Killing Floor game review

one of the few FPS's that I have played so far this year has been Killing Floor, a game that was released in 2009 I believe, and available on Steam for only about $20, $27 for the extra bonus stuff (like the ability to play as a priest). In terms of gameplay style, it bears a striking similarity to the nazi zombies side game in CoD: Black Ops and CoD5, though it has been expanded to include different types of enemies and is actually beatable.

The game has 4 to 10 waves, depending on what you set the match length to (more waves = more xp, and stronger monsters spawn later so you have more time to get money to buy the big guns). In addition, you can pick between 7 playable classes, those being commando (assault rifle bonuses), support specialist (shotgun and welding bonuses), sharpshooter (pistol, crossbow, and MEBR gun bonuses + headshot bonus), medic (health regen bonus and armor bonuses), berserker (melee weapon bonuses +damage resistance), firebug (burn damage with MAC-10 and burn damage bonuses), and demolitions (bonuses with all explosives + noob tubes/rocket launchers).

Basically commandos are best for mowing down cannon fodder, but aren't so great at taking out big monsters. They tend to have more kills than other players when playing online. Support specialists use shotguns and as a result they don't have as much ammo as other classes, but they have an easier time dispatching of larger monsters. Sharpshooters are easily the best class because of the incredible headshot bonus on top of gun bonuses, basically allowing you to one hit kill everything on normal difficulty with only one crossbow bolt if you get a headshot, and one hit kill all but fleshpounds on hard difficulty or higher. Berserkers are a fun class to play as when you want to dick around, and are really good at taking out scrakes (which are basically this games version of the chainsaw guys from Resident evil 4), but they tend to take a lot of damage at lower levels and have difficulty dealing with fleshpounds and the patriarch, who are really best dealt with at  medium to long range because of their insanely powerful close range attacks. Medics are more or less useless in solo gameplay and should really only be played in multiplayer unless you're hunting for the one achievement where you have to kill 12 enemies using only a knife as a medic. They get a nice discount on the medic gun, which basically is a low ammo sub machine gun that also shoots healing darts to heal teammates. Demolitionists are good for maps where enemies can be filtered through a long and narrow hallway, where you can really rack up on grenade and noob tube damage. They aren't so great for open maps where it's hard to find large concentrations of enemies. Because grenade launchers have such limited ammo capacity this class isn't really recommended on higher difficulties unless you're at a pretty high level (high enough to be able to kill mid level enemies with only one noob tube shot). Firebugs are a relatively new class to the game as they werent' added when the game originally came out. They have the same pros and cons as the demolitions class, in that they aren't very useful on wide open maps and work best when they can fire upon a cluster of enemies with the flamethrower. The weapons for this class are also relatively inexpensive with the discounts so this is a good class to start a game with to rack up some quick cash, and then you could swap to a different class. The class does take a fair amount of time to level up however because it relies on burn damage to level up, which can be hard to achieve with the mac-10 since usually the bullets itself kill enemies rather than the burn damage. The flamethrower is a better weapon for racking up burn damage, but it barely puts a dent in stronger enemies, like husks, scrakes, and fleshpounds. Also it should be noted that enemies will still approach you while on fire unless you get enough burn damage on them to temporarily slow them down, at which point they will begin flailing their arms until the fire goes out a few seconds later. Once they are put out you can't set them ablaze again for a few seconds, hence why it is hard to pile up burn damage on the stronger enemies. it is a really good class for mowing down the cannon fodder however, and it can easily rival if not surpass the commando in kills in online play, though it is slightly more useless against the stronger enemies than commandos are.

For a quick rundown of the enemies, we have clots, which are basically the cannon fodder that walk slowly, but they can grab you and pin you down if they get too close so they shouldn't be underestimated and can be lethal if you're cornered by a large group. Berserkers are immune to that effect of theirs and can run past them without having to worry about being grabbed. next are Gorefasts, who are on the low end of mid level enemies. They can take more damage than clots and hit about twice as hard, and they will also charge you once they're within a certain distance so it's best to deal with them before they get too close. Overall they aren't too bad to deal with, though they won't die in one hit from noob tubes if you're at lower levels in the demolition class, but the rounds will stun them temporarily. Next are crawlers, which are easily the most annoying of the enemies in the game because they crawl around on the floor, which you probably wouldn't normally be aiming at. They die fairly quickly compared to other zombies and are basically among the cannon fodder in that sense, but because they are hard to hit (a problem further compounded by the fact that they jump at you at close range), they can be quite annoying and possibly lethal if a large group of them somehow snuck up behind you. Support specialists have a particularly hard time with these as they are basically a waste of their shotgun ammo, and they are quite easy to miss. Firebugs are really effective against these guys however so if you can find a spot where they spawn and camp it you can save your team a lot of grief if you're playing online. Next are stalkers, which are enemies that have invisibility cloaks and are only barely visible on screen to all but the commando, who has the ability to see them as a red outline when they are close enough. in dark areas they blend in really well because of their cloaking, though in brightly lit areas you can often see their shadows and their outlines regardless of whether or not you are a commando. They aren't very strong in any case, about as strong as clots, and thus are pretty much cannon fodder in most maps due to the lighting. There are also bloats, who are basically fat guys who throw up on you. Their vomit can only hit you if you're within 10 feet or so of them, and they cannot use it if they have their heads blown off so it's best to remove their heads with a couple well placed headshots while they're at a distance. They aren't too bad but if they do puke on you consider most of your armor gone and a good chunk of your health if you're playing on hard difficulty or higher. Oh and they can also use close range attacks on you if you remove their head as they are holding a meat cleaver, so don't think that it'll die immediately after the head is removed as most enemies can last 5-10 seconds after their head is gone, with the exception of the ones that I'll be talking about next.

