Killing Floor 3 review: A deeply unsatisfying horde shooter that shows promise
A decade after the previous entry, Tripwire Interactive is finally releasing Killing Floor 3 this week. The title has been getting some flak in the months leading up to launch due to some controversial previews and a sketchy beta test, but how does the full release compare? I’ve been playing it online with a group of other reviewers, and it’s a bit of a mixed bag.
Killing Floor fans will know the drill by now, but for those who don’t, here’s the gist: Killing Floor 3, as with its predecessors, is a co-op game where you and five other players survive against waves of zombie-like creatures which were the result of failed lab experiments. There are multiple types of enemies (known as “zeds”) with each of their own designs, weapons, moves, strengths and weaknesses. Once you finish all of the regular waves, a boss shows up.
It’s an enjoyable series for fans of co-op series like Left 4 Dead, Payday, or Warhammer: Vermintide. And has often invited comparisons to those games.
After a long decade of supporting Killing Floor 2 with fresh content like new maps, weapons, and enemies, Tripwire Interactive is ready to move on to Killing Floor 3. And while there’s a lot about this title that seems promising, there’s also a lot that feels like a step backwards.
Advert
Killing Floor 3’s one big glaring problem is it’s trying to do much, like fueling a modern live service model that doesn’t quite fit with the type of game it is.
Every time I boot up the game, I’m greeted by battle passes, in-game currencies, microtransactions, progression systems, weapon mods, and all sorts. It’s a bit much. Before I’ve even been able to drop into a game, I’ve got menus upon menus pointing me towards spending money to unlock new cosmetics.
I will say, as a big fan of the first two Killing Floor games, I preferred the more passive approach to levelling up. Every time you levelled up a perk, your stats would get a little stronger. It wasn’t really about min-maxing builds and paying attention to every minute detail. In Killing Floor 3, you’ve got a much wider range of skills to take, as well as weapon mods, different ammo types, and various tools.
I don’t think it necessarily suits Killing Floor to turn into more of a numbers game, where your biggest priority is about making the strongest class and grinding out resources to craft new weapon mods and upgrades. It’s too RPG-like and sets a horrible grind, where every match becomes less about surviving and having fun with your friends, and instead is about having a goal to constantly work towards.
It’s part of that “FOMO” tactic that a lot of live service games use nowadays. Killing Floor 3 employs a lot of systems to keep you playing, where there will always be something new to work on or progress for. I’m not a fan of this because I always preferred the first two games’ approach where you could easily drop in and drop out at any time, taking weeks or months between sessions before coming back and being able to pick it up again with little difficulty.
I can’t help but feel that the confusing amount of progression systems and unlockables means there’s a big learning curve to Killing Floor 3, and it’s going to be something that might put off veterans and newcomers to the series.
This filters outwards into other parts of the game. Since Killing Floor 3’s unlockable and progression systems feel at odds with the series’ formula, it begs the question of what else does?
To start with, it extends to the weapon design of the game, which also feels like a step down from previous entries. Weapons fail to feel diverse from each other, at least within the same class. They feel like sidegrades, even if there is an objective route of progression for upgrading your arsenal. It’s down to the audio and visual design of the guns, which lacks a lot of weight to it. The animations feel floaty and the gunfire sounds aren’t as “punchy” compared to previous games. I feel like I’m firing a peashooter at the zeds, because there’s no crunch or snap to shooting at them, and pulling off each kill isn’t as satisfying as it should be.
There’s also the overreliance on hit-markers, another annoying trademark of modern FPS games. I shouldn’t need a marker in the middle of the screen to tell me if I’ve hit something. You can turn it off, thankfully, but due to the issues mentioned before, it’s hard to tell if you’re actually hitting anything or making serious damage.
And for some reason, we have a Pokemon-style damage system now where different types of damage, like fire, electrical, and acidic, have their own stats and can be incorporated into your weapon mods. Certain zeds are vulnerable or strong against different damage types, so it becomes a choice of what to equip onto your weapon to deal with these threats. Again, I don’t really see the need for this in the game. It corners you into having fewer options when playing, as your weapons will only be useful against certain types of zeds, effectively nerfing you against other enemies. It’s far too convoluted for a game like this, and will probably either go ignored or put off players from engaging with the weapon modding system.
It’s worth noting this kind of system was in Killing Floor 2, however it was far less complicated and not as intrusive. It didn’t feel like it interfered with the class-building aspect of that game, nor did you feel like you had to research every single zed strength and weakness just to be able to make a loadout that works for you.
To try and not be too negative, I quite like the new maps. Killing Floor 3 adopts a more apocalyptic sci-fi vibe to it, evolving the grindhouse/sci-fi mix from Killing Floor 2. I’m still disappointed that the Killing Floor series hasn’t really gone back to its grindhouse roots, but I’m fine with this game dipping its toes into a more futuristic tone. The narrative of Killing Floor is intentionally nonsense and there isn’t really a determined canon, so I can look past the fact that it seems to ignore story and characters from the previous games.
