For the past few years, I’ve had a void in my life after Left 4 Dead 2 became stale and the player base dwindled. I yearned for new locations and weapons to mow down endless zombie hoards. While Call of Duty’s Nazi Zombies was a nice distraction, I found it lacking the depth and staying power that the predecessor offered. Out of nowhere, Killing Floor 2 has come along and almost made me forget Left 4 Dead was even a thing.

While there isn’t much of a story, the game revolves around a virus that struck a European nation and decimated the population, turning the inhabitants into various forms of the undead. While there are a nice variety of enemies, they all seem to be thrown together from other games or films that clearly inspired the various locales throughout the game. You’ll face spider zombies, cybernetic enemies similar to Doom, gigantic slow moving bullet sponges with machetes and a number of others. While they are not complete rip-offs of the enemies they are inspired by and do come off as visually stunning, I feel like they would have been more effective if the specific enemies you faced matched the different locations you explore, opposed to just being strewn about haphazardly. It’s not that this is a bad thing; it just comes off as a missed opportunity and random at times.

Visually, the game is stunning. The enemies show an amazing level of detail and even more so when you blow them to bits using the vast arsenal at your disposal. Each level features the same level of detail and always feels like something is around the corner, ready to sink its teeth into you if you’re not paying full attention to your surroundings. The game boasts a large selection of levels from abandoned farm houses to run down carnivals. Each can be completed in any order either solo, with a group of friends, via matchmaking, or in a PVP mode. While taking on the undead solo, most players will struggle, so grouping up is recommended. Sadly, the PVP lobby appears to be dead at launch on the Xbox One, so I was unable to partake in any of the matches for review purposes.

The gameplay is not in the style of going from point A to point B, killing waves of zombies on the way; it’s more akin to a very large version of hoard mode from Gears of War. After each wave you will be directed to a hub that allows you to purchase better weapons, armor and grenades using funds you’ll earn from defeating the undead. Similar to counter strike, you will be limited to the number of guns you can carry at one time by a point system. There is a class system which gives the player certain bonuses for using certain guns or playstyles; better yet, you are not limited to the weapons offered to your class. This adds an extra layer of depth and promotes experimentation.  During my time with the game, I stuck with the commando class, but often supplemented my class’ guns with shotguns or flamethrowers from the other classes.

Each level does feature collectibles if that is your thing. While they do not add anything to the game other than the corresponding achievement or trophy reward, they do give you something to do between waves. While you are given a fair amount of time between waves to find the hub to upgrade your items, it was often too much time with no option to skip ahead into the next wave. You are given the option of completing a game in 4, 7 or 10 waves, with a final boss fight at the end. This countdown can lead to the 10 wave game taking a lot longer than needed. Additionally, the boss fight at the end of each match can become repetitive, due to the lack of bosses (there are only 2 at launch). While not varied, these are intense battles, and if you and your team are not able to take the boss down quick enough, he will run off to heal and return with a slightly smaller health bar than before.

While not overly original or deep, Killing Floor 2 offers a great deal of co-op fun if you’re looking for something to take the place of Left 4 Dead since we won’t be getting a third. While it does run the risk of becoming repetitive and definitely isn’t for everyone, I found it to be an extremely enjoyable experience and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of wave based combat. The recent Xbox One release is a steal and offers hours of entertainment, as it contains all of the paid expansions for the PlayStation 4 and PC versions included in the $40 price point, and has an Xbox One X visual update on the way.

 

8 out of 10

Pros

• Well Designed Varied Maps
• Great Visuals
• Great Co-Op
• Deep Class System

Cons

• Runs the Risk of Being Repetitive
• Lack of Variety in Boss Battles
• Long Intermissions

Killing Floor 2 was developed and published by Tripwire Interactive. It was released on PC and PS4 on November 18th, 2016 and August 29th, 2017 for Xbox One. The game can be purchased for $39.99 on consoles and $29.99 on PC. The game was provided to us for review on Xbox One. If you’d like to see more of Killing Floor 2, check out the official site.

 

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