Killing Floor (2009)

Killing Floor is a true classic and, in my opinion, one of the best wave shooters today.

The principle is simple, hordes of mutated zombie-like monsters, called Zeds, are on the loose and you must survive their onslaught in a certain number of waves. After each wave, you earned some cold cash that you can spend at the trader that then opens. You can buy ammo and new weapons here. Be quick tough because she will only be there for a few minutes before closing and starting the next wave.

Killing Floor has a simple story, set in London, about a scientist who created the Zed’s but then the experiment backfired, the Zed’s mutated to their grotesque forms and they break out of the facility. The scientist, Kevin “The Patriarch” Clamely is behind the experiments and is also twisted and genetically modified. He is the end boss of the game after completing all the waves.

Besides from the standard wave mode, you can also play trough some story missions which holds the same principle, but with an actual goal to complete. Find samples, find the exit, bring gold bars to a certain drop point, that kind of stuff. It is a nice diversion from the standard game play.

In Killing Floor, you can play as many different classes that you can level up to unlock more abilities. You can be a medic, a firebug, a sharpshooter and many more. By killing enemies with weapons that fit your class, you earn experience for that class and, on higher levels, unlock special bonuses to become stronger.

The graphics look great and detailed and they have a grim and dark atmosphere, fitting the game well. There is all kinds of stuff going on in the background like captive Zed’s in tanks, burning cars and spooky fog in the forest level. The animations and gore is perfect and the added rag doll makes the game feel more realistic.

Sound wise, Killing Floor nailed it. Bullet impacts, weapon fire, explosions and enemy screams and grunts are solid and bone chilling at times. It really enhances the experience. And on that note, the music is epic. Many tracks are heavy metal songs and for me, it cannot get wrong. My personal favorite is the “Infectious Cadavers” track that plays throughout the story missions and sometimes in the wave modes.

The controls are fluent and the extra challenge comes from the fact that you do not have a corsair to aim at enemies. You need to aim down your sight to aim properly, a unique feature as far as I can tell.

The only issue I had with Killing Floor is the terrible matchmaking for online play. It is one of the worst kinds of systems in place. When joining a game, it works fine. You refresh the list of available servers, choose one and you are good to go. But when you want to play with friends for example, you need to make a killing floor server with open source tools, all kinds of next level Linux scripts and even then, it may not show up for your buddies when trying to join. I get that dedicated servers are not for everyone, but as far as I know, Killing Floor is the only game that uses this kind of matchmaking.

But overall, Killing Floor is a fantastic game and, by now, a real classic. Its successor resolved all the issues and has far more content now, but I can always return to this blast from the past.

Absolutely recommend this game.