left shoe.
KF may not be polished till you can see your face, but it plays well, the animations are a bit wooden but if you have seen the new on fire animations you know that its being worked on.
Is it worth £15? yes. is it worth £30? probably yes. Im glad I got it for the low price, because now I can spend spend spend on all the DLC, and I still dont feel abandoned like I have with more mainstream games.
Tripwire might not have an army at their disposal, but the blood sweat and tears in this game ring out whenever I chainsaw off a specimens head with giant rotating cogwheels and a man with his head stuck in a TV in the background.
P.S. AK is awesome.
“I suppose I could have been more specific but “I don’t enjoy fighting it” should be justification enough. It’s a bland and ill thought out enemy.”
ill thought out enemy? the guy goes invisible, runs fast, machine guns you, rockets you, heals himself, and gets you with his chest tentacle, i think hes pretty well thought out!
“Do explain” (small dyslexic hiccup when describing the HUD)
you said the specimen counter is on the left. its clearly on the right in the screenshot you took.
“It’s not ai issues which make him bad. It’s the fact that he’s so far removed from the rest of the bads. By suddenly employing all these super abilities it’s like a completely different game and a sudden and significant difficulty spike.”
removed from the rest of the bads? he runs fast like the scrake and FP, he turns invisible like the stalker, he hits you like the rest of the specimen do. the only thing not in common with the specimen is his 3 heal he can do (we have unlimited heals however). so id say hes a combination of every specimen youve faced so far. its a culmination of your progress really.
+ rocket launcher + minigun + absurdohealth
Well, if he didn’t have ‘absurdohealth’ he wouldn’t be very much of a boss now, would he? He’s not supposed to be like the other zeds you can shred with a flamethrower or a chainsaw or a hunting shotgun or whatever.
You can’t really get away with dismissing a mob on the grounds you don’t like to fight it – I don’t particularly like fighting Crawlers or Scrakes, but they’re still incredibly good at what they’re designed to do.
“Where L4D limits you to 4 people though Killing Floor allows 6 (actually limitless with a bit of jiggery pokery), and that’s the end of the comparison I’m going to make between these two games”
followed by the illogical time travel requiring comparison:
“boomer clone”
as someone with a BeBox router it pisses me off, however it is the routers fault. KF doesnt do anything particularly unusual netcode wise, its just that these routers are complete crap, and the firmware hasnt been updated at all since i got it almost a year ago.
also you may want to try this exercise some time, hold both your hands up with your palms facing away and thumbs extended. One of your hands looks like a Capital “L”, this is your left hand.
now if you do this in front of your screen while playing KF you can tell what side the counter is on.
1. Calling it a boomer clone isn’t making a comparison – it’s giving it a name
2. Calling something a clone means that both things are the same. It’s not derogatory and it’s a perfectly logical thing to call it as those things are the same.
3. Oh god, WHAT HAVE I DONE? Now no one is going to buy the game because I said the counter is on the wrong side of the screen. OH THE HUMANITY!
Calling it a Boomer clone means you thought it was a clone of the Boomer. English 101. Pretty funny since the Boomer clone pre-dated the boomer.
Also, it shows you didn’t even proof read the article. Frankly, it’s a poorly written review, especially with the unfair overtone of “if someone else made it, it’d be better”.
“Calling it a Boomer clone means you thought it was a clone of the Boomer. English 101. Pretty funny since the Boomer clone pre-dated the boomer.”
- At what point did I say different to that? The fact is, like it or not, more people know what a boomer is than a bloat, and since it is the same, it is a clone – no matter which came first (http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=define%3A+clone&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a)
“Also, it shows you didn’t even proof read the article.”
- how?
“Frankly, it’s a poorly written review”
- that’s your opinion and that’s fine. I will point out that it was never intended to be a full review – hence it being catagorised under ‘initial thoughts’ and not having a rating on the end
“especially with the unfair overtone of “if someone else made it, it’d be better”.”
- I don’t think that’s unfair. I think it’s perfectly justified – a more experienced dev team would have released it in a better state. Yeah it only has a £15 price tag, but it’s also pretty short on content.