Killing Floor.
Posted by nefchast on May 15, 2009
Killing Floor, mod turned stand alone, released yesterday on Steam. The game is a FPS co-op survival horror set in England. 1-6 players face off against waves of ‘specimens’ — cloned soldier-monsters — that vary in appearance and difficulty. So, that’s the overview — on to a bit of the features.
Shop
The thing that really drives the game is the shop. Not only do you get most of your weapons, ammo or armor here, but it also is important to the overall gameplay. At the start of each wave the shop will move to a different location on the map and players will have to fight their way to it if they want to use it. There is only a limited amount of time that the shop stays open (though this can be modified in the map settings) so finishing off the wave as close as possible to the shop will allow you more time to browse and setup for the next wave.
It is completely possible to forego any attempt at reaching the next shop and setting up in an area that has item spawns (there are ammo and weapons/armor spawns around the maps — though the non-ammo ones are more rare) and complete the maps successfully.
Perks
In lieu of set ‘classes’ is the perk system; perks can be changed at the shop between waves. Perks provide passive buffs to gear or other abilities that revolve around the specific perk class. For instance here we have the Support Specialist — or Engineer. They’re naturally better at welding doors (more on that in a second) and using grenades/shotguns. So, they not only get a discount on shotguns from the shop but are better at using them. The Berserker perk focuses on the melee weapons (Fire Axe, Machete, Chainsaw, Knife) and allows its users to not get slowed down when attacked by Clots. (clots are the basic bread and butter zombie/specimen, think of them like the infected from Left 4 Dead — they attack in large numbers, have little health or power but slow you down) Each perk has multiple levels (up to 5 I think) and each level is unlocked by meeting a certain requirement — such as welding a certain amount of door hitpoints or dealing a certain amount of total damage with a specific weapon. The higher level perk you have the more bonuses you get. (of course)
Aiming...
Either I’ve just missed the option, or I’ve been too busy killing specimens, but I did notice that there is no crosshair. Aiming is done with the right mouse button, and you look through the sights like the real thing. In case of alternate fire modes — the default is the middle mouse button if you get confused. I’m liking the lack of crosshair, it adds a nice bit of skill requirement to really get the headshots from a distance. Of course, I tend to use the shotgun as a support specialist so aiming isn’t too much of a requirement for me… If you can’t aim worth a spit without a crosshair, though, be warned!
Welding
One of the fun gameplay features is welding. This is available to everyone and just requires you equip your welder (think the hotkey is ’5′, hit it twice since the medical equipment is hotkeyed there too) and find a closed door to use it on. This can be used in a number of strategic ways, from sealing off certain routes to create bottlenecks, to completely sealing off an area in order to recoup and heal. It won’t be possible to completely seal off an enemy advance — unless your whole team is made up of support specialists — since the welder does use up its energy pack pretty fast and needs to recharge. The medical syringe works in the same way — use it once to heal someone (or yourself) then wait for it to recover. Of note: the alt-fire mode on the welder removes the welding so you can re-open a door, alt-fire mode on the syringe heals yourself.
Win.
The last wave will see the Patriarch — a big, bad boss monster — that you will have to defeat in order to win. If you don’t want to know what he does, don’t read the next line…
He has a decent amount of health, can go invisible (when he does he moves quite fast), has an arm that doubles as a chaingun and rocket launcher, and is just generally nasty. If he gets in close he can deal a good bit of melee damage and knock you back. Killing him automatically wins the map.
Ok, that’s a brief intro to Killing Floor. Having played it for a day I can’t really say how the long-term will be for the game, but the price of 20 bucks (15 if you pre-ordered) is very, very good. Grab some friends, get a server and you should have a blast.