Moving on to the big shit, we have Husks, who are the weakest of the three big enemies. They have a decent amount of health and fire flaming rockets that set anyone near the point of impact ablaze. This makes them extremely annoying on harder difficulties as the fire really kills your armor. They are susceptible to berserkers, who can really mess them up if hey can get in close, though it's best to try to pick them off from behind cover rather than risk getting shot in the face with a flaming rocket. The rockets themselves aren't even that damaging, but the fact that it kills your armor can really come back to bite you in the ass in the later rounds. The next big thing is the Scrake, who is significantly stronger than the husk in terms of attack power and health. There guys should not be taken lightly as one of these guys can easily kill a few of your teammates in a matter of seconds. Scrakes have two attack stages, the first is the walking stage, where they will slowly walk towards your team like any other zombie, until they take a certain amount of damage. Once they hit around 1/3 of their health, they go crazy and charge for the remainder of the time they're living. If you arent' prepared to kill them quickly before they start charging, they can easily pin you down and kill you in about 5 seconds with full armor since as discussed before they use chainsaws. Commandos may have a decent chance at taking one out if they have the Scar and can get a lot of headshots from a distance before they're too close, but they're best left to support specialists, snipers, and berserkers. Berserkets actually have a huge advantage over these things because they get stunned by close ranged melee attacks to the head (assuming you have a big weapon like the katana, fire axe, or chainsaw). Katanas seem to work best since they have a long reach and fast speed. Snipers also have a huge advantage over these since they are particularly susceptible to headshots with the crossbow. One well placed shot with a crossbow will instantly kill them, saving you from having to deal with them up close. A support specialist with an AA12 is your best bet for dealing with one up close if you have no berserkers though, since about half a clip of the AA12 should kill one on normal difficulty, while 3/4 of a clip should suffice on hard difficulty.if you thought scrakes were something to fear though, you obviously havent' met the fleshpound, who can completely anihilate your team, even if you know he's coming. Fleshpounds are actually just as strong as scrakes in the physical strength department, but they have more health and can take up to three crossbow bolts to the face to kill. They are lethal up close, much like the scrake, but they will charge sooner. after about 1/4 of their health is gone they will charge whoever has their attention until they connect a blow on them, which can be bad cause most people tend to back away while shooting, more often than not backing into a corner, where you will basically be raped. However once they connect that blow, they will stop charging until they lose another 1/4 of their health, which is why you need to have the support specialist and sharpshooter on your team. Support specialists and sharpshooters are the two classes that can do the most damage to fleshpounds because of the headshot bonus, and the ridiculous rapid fire ability of the AA12 shotgun. If the sharpshooter can land the first headshot on the fleshpound, then the support specialist should have no problem finishing him off with the AA12, though the best sharpshooters can get off two headshots before fleshpounds start charging because there is a three second delay between when the first headshot connects and when he starts charging due to him screaming in rage.

Basically in a normal 10 round match the first round will contain mostly clots, with the occasional bloat and gorefast. nothing too hard to kill, but their powers shouldn't be underestimated since the degree of difficulty on normal when alone is like starting a game of nazi zombies on round 3 with only a half filled pistol. In case you're wondering, people who are level 5 and higher in one particular class spawn with a pistol and a weapon from their class, usually a lower tier at level 5 and a higher tier at level 6 (which is the current max level in the game). Leveling up is a bit different for each class, for example commandos require a certain target amount of damage and a certain amount of stalker kills (this last part making commandos the hardest class to level up because there aren't very many stalkers that spawn on each map in a full 10 round game), while support specialists require shotgun damage and a certain amount of door welding hit points, which you get from welding various doors around the map shut. This feature comes in handy on smaller more boxed in maps as it can prevent enemies from coming in from directions you don't want them to, but enemies can also break down these doors over time so they need to be constantly watched in case of a breach, or to repair them back up to full in between fending off the incoming waves. Most classes however don't require that two objectives be met to level up, for example sharpshooters only need to get a certain amount of head shots, demolitions only need a certain amount of explosives damage, and medics only need to heal a certain amount of teammates heath. What makes this system so unique is that you don't need to be playing as that particular class to still get experience towards it. For example you could play as a sharpshooter and still get demolitions xp from using grenades, and support specialist xp from welding doors shut (granted it takes longer to do when you aren't playing as a support specialist). There is almost never a reason to play as the medic class since if you're a decent teammate you'll probably be heaping each other out and healing each other with your syringes in between and during waves (you also get bonus cash for healing teammates as well).

