The Case

The follow-up to the original released in 2009, Killing Floor 2 sees enhanced graphics, more money, and a higher pedigree combine in a hopefully worthwhile sequel to one of the most beloved zombie-slaughtering games of all time. No longer “just” a poor man’s Left 4 Dead, with 15 months spent in Early Access, does Killing Floor 2 live up to the success and acclaim of the original, or will it stand to be slaughtered by the angry masses?

The Trial

As a direct sequel to the campy Zed-blasting original, Killing Floor 2 adds to the mayhem suitably, while suffering from a severe lack of content. Offering just over half the maps and weapons compared to the original, Killing Floor 2 had quite the shoes to fill, but its malnourished feet never fit quite right.

Another obvious improvement made on Killing Floor is the updated graphics, and overall sound design of the game. When the Zeds start crawling and the bullets start flying, Killing Floor 2 stands head and shoulders above KF1 in providing a very visceral experience. Blood, guts and gore fly out of Specimens at an impressive clip, splattering all over walls and painting Europe red with ludicrous efficiency. The round music too is delightfully crunchy, and while it may not be something that anyone might listen to outside of the game, for what it’s worth, it does the job well.

When Zed time builds in later rounds, slow-motion headshots and the shrapnel from grenades combines in a beautiful, if gory display of warfare. The meaty blast of shotguns or punchy sound of explosives is also vastly improved on the original, and overall, the weapon sounds and Zed cries are far more distinct than their earlier attempts.

The most important part of Killing Floor, however, is the “feel.” Not just the atmosphere of the game, Killing Floor scratched a head-exploding itch with all the lovable charm of an 80’s B-movie. Unfortunately, I am unable to find that same gleeful joy in its sequel. Gone is the mediocre voice acting singing about Zeds and medkits, gone is the female trader who subtly jeers at you over the radio, and seemingly, gone is lackadaisical fun. In its place is an overly serious, overly dark, overproduced shadow of the original.

Characters will instead bark out dull, uninspired voice lines, the trader has been replaced with an inanimate blue kiosk, each map takes place in the dead of night, and even the excessive gore stops being exciting after a while. Instead of conveying a sense of thoughtful design, Tripwire must have stumbled upon a runaway hit in the first game, and Killing Floor 2 feels as though it’s an incredibly safe offering, capitalizing on little of what made the original great.

Maybe this is due in part to the severe lack of content. As I stated earlier, Killing Floor 2 offers just 13 maps, compared to the 21 found in the original. This may not necessarily seem like an apt comparison, but there are few standout maps to be found in Killing Floor 2’s selection, with many community members and servers voting for the same four or five maps, compared to the wide variety of servers and maps found in the first game. By and large, many of the maps are just simply too dark at the base gamma settings, requiring tweaking from round to round to squeeze any enjoyment out of them.

In addition, the overall offering of weapons and equipment is much lower than the prior game as well. Even subtracting the DLC weaponry, classes have roughly double the guns/melee weapons for purchase in Killing Floor over KF2. Tripwire expanded upon the weapon offerings in the first game by selling weapon packs as somewhat pricey DLC. One can only presume that Tripwire intends to continue this practice, but even if they do, there is a lot of ground to be made up between the two games.

One of the more curious and divisive choices in KF2’s development was the “Zedconomy” update, an update that introduced weapon and cosmetic skins, sometimes obtained in random drops, but mostly found in crates. Crates that needed to be opened with keys bought with real money. Personally, I’ve got nothing against microtransactions, but adding in a loot crate system to a game in Early Access feels and sounds scummy. Cosmetics are fine, yes, but at least wait a few weeks at the very least to add them to your game, not in an update in the midst of the Early Access cycle.

All told, Killing Floor 2 runs well. The framerate and graphical issues that beleaguered the game early in development are nowhere to be seen now, though they have been supplanted with extensive load times and network issues. I did encounter a number of unknown crashes during my playtime, both on official and community-made maps. For what it’s worth, Tripwire have taken great care in improving the technical aspects of the game, and it definitely shows.

The Verdict

Maybe I expected too much from Tripwire out of Killing Floor 2. Maybe, after seeing the success of Red Orchestra 2 and the universal appeal and acclaim that the first title garnered, I expected that Tripwire would at least add more substance to the game, and hopefully learn from nickel-and-diming their playerbase with no less than 21 pieces of paid DLC for the first game. Maybe I hoped for a more complete title after 18 months of development. Maybe I hoped for something that wouldn’t disappoint me.