BoomTown

BoomTown - Score: 8
I know what you’re thinking. It’s survival horror, it’s co-op, it’s an FPS and it’s got zombies. You could be forgiven for accusing Killing Floor of jumping on the grindhouse bandwagon that Left4Dead launched in 2008, but that would be unfair on the team that has spent the last four years putting this game together.

Killing Floor was originally released as a free mod for Unreal Tournament 2004 way back in ‘05 and while its gameplay and plot were fairly simplistic, the depiction of a ruined, blood-soaked post zombie invasion London was brilliantly executed and oozed atmosphere from every wrecked Routemaster or overturned police car. While the player base wasn’t impressive, the project gained a certain degree of media interest, but disappeared off the radar fairly swiftly afterwards.

Fast forward to 2009 and the once free to play fan project has been picked up by Tripwire Studios (of Red Orchestra fame) and turned around as a standalone product. The mechanics of play are straight forward when compared to some of its contemporaries and honestly owes more to Counter-Strike than Left4Dead.

The player and their team mates are dropped into an open ended arena-style level with nothing but a 9mm pistol and a combat knife with which to defend themselves. From there, they are expected to slaughter their way through successive waves of mutated genetic experiments while moving between trader locations dotted around the map. In between each round, the participants will have a few scant seconds to purchase arms, ammo and armour before setting about their grizzly task again. More kills mean more money, and as the ferocity of the escalating waves increase, so too do the financial rewards upon completion.

Solo play is available, but serves as little more than a warm-up or practise mode, although the 5 selectable “perks” that give the game an RPG-lite flavour can also be levelled up offline, meaning that you can stat grind for hours on your own time, if you wish. Killing Floor is clearly meant to be played with 5 of your favourite internet strangers however, and this is where the dynamic of the run and gun combat really comes through.

What is clear from the outset is that Tripwire has retained the grisly trappings of the original mod, but enhanced them in line with recent British horror films. Without borrowing from this subgenre too much, you’ll find yourself fighting your way through set pieces reminiscent of films such as 28 Days Later and Dog Soldiers. While the game stops short of being an out-and-out homage to titles like these, the inspiration is clearly showing. Unfortunately, also showing is the developer’s patchy representation of the British in general. The same kind of tired generic British voices that plagued such games as Hellgate: London appears here. This combined with the limited repertoire of situational observations can be jarring unless you’re the sort that can learn to live with them.

That is not to say that this game does not have personality. Any effort that was lost on character concepts is more than made up for by some of the best modern day firearm design of this generation. The depiction of these weapons is clearly a labour of love for the art team and every movement and nuance of your arsenal is gratuitously detailed, from the recocking movement of the lever action rifle right down to the way the 9mm pistol pulls up and slightly to the right when it recoils. The immersion brought on by the thumping heavy metal soundtrack and hordes of ghastly creatures is capped off by the visual kick of even the most basic of sidearms. The fact that there are no crosshairs or aim assists here (despite a slightly overbearing HUD) is a brilliant design choice when it comes to immersion. Combine this level of gun-porn with the spontaneous bullet time events that occur after scoring a critical hit on an enemy and the result is a furious squall of combat you’d expect from a game of this ilk, punctuated by moments of calm that allow you to really appreciate the detail which is usually lost in such frenetic gameplay.

Despite everything, Killing Floor is clearly wears its mod origins on its sleeve. The gloriously decrepit set pieces are offset by poor character and monster animation, the RPG-lite perk system is fun, but levelling up your chosen skill quickly hits a steep curve and becomes a slog. The quality of the five levels available with the release is high, but you see everything very quickly. The replay value of these co-op games makes up for this to some extent, and there is always the possibility of fan-made content or DLC, but the pacing quickly shifts from exploration to refinement within a few hours of play.

Despite the rough edges, Killing Floor can be considered a resounding success. It’s important to remember with titles like these that there are no bad games, just bad price tags. Killing Floor taps into the budget conscious in this respect, retailing on steam at over £10 less than Left4Dead at this time of writing. For that price you could do a lot worse. Jump in, forget about the flaws and just enjoy the grimy, blood soaked, hyper violent fun. I particularly recommend the dual handcannons.

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Killing Floor Reviews

IGN - Score: 7,5
28 Days Later meets Left 4 Dead. - - Zombies are enjoying a bit of a renaissance lately (which is somewhat ironic considering their undead nature). The shambling hordes can be found in everything from action titles such as Dead Rising to tower defense games such as Plants Vs. Zombies,

Gamespot - Score: 7,5
This former Unreal Tournament 2004 mod is more fun than it has any right to be. Killing Floor is a cooperative survival shooter that pits you and up to five other players against wave after wave of genetically modified, humanoid "specimens" that have escaped the laboratory and are rapidly overrunning England. Although they are technically not undead, and the game consistently calls them "specimens,"

NowGamer - Score: 8,4
It’s number 13. Just follow the entrails up the stairs until you reach the clots... Despite (or maybe because of) being repulsive, festering meat bags, zombies have been en vogue for some time now.

AceGamez - Score: 8
With the gloriously (or should that be gore-iously?) brilliant Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil 5 and Call of Duty: World at War going down a storm with the gaming public, it is clear that zombies are growing in popularity (and in case you were wondering, World at War has a Nazi zombies co-op mode that's a fan favourite online).

Metacritic - Score: 70
It’s a co-op survival horror game. Up to 6 players in online co-op mode, or just you, on your own, playing the Solo mode. The aim - cleanse each area of zombies, in waves, until you get to the last one. The Big One. The Patriarch. Then exterminate him, too. Actually, they aren’t "zombies".

GamesRadar - Score: 7
Zombies and a Howlin' Wolf reference. But will this indie co-op shooter rock? Zombies never seem to score an even break. Once again they are the subject of our gaming enmity, their sad lives cut short with axes, chainsaws, flamethrowers and shotguns, while we make quips and wait for the next upgrade.