Let's talk about Killing Floor

[Elijin]

Killing Floor is great, but it can get pretty stale playing by yourself.

There are dedicated communities that do the higher difficulties well, but for the most part if you just click a random server and play, you're going to have anywhere between 1 - 5 deadweight players who dont know what they're doing and wont listen to help

 

[Neverhoodian]

I bought Killing Floor on a whim when it first launched, but it quickly became one of my favorite co-op games and favorite "zombie" shooter. Personally, I find it more enjoyable than the Left 4 Dead games (I'm not saying they're bad, mind you).

One of my favorite weapons is actually the basic Lever Action Rifle. It's cheap, light, accurate, reasonably powerful (provided you aim for the head) and has a large ammo supply. It makes short work of just about anything except the big bruisers. Plus, it just feels supremely satisfying to use. Actually, most of the guns have a nice, weighty feel to them.

Depending on the game length I play I can get anywhere between 200 kills (Medium) to 500 (Long) I almost 100% of the time will carry the team, even if I come in up to 3 rounds late. The best part of the game is feeling like Billy Bad A$$ and crossbowing a Fleshpound in slow motion while the rest of your team watches in amazement. It's a jolly feeling. I recommend it.

I know the feeling quite well. I tend to play on Normal difficulty, so I usually end up with at least two or three inexperienced players. I try to help them out as best I can, but I often find myself soloing waves when the Fleshpounds show up (focus fire, people). I just roll with it and treat it as a personal challenge. KF is one of those rare games where it's actually fun to carry a team instead of being a chore.

 

[Valkrex]

I love this game. One of the best zombie shooters I have ever played. Great time with friends, tons of maps, tons of guns, teamwork is a necessity, and it is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world to take out he patriarch.

For those wondering what the patriarch is, imagine the tank from Left 4 Dead. Now give him about 3-4 times more health. Give him the ability to move very fast. Give him a chain-gun. A cloaking device. A rocket launcher. And the ability to heal himself three times.

Everyone on the team really needs to coordinate to take this guy down. ESPECIALLY on higher difficulties. One mistake on Hell On Earth... ouch. But when the slow-mo hits and you see him blown to bits... best feeling in the world.

 

[Vlunce Crociata]

I've put nearly 100 hours into the game but my internet isn't stable enough to play it any more; getting disconnected two or three times a match kills any enjoyment. Wonderful fun when my internet is working fine and I can get a couple of my buddies playing though.

It's unfortunate to hear that your internet has lost its luster, and I know that it is hard to get a few good friends to play, especially when schedules change. It's just one of those games that you have around and if you know that another of your friends isn't busy and has the game is something that you can always suggest. As for moderate dis-connectivity, maybe you should look into joining private lobbies where one of your friends is the host, I believe that you can enact host based game pausing, just as though you were in single player, and if you were to get lost, you could jump back into the game and keep it going. I know it isn't ideal, but sometimes you just want to play a game that badly. It's one of the only two games in my Steam Favorites, the other being Star Wars Knights of The Old Republic II.

 

[Vlunce Crociata]

Killing Floor is great, but it can get pretty stale playing by yourself.

There are dedicated communities that do the higher difficulties well, but for the most part if you just click a random server and play, you're going to have anywhere between 1 - 5 deadweight players who dont know what they're doing and wont listen to help

Playing by yourself can actually be quite fun if you challenge yourself. Consider this, as I have done it on more than a few occasions, get a few people who aren't familiar with the game to play single player on your computer (Or in my case, laptop) while an external monitor allows the others to watch, judge, comment, cheer, or pick on them. It actually leads to a lot of fun times among the group, and if you are as lucky as I am, one of your friends will buy the game and you can play with them.

