Open access to Killing Floor 2 continues and I feel the need to say a few things about this fantastic, albeit incomplete shooter.
The story revealed thus far is pretty standard – the zombie infestation has continued to spread and a rag-tag group of strange loners band together to chop, burn, and lead shower their way through the apocalypse. This sets up a variety of locations to visit and admire the mayhem that one can create in this doomed world.
The available maps – ranging from mountaintop research labs, underground research labs, and the burning streets of Paris – look fantastic. Each map has its own tempo and feel in addition to enemies that can spawn from literally anywhere so players quickly realize that no place is truly safe. To make one final note on the environment, the Killing Floor team has ramped up the blood by keeping the mess you make on the map for the entire match. A clean room at the beginning of a game will soon be turned into a blood pit worthy of any B-movie horror film by the end of your murderous rampage All of this murder and mayhem is set to various speed metal bands that have perfectly timed songs to bang your head to while splitting skulls. Your characters will also show signs of their slaughter by the end of your match depending on their class and vicinity to the massacre.
Speaking of classes each of the current classes ranges from your typical medic, assault commando, berserker melee, and support shotgunner. All sport their own unique tools of destruction from the standard combat shovel to the brutal eviscerator that throws saw blades and has a chainsaw attachment worthy of a lancer comparison. Non-class-specific weapons are also available like the flame thrower to add a bit of spice to any class.
Needless to say, I am enjoying my time with Killing Floor 2 but there are some annoyances that are to be expected of an early access title. Random connection issues, weird search glitches throwing me into the wrong game types as well as an end-tier boss that occasionally thinks he is god and manages to throw grenades through walls or shoot you from around a corner. All in all, I cannot wait to see what comes next from this great title. Killing Floor 2 is setting itself up to be the zombie mulcher worthy of purchase by any PC gamer worth his salt.
