Recently Tripwire released - the former UT 2004 mod - Killing Floor in Europe, a first person shooter that was actually available through Steam back in May. The game presents itself as "Left 4 Dead meets 28 Days Later", a game and movie respectively that I know and love. I decided to pick the game up and try it. That's when things got ugly.
The concept of Killing Floor is as simple as its name: you select one of the few levels available, optional perks or mutators and away you go. In the cramped, badly designed and downright ugly levels you fight wave after wave of zombie-esque creatures who have the intelligence of crystal meth addicted chickens missing their heads. After each wave you need to move your ass to the Trade Shop, where you can buy new weapons and other items. And trust me, you'll need all the bullets you can get.
See, the game gets brutal on the medium difficulty level, even if you've played shooters before. This is because you don't have a crosshair, move slower than shit through a funnel and will become surrounded within seconds, by enemies that have the tendency to sneak up on you like Sam Fisher wearing Nike Air Max. Furthermore, you'll often encounter the mentally challenged, fat, shirtless dude from Doom 3, who vomits over you and takes more bullets than B.A. Baracus' van. The game also throws invisible undead chicks at you that can only be killed when they are already chewing on your ass. Fuck!
I really hate the fact that you have to use iron sight to effectively blast the heads off your enemies, because you have to stand perfectly still. Without a buddy to back you up, this pretty much means suicide. When the game gets harder, every shot counts, so the lack of a crosshair and sound shooter mechanics is inexcusable. Also, the developers chose to add a slow motion feature called Zed Time that works like shit because it is as random as the outbursts of the nearest person suffering from Tourette's syndrome. I have to admit though that the British-spoken dialogues are funny at times and that the metal soundtrack is pretty sweet, but that doesn't mean Killing Floor gets a free ride.
Metacritic actually awards the game with 71 points, which is perplexingly high considering it is mediocre as all hell. Cooperative play makes it somewhat bearable, but if you've played Left 4 Dead this knock-off is a downright waste of time and money.
This game gets a 4/10.
The concept of Killing Floor is as simple as its name: you select one of the few levels available, optional perks or mutators and away you go. In the cramped, badly designed and downright ugly levels you fight wave after wave of zombie-esque creatures who have the intelligence of crystal meth addicted chickens missing their heads. After each wave you need to move your ass to the Trade Shop, where you can buy new weapons and other items. And trust me, you'll need all the bullets you can get.
See, the game gets brutal on the medium difficulty level, even if you've played shooters before. This is because you don't have a crosshair, move slower than shit through a funnel and will become surrounded within seconds, by enemies that have the tendency to sneak up on you like Sam Fisher wearing Nike Air Max. Furthermore, you'll often encounter the mentally challenged, fat, shirtless dude from Doom 3, who vomits over you and takes more bullets than B.A. Baracus' van. The game also throws invisible undead chicks at you that can only be killed when they are already chewing on your ass. Fuck!
I really hate the fact that you have to use iron sight to effectively blast the heads off your enemies, because you have to stand perfectly still. Without a buddy to back you up, this pretty much means suicide. When the game gets harder, every shot counts, so the lack of a crosshair and sound shooter mechanics is inexcusable. Also, the developers chose to add a slow motion feature called Zed Time that works like shit because it is as random as the outbursts of the nearest person suffering from Tourette's syndrome. I have to admit though that the British-spoken dialogues are funny at times and that the metal soundtrack is pretty sweet, but that doesn't mean Killing Floor gets a free ride.
Metacritic actually awards the game with 71 points, which is perplexingly high considering it is mediocre as all hell. Cooperative play makes it somewhat bearable, but if you've played Left 4 Dead this knock-off is a downright waste of time and money.
This game gets a 4/10.