As for dead weight players, it's tough to teach them how to work in a squad environment. The worst part isn't the people who aren't doing well, it's the people who are doing exceedingly well, and refuse to share any of the glory. There is no shame in being the person to top the team, but when you start to treat your team like an encumbrance, then the entire experience is robbed from everyone. With the boosted amount of infected because of the multiplayer setting, it's unlikely that one lone wolf will be able to take on the entirety of the horde, but if you can get everyone to work together, you might just make those friends that you need to build your squad with.

 

[Hazy992]

Killing Floor is an absolute blast, especially with mates. One of the best co-op experiences you can have IMO.

Plus it runs on my piece of shit laptop which is a bonus

 

[Vlunce Crociata]

I bought Killing Floor on a whim when it first launched, but it quickly became one of my favorite co-op games and favorite "zombie" shooter. Personally, I find it more enjoyable than the Left 4 Dead games (I'm not saying they're bad, mind you).

One of my favorite weapons is actually the basic Lever Action Rifle. It's cheap, light, accurate, reasonably powerful (provided you aim for the head) and has a large ammo supply. It makes short work of just about anything except the big bruisers. Plus, it just feels supremely satisfying to use. Actually, most of the guns have a nice, weighty feel to them.

Depending on the game length I play I can get anywhere between 200 kills (Medium) to 500 (Long) I almost 100% of the time will carry the team, even if I come in up to 3 rounds late. The best part of the game is feeling like Billy Bad A$$ and crossbowing a Fleshpound in slow motion while the rest of your team watches in amazement. It's a jolly feeling. I recommend it.

I know the feeling quite well. I tend to play on Normal difficulty, so I usually end up with at least two or three inexperienced players. I try to help them out as best I can, but I often find myself soloing waves when the Fleshpounds show up (focus fire, people). I just roll with it and treat it as a personal challenge. KF is one of those rare games where it's actually fun to carry a team instead of being a chore.

There is nothing wrong with the Left 4 Dead series, it's actually an exceptional set, the only problem would be with the lack of variety, though they sought to remedy that with the installment of the second game, personally, I thought it felt more like an extensive expansion pack rather than a game of it's own. And the animations and feel of the weapons is actually quite good, you've made an excellent point in that. The clunky weaponry feels clunky, and the recoil of such weapons is adequate without being overwhelming. As well as the perk based reduction systems, I never find myself complaining about the amount of recoil, rather subconsciously compensating for it, which is a good sign. I think that the fascination coupled with carrying the team is so gratifying in this game because in order for the entire team to last, you have to have that person on the top of the team who was just a keystone factor in that success. While in other games the top person on the team literally made it, and is more like a stand alone entity of his/her own, on Killing floor, they all support each other to an extent that makes your victory more shared with the team, other people don't comment on "Kill Stealing" or things of the like, because each kill is against overwhelming odds, that as a whole are ultimately good for everyone.

I know that there hasn't been one time that I was on the bottom of the team and thinking "This sucks", and instead found myself thinking, "So long as they are dead, then who cares?". Which for a person of competitive nature such as myself, says a lot.

 

[Vlunce Crociata]

I love this game. One of the best zombie shooters I have ever played. Great time with friends, tons of maps, tons of guns, teamwork is a necessity, and it is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world to take out he patriarch.

For those wondering what the patriarch is, imagine the tank from Left 4 Dead. Now give him about 3-4 times more health. Give him the ability to move very fast. Give him a chain-gun. A cloaking device. A rocket launcher. And the ability to heal himself three times.

Everyone on the team really needs to coordinate to take this guy down. ESPECIALLY on higher difficulties. One mistake on Hell On Earth... ouch. But when the slow-mo hits and you see him blown to bits... best feeling in the world.

Instant gratification! I like when the Patriarch gets finished off with a sniper or similar bullet based weapon, so he slow motion tumbles around.

 

[Vlunce Crociata]

Killing Floor is an absolute blast, especially with mates. One of the best co-op experiences you can have IMO.