As you would expect stronger shit doesnt' spawn till the later rounds. Husks can spawn from round 2 onwards however, but they aren't too hard to kill if you have a decent tier 1 or 2 weapon. stalkers and crawlers also appear in round two, and the ratio of gorefasts to clots increases as well. Round 5 is when you might start seeing scrakes, though it doesn't always happen (if it does you rarely get more than one), where in round 6 scrakes are guaranteed to spawn but usually only 1-3 per round until the last few. Fleshpounds appear usually early on in round 7 in one of the first few waves of zombies, though this doesn't always happen. In round 9 and 10 the game likes to spawn two scrakes or two fleshpounds  in the same wave, which is just great. However, it's not done after round 10.

After round 10 you have one final opportunity to shop and get ready for the boss battle with the patriarch. The patriarch is a bitch to kill on higher difficulties, as his rocket launcher attack is a one hit kill. His melee attacks are also devastating, possibly more so than the fleshpounds. On hard difficulty he can kill you in 2-3 hits with melee attacks, and one burst from his chain gun can also kill you. The best way to tackle this bastard is to find a big room with only one entrance and some cover, and give money to whoever your demolitions is so that he can set up pipe bombs. Get a couple for yourself as well and set up a trail of them leading to your room and set up a few inside the door as well. Stacking pipes does not work as the game patched this issue to prevent people from cheaply killing the patriarch. Do not set up pipes near yourself because his rockets can detonate them, thus causing you to get killed by your own explosive. After the patriarch takes a certain amount of damage he will cloak himself and retreat, leaving you to deal with some cannon fodder monsters while he heals himself, and then he will return. He will usually be cloaked when he returns so only commandos will be able to see him, though he still leaves a shadow. This won't help much however since when he's cloaked he's almost always running so you will barely have time to get any shots off. It's best just to run away so that he doesn't trap you in a corner or land more than one melee hit, though be sure that cover is nearby as he will deploy his machine gun once you're out of range of his melee attacks. it should be noted that it is possible to kill the patriarch before he has a chance to heal but it is difficult to accomplish this because of his high health and the fact that he is cloaked when he runs away. Firebugs can set him on fire while he's cloaked though, making him easier to see, though it usually takes a few crossbow headshots and a couple noob tubers to kill him once he starts running, and he runs faster than you can. Berserkers are useless against the patriarch because of his high health and overwhelming physical attacks. Not that they would be able to get in too close to him anyways because of his long and mid ranged attacks that are often just as lethal. If you do beat him though, you get the satisfaction of knowing you beat him and probably unlocked an achievement. If not, try again next time.

Overall the game is really solid, has a lot of replayability to level up all the classes (even only going up to level 6, it can still take weeks to reach that far). It's also a really fun game to play with friends and the game actually encourages people to create their own levels and even gives them the tools to do so when they download it from Steam. There are a lot of custom maps out there, some not as good as others but they're out there. The servers surprisingly still have quite a few people playing on them for a little known game from 2009, though part of this may be because of people like Seamus basically giving the games he plays through free advertising because of his large subscriber base. The graphics are a bit dated now and there are a few glitches on some levels (especially on custom maps), and in the style of old shooters you run faster when you take out the knife, which may take some getting used to since running is often necessary to get to the trader in time to purchase weapons, ammo, and armor. you can map the controls to whatever you want as well. Overall i'd give it an 8 out of 10. I've had more fun playing this online than I had playing MW2 mainly because it's far less rage inducing. It's well worth the $20 price. If you want to actually see the game before you buy it however, check out Seamus' (SSoHPKC) Youtube channel and look for his Killing Floor playlist (link to his channel should be on the right hand side of my blog in my list of sites I visit frequently).

I know some of you were probably expecting a mario game review or something but I'm still working on school stuff so I figured I'd review something I have played recently that is more current that I enjoyed. The mario reviews will be coming as soon as I get the time, which should be tuesday or late monday after my night class (2 classes left plus the exam then I'm back home to my PS3 and more stable internet).