Killing Floor 3 Review – Bottoming Out

Tripwire Interactive’s Killing Floor 3 is an enigma for me. It’s not that I don’t understand the premise – a rogue group battling against a megacorp that’s producing Zeds because something something “human evolution.” It’s not that I can’t see the appeal of the gameplay loop – kill Zeds, earn Dosh for upgraded weapons, kill more Zeds. Even the sheer amount of gore, accentuated by the slow-mo of Zed Time, as viscera and limbs fly everywhere, I can understand with Snyder-esque alomb. I don’t understand how the more I play, the less fun it becomes.

Some will say that they’ve seen this coming for a while, especially after the closed beta earlier this year. The delay did help in some regards, which I’ll discuss, but even if the Payday 3 comparisons didn’t feel as appropriate, especially since Killing Floor 3 is playable offline from the start, it’s ultimately dreary compared to its more storied predecessor in almost every way. It all begins with the campaign. But actually, it doesn’t.

The setting is 2091, and Horzine is producing Zeds for some nefarious purpose. As part of Nightfall, it’s your job to halt the infestation, even if, as revealed in a codex, the Zeds are manufactured at an alarming rate. Maybe those numbers represent the overall hopelessness of our mission? Perhaps they were written for the doubtless millions of players who would have hopped on by now. Regardless, there are many Zeds, and you have to kill them.

"The presence of inactive turrets, environmental traps and armor caches also provides plenty of incentive to cycle through spots in a level. You’ll probably still end up facing the bosses in the most unobtrusive areas, if only to have more room for dodging. However, the overall atmosphere feels soulless."

However, the overall plot driving all of this is so threadbare and uninteresting that I don’t even know why the team bothered. You have various main mission objectives or Assignments, which involve visiting specific maps, collecting samples, flipping switches, backtracking and performing virus analysis, awaiting further communication, and then either surviving or winning a match. Then it all ends. I never met the voice on the radio, Cordelia, and other than walking up to things and pressing E, I don’t know what the point of it all was. If it sounds like I’m not putting enough effort into describing the “narrative,” it’s because there’s really nothing there.

It feels Tripwire wanted something to accommodate its seasonal format without interfering with the player’s freedom in playing matches, however they want. Honestly, cinematics, even slightly animated cutscenes, and “Complete X number of matches” would have done the job, and eliminated all this needless busy work.

Killing Floor 3 offers eight maps spread across various locales. You have the sewers, the city streets overlooked by massive skyscrapers, the rooftop of said skyscraper, a military base, a radar station, and so on. Few of these feel notable, though Tripwire has ensured that they look less clean than their original iterations. Case in point, night has now fallen on the city streets and there’s much more gore adorning the environment, highlighting the violent struggle that its victims no doubt faced at the hands, claws and chainsaws of the Zeds. Layout-wise, they’re not too shabby either. Some decently balanced long corridors where you can train Zeds into a shooting gallery, with more open spaces where your team could make a stand.

The presence of inactive turrets, environmental traps and armor caches also provides plenty of incentive to cycle through spots in a level. You’ll probably still end up facing the bosses in the most unobtrusive areas, if only to have more room for dodging. However, the overall atmosphere feels soulless. Maybe it’s the narrative, the art direction of these environments, or the Zeds themselves, but it’s more akin to an arcade shooter rather than a desperate fight for survival.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that – or even that Killing Floor 3 doesn’t provide incentives to make you fight for your life. However, problems emerge even before you hop onto a map. The Stronghold feels completely superfluous. Why not assign its various aspects, like mod crafting, skill unlocking, etc, to simple menus? A firing range is neat, except it’s useless for testing the effect of damage types on different Zeds, or even trying melee weapons. Maybe it’s supposed to be a hub for you and your friends to hang out in, which would be fine if there was anything of note, like mini-games or secrets. If that wasn’t enough, I hate, hate, changing a Specialist and being teleported back to the start of the Stronghold.

The actual gameplay itself isn’t too shabby, even if you can’t select the number of waves (like Killing Floor 2) or swap out Specialists if you need to fit a particular role that your team lacks during certain modifier-filled waves. Increased Specialist Heat Damage? Better hope your weapon has incendiary rounds or you have enough Dosh for a heat weapon.

"Killing Floor 3 initially feels generous enough with its early game materials and level-ups, but subsequent levels require more XP, which necessitates higher difficulties. Which I would be fine with, but the Proficiency gains don’t feel nearly as substantial, and severely kills any excitement at unlocking a new skill or upgrade."