Plus it runs on my piece of shit laptop which is a bonus

The graphical intensity of the game is fantastic for the amount of hardware it takes to run it. I swear this game looks fantastic on it's lowest settings, and would run on a potato and a few wires.

 

[Aeshi]

I have about 173 hours on Killing Floor here (probably more from when I played it back when it was just another UT2004 mod) Haven't played it in about a year or two though, maybe I should change that.

 

[loc978]

Don't forget mod servers. Self-sacrifice via the holy hand grenade on a 35-man server against hundreds of zeds at once can be a lot of fun. Also, planning turret setup... always nicely chaotic.

 

[Vhite]

Great game but what bothers me about it is that if you play in low numbers and don't have all the corners watched, zombies can literally spawn right behind your back which sometimes feels really unfair.

 

[Vlunce Crociata]

I have about 173 hours on Killing Floor here (probably more from when I played it back when it was just another UT2004 mod) Haven't played it in about a year or two though, maybe I should change that.

I know at least one person who thinks that you should change that.

 

[Vlunce Crociata]

Don't forget mod servers. Self-sacrifice via the holy hand grenade on a 35-man server against hundreds of zeds at once can be a lot of fun. Also, planning turret setup... always nicely chaotic.

While that sounds like loads of fun it sounds a bit bandwidth intensive, I have a decent laptop, I don't know if it would be capable. I think I would need a friend on the inside to get me into such a lobby. Does sound like fun though.

 

[Vlunce Crociata]

Great game but what bothers me about it is that if you play in low numbers and don't have all the corners watched, zombies can literally spawn right behind your back which sometimes feels really unfair.

I know the feeling quite well. It has lead to some extremely funny moments in my own personal experience, there have been quite a few times when I have shouted while I ended up going into Zed time and slow motion spun around to find myself literally flooded in Gore fasts.

 

[loc978]

Don't forget mod servers. Self-sacrifice via the holy hand grenade on a 35-man server against hundreds of zeds at once can be a lot of fun. Also, planning turret setup... always nicely chaotic.

While that sounds like loads of fun it sounds a bit bandwidth intensive, I have a decent laptop, I don't know if it would be capable. I think I would need a friend on the inside to get me into such a lobby. Does sound like fun though.

The game is running in an old enough engine that my 6-year old gaming rig has no trouble with it even on that scale. Limitations in the engine means everyone gets a short lag spike when something like the holy hand grenade goes off, but it's nothing unmanageable.

The servers tend to have fast downloading on, and being the Unreal engine, it syncs up to server mods quite painlessly. Keeping the mods installed is another matter, requiring extraction from a cache file this tool [http://www.gamefront.com/files/13837465] translates the things for you automatically, so there's no need to match up randomly generated filenames with lines from a log file. Just like mods in UT'99.

 

[Skeggers]

"You're all fur coat, no knickers, bitches!"
It's an amazing game. The amount of time I've logged on Single-player alone is remarkable. Add in the recent Steam Workshop support and you've got an almost limitless survival FPS with a cool, if dated aesthetic and a strong feeling that a lot of love was put into the game. With regular developer support and seasonal events, It's a great package overall.

 

[Professor Idle]

I can't believe you didn't mention the accents! They're the best part, if it wasn't for the screams of MONEY MONEY MONEYYYYYY, then no-one would bother giving cash to anyone

 

[Summerstorm]

I can't believe you didn't mention the accents! They're the best part, if it wasn't for the screams of MONEY MONEY MONEYYYYYY, then no-one would bother giving cash to anyone

DOSH! Grab it while it's hot.


Well, i liked the game... haven't played it for a year or so though. I think i will try again sometimes (But i haven't got all the DLC and crap... ah well)

 

[Mullac]

It's surprisingly a damn good game. Most things about it jump at me as good but nothing special, however, somehow the game is really fun.

My biggest problem is the enemy variety. I think it's been mentioned so I won't go into detail, but that is really the only part of the game that doesn't seen full.