The actual maps themselves are also quite fun. They’re probably the largest the series has ever done, and Tripwire has made efforts to condense the design to flow a lot better. There are fewer dead ends, each room has more entrances and exits, and there are a lot more wider open areas to traverse. Dynamic hotspots have also been added, so larger enemies can now break walls and doors down to create new routes and choke points on the fly. There are also new features like ziplines and automatic turrets to aid your survival, and this is ultimately a really cool way to evolve the game’s approach to map design. It feels like the one aspect of Killing Floor 3 that doesn’t actually feel like a step back from the previous ones.
Now let’s talk about the zeds themselves. It’s my firm belief that Killing Floor enemies need to be one thing, and one thing only: grotesque abominations. And I actually really like some of the redesigns the new enemies have received. The Bloat, the Scrake and the Crawler in particular look awesome. They feel like twisted evolutions of the same creatures we saw in previous games. The animations are high-quality, making them feel like real creatures that could exist in a world like this. And they’re downright terrifying to come up against when you’re low on ammo.
As for the new bosses, I’m less keen. Tripwire has ditched classic Killing Floor bosses such as Hans Volter and the Patriarch in favour of new atrocities. There’s the Queen Crawler, an evolved version of the Crawler; the Chimera, a sort-of oversized wall of flesh, and the Impaler, a large tank-type enemy with a big sword for a head.
Okay, so the Impaler is cool. I’m not as keen on the other two bosses though, which just feel like buffed versions of specific regular enemies with new abilities. They feel a little too tough at times. They have a massive pool of health and a back-up of regular enemies to distract you. They share ranged and melee attacks, and also have the ability to teleport. It feels unfair in some places, and while a competent team can still come out on top, I’m worried the difficulty curve might be a bit much for newcomers. I’m sure this will be one of the first nerfs that Tripwire will patch the game with.
It doesn’t help that Tripwire also cut down, or outright removed completely, essential features from the previous games. There’s no text chat on PC, which is a wild thing to leave out for a co-op game, meaning a key communication tool is just simply not available for certain players. It makes it much harder to coordinate with your team, making those harder rounds all the more frustrating.
There are also fewer options for game mode and difficulty. Suicidal difficulty has been cut, which is a shame as that was always my favourite bridge between Hard and Hell on Earth difficulty. Not too easy, not too challenging. You also can’t change the round length. Every game has five waves followed by a boss. So you can no longer change the length to be shorter or longer, which was always something I appreciated about Killing Floor 2.
And I need to talk about performance too, which is also pretty dire on PC. Playing on my RTX 3070 at 1080p, the game would stutter to below 30FPS in some areas, particularly during busy rounds filled with lots of enemies. This was before a driver update and Day 1 patch though, which may fix things by the time it’s available for the public. Your mileage may vary here, and it’s something you may want to be aware of before purchasing.
Finally, let’s talk about the class system itself. In Killing Floor 3, perks are similar to as they were in previous games, with each one based around a certain playstyle. There are six overall, each one specialising in a different type of weapon or skill. Commando specialises in automatic rifles, for instance, while Ninja uses parkour and melee weapons. The skill system has been expanded, and I quite like it.
As I said before, it does feel like this game goes a little too far in terms of giving you things to progress towards, but I don’t mind there being a more expanded skill system here. Instead of taking a new skill every 5 levels, you’re taking a new one every 2 levels which can be upgraded up to three times. Yeah, it’s another thing that adds to the grind. It’s frustrating to be constantly saving up materials just to upgrade a perk’s skill. But after 10 or 20 levels, your upgrades start to make the class its own thing. You start to feel like you’re specialising in a certain playstyle, which can add a great degree of utility to a solid team.
And while the first two Killing Floor games separated your preferred character and chosen perk, Killing Floor 3 has combined them to create a new specialist system. Granted, it’s not as bad as Battlefield 2042’s Specialists, which abandoned the series’ class system in favour of the specialists. But it’s something I’m still not a fan of. Mr. Foster, perhaps the most iconic character in the series, has been relegated to the Commando class. If you’re a big Foster fan, you’ve got to stay as a Commando to keep playing as him. Switching up your perk will mean altering which character you play as, and it just feels like an unnecessary change.
I’m finding it apt to compare Killing Floor 3 to Payday 3’s launch, which is another series I absolutely adore. Fans will remember Payday 3 launched with a lot of problems, many of which seem to have been repeated here. Tripwire Interactive has a long road ahead to persuade fans that making the jump to the third game will be worth it. And I truly believe there’s an excellent foundation here to turn it into something great, but I’m not convinced this is what that game is right now.
Pros: Excellent map design, fun perks
Cons: Overwhelming live service features, performance issues, design flaws
For fans of: Left 4 Dead, Payday, Deep Rock Galactic, Warhammer: Darktide
5/10: Average
Killing Floor 3 is available now on PC (version tested), Xbox Series S/X, and PS5. A review code was provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.
Topics: Reviews