Otherwise, facing the hordes of Zeds and popping heads can prove satisfying at points, thanks in no small part to the M.E.A.T. System (appropriate given all the chunks flying around). However, the weapons themselves feel…fine at best and just odd otherwise. The Vulcan TA’s charged shots, which should hit like a nuke, feel inconsequential next to the Dragon’s Breath shotgun. And shotguns in general just lack the explosive punch of Killing Floor 2. I liked the assault rifles somewhat better, even, once again, the Knightsbridge felt less like an LMG and more like an SMG with extra weight. Don’t even get me started on the Ninja’s katanas, which feel like they’re slicing through air on all but the Scrakes and Fleshpounds (and even then, just barely).

At times, especially on the higher difficulties, Killing Floor 3 shows signs of the struggles against relentless hordes that the franchise is known for. Heavy foes breaking through walls, Sirens assaulting your senses, legless Husks crawling toward you, et cetera, but it’s ruined by the Specialists and their quips. Spoiler, everyone: The fire-focused character talks about fire a lot. Stop, drop and roll. Petroleum jelly. Running this under cold water for 10 to 15 minutes. The others aren’t as grating but still have their fair share of annoying one-liners. If you’re going to implement this many voicelines, at least make them fun or interesting and don’t fire them off at such a rapid clip.

Of course, the other black mark against the Specialists is their very nature. They have an ability with a cooldown and a special weapon that’s best suited for their skills. Earn Proficiency Points and level up to unlock more skill options and upgrade them. There are some pretty cool options available – headshots causing explosions of the fire and knockdown variety – but I can’t help but feel like it would have been better to dump all the Perks into one big pool and let players create their own builds accordingly.

Yes, I can equip dual katanas as Firebug or a flamethrower as the Medic, but what if I wanted to restore health with the former by perfect parrying? What if I wanted to reduce the damage dealt by burning enemies to provide even more utility as a Medic? I wouldn’t mind keeping the skill tiers gated behind levels or even having to choose one perk from each tier, since the overall build crafting would shoot up significantly. As it stands, the Specialist system feels like it’s to extend playtime through grinding each character and their skills separately.

And make no mistake – there is a grind to be had. Killing Floor 3 initially feels generous enough with its early game materials and level-ups, but subsequent levels require more XP, which necessitates higher difficulties. Which I would be fine with, but the Proficiency gains don’t feel nearly as substantial, and severely kills any excitement at unlocking a new skill or upgrade. Even the higher-tier materials feel a little too few and far between, especially as you get into the higher rarities of mod upgrades.

"With more polish, a more robust weapon feel, additional content, some objective variety between waves, and dozens of other improvements, it could eventually stand on its own. However, its present state ultimately feels draining when it’s not a step down from everything that made Killing Floor 2 unique."

I do like the attachments having different pros and cons, some substantially changing a weapon’s feel or providing benefits like grenade launchers and shotguns. But completely leveling up an attachment to unlock its passive bonus, especially one that doesn’t feel all that appropriate for the weapon (do I really need more bash damage on my Incinerator M7?), is a chore. You can recycle materials if you don’t like how an attachment is performing, but no refunding Proficiency Points to potentially respec your build, further crippling variety.

While I’m not the biggest fan of the art direction, Killing Floor 3’s environments offer some decent visual sights, especially with the lighting and reflective surfaces. Too bad the stuttering and performance woes drag things down. Dropping the settings down to Medium at 1440p didn’t offer much improvement, and the frame rate frequently drops below 60 FPS with six players, even between waves, never mind when all manner of craziness is happening. I’ve also had occasions where the game would just freeze completely before resuming shortly after.

Then there are the myriad bugs, and I don’t mean the ones sent out by the Queen Crawler. You may occasionally see the odd gaffe like a headless corpse walking around between waves that…keeps walking, even after you hack off its legs. Or the Impaler, one of the bosses, gets stuck in the environment as it leaps around the place. Or alt-tabbing, bringing up the ping menu and hitting Escape, effectively locking my game until I restart. Animation jank, iffy hit boxes (especially when dodging attacks), slingshotting, level intros playing after joining a match in progress and more can also occur, and overall, there’s a palpable lack of polish. Perhaps the only real highlight of the entire experience is the soundtrack, and its heavy metal beats, even if they feel wasted.

If you just want to see some Zed heads explode in gory fashion, Killing Floor 3 can offer some mindless fun that’s extremely streamlined. And who knows, with more polish, a more robust weapon feel, additional content, some objective variety between waves, and dozens of other improvements, it could eventually stand on its own. However, its present state ultimately feels draining when it’s not a step down from everything that made Killing Floor 2 unique.

This game was reviewed on PC.