Review: The Killing Floor

The Killing Floor, an Unreal Tournament 2004 mod-turned-retail game by Tripwire Interactive, is a cooperative survival horror shooter, with a definite emphasis on survival horror. Where there's been an onslaught of cooperative shooters in recent years like Left 4 Dead or Borderlands highly polished and with a sense of direction, The Killing Floor harks back to the days of Painkiller and Serious Sam where it's just all about the violent shoot-fest.

You and up to 5 friends are tasked with the clean-up of London after being over-run by horrifying creatures, grotesque, disfigured and with a definite taste for human flesh. There's no need to try and understand the story because there really isn't one. There's no point A to B, all the maps are open spaces with various buildings or rooms dotted about for players to shack up in. Enemies come in waves, each wave bringing a larger number of monsters as well as the monster types getting more outlandish and lethal.

After each wave, there is a limited time for purchase of ammo and new weapons at a strange vendor that magically appears around the map, and conveniently disappears before the start of each new wave. Essentially, the game is centered around surviving each wave to dash to the new shop spot before doing it all over again.


The gameplay is decent enough. Tripwire Interactive, better known for their highly acclaimed WW2-mod Red Orchestra has enough experience to make this shooter pack a punch. All the guns are your military-standard shotguns, rifles, and pistols, as well as the necessary flamethrower and bazooka for surviving a monster apocalypse. All in all, there's enough variety of guns to suit the different styles of shooting gamers have, from up close and personal to the sniper types.

The gore is awesome, head-shots pop monsters like watermelon and guts get everywhere. Though, one feature has players up in arms and crying the removal of: ZEDtime. At random points, the game sees fit to slow everything down to a crawl, ala John Woo's Hard-Boiled so that you can see all the flying bits and pieces, and monsters baring their fangs with all the more clarity. And so that you can precisely line up that next perfect shot. But it's stupid when your friend executes ZEDtime and you have to experience it too. When you're overwhelmed by monsters, and you're in the midst of reloading, why on earth would you need to see that in slow-motion? The game should either take it out completely or have the option to turn it off.


There's some semblance of team-play, but don't expect much; you can heal teammates, and yourself with a self-reloading healing pistol-thing or weld doors. There is also a persistent leveling system that leads to perks in specializations, from sharpshooter, to demo to field medic. Getting these is a simple case of continually using your weapon of choice until you become "proficient" in it. Although, I didn't see much use of specializations beyond ensuring your squad has a balance group of classes to take out enemies effectively.

The fundamental problem with the game comes with the knowledge that all this survival and monster-killing is futile. You know there's a wave after the one you've just barely survived. Eventually you will die. The monsters will get you in the end. And when you know this, it's no fun playing alone. But at least with friends, running from barn to barn in the dead of night, welding doors shut, or huddling in a corner in the church screaming and crying together, the experience is somewhat thrilling. Okay, so there is an end to all the waves, but getting there is no easy feat, and the final "boss" is a guy that shoots rockets out of one hand, and has a chaingun on the other. He can cloak to heal himself, and one shot is all it takes to kill you. Still fun, all the same.

The graphics are hardly 2009 and lacks polish which some people might be turned off by. But with what it has to go on, the visuals positively oozes the perfect pitch of atmosphere and lighting. From the grimy, grim corridors of the underground lab, to the sinister, strange mansion (see what I did there with alliteration), The Killing Floor feels more survival horror than even Resident Evil nowadays. Sound is bog-standard, you can hear the grunts and groans of monsters, and all the guns go bang-bang. There's horribly voice-acted battle chatter from the characters you play but the game is meant to be a little camp anyway.


At game-release, content seems to be on the thin-side, just a few different maps from an underground lab, open fields with farms, a mansion, office, and city space which gamers will no doubt play through all in one sitting. But DLCs have been promised, with one already released that adds new levels, weapons and other cool stuff.

In my honest opinion, that the game is still highly popular to this day surprises. It's a fun alternative to all the serious coop stuff like Left 4 Dead, a game for a good laugh and the occasional edge-of-seat thrill, but when it's highly repetitive with little direction, how long can it sustain gamers' interests? But maybe that's the point. Some shameless, brainless fun in between all the big titles that this year's end has to offer. A definite plus is in that up to 6 people can play together. Though, I still only recommend this if you have friends who will get it too.