Killing Floor - Video Game Review

Usually I am very lenient when I review indie titles, I take into consideration the developers do not have the financial resources or the personnel to make a game as high end as the big publishers like EA and Activision. Normally I am pleasantly surprised when I play an indie game as the case with Osmos or Defense Grid: The Awakening. While there is nothing necessarily wrong with Killing Floor, there's not much right with it either. It is solidly mediocre on all accounts.

Killing Floor finds you and your team stranded in a facility (one of many levels selected from a list, there is no storyline and nothing to drive you forward other than killing things) fighting through a predetermined number of enemy waves. It's basic shooter fun, but it's not too deep, which might be to some peoples liking, not mine.

I'll start with the high points, the game looks good if dated running on the Unreal Tournament 2004 engine, (Unreal Engine 2.5), and the combat is fast paced and engrossing when it's good. The game is solid on it's own with elements like time slowdown adding some visual panache and coolness. Also the ability to weld doors shut between waves adds a mildly strategic element to the game.

However, when you hold the game up to contemporary games, or even the game it's modded from it is clear there are issues with Killing Floor on all levels. The game is a very heavy mod of the Unreal Tournament 2004 game mode Invasion, while I have no immediate problem with this I'm not going to fork over $20 for a mod that offers little in the way of originality or creativity. I felt cheated when I bought it for $5 on sale.

A lot of this has to do with just being underwhelmed by the gameplay. My friends and I have played Invasion many times before, and forgive me Tripwire Interactive, but it was done better in UT2004. The buying system, though a good idea, is needlessly complicated. One of my friends didn't even realize there was an encumbrance meter during out whole game until the last time we got to the shop. Speaking of the shop, it is also a major hassle. To access it you have to survive the wave of enemies, fair enough, nobody likes a bunch of crazed experiments pawing their wares. However the shop is constantly moving around the level yet is always staffed by the same character. It was very annoying and I actually shouted at the screen "How do you get here through the groups of enemies?" It was a big blow to what immersion the game offered.

All of this could be forgiven, but when we played we hit a major point that turned us off to the game completely. We were playing a LAN game, we had a dedicated LAN server set up on a laptop (something I have done hundreds of times for UT2004, Shattered Horizon, and many others) and despite being in a LAN game, people from online kept showing up in our game. We still can't explain it and it sapped the fun out of the game to have two guys running around acting like jerks by un-welding as we welded, blocking the door to the store, etc.

Other aspects of the game that are frankly annoying are things like invisible enemies, your cross-hairs disappearing if you have dual weapons, and levels that loop continuously. You can play one level and see the same area quite a few times as the shop moves around on it's circuit. Levels are also very confusing at times and don't flow well at all.. You are constantly having to follow the glowing trail to the shop because you would never get there in time otherwise.

I feel bad for being this harsh on an indie game, but there are some standards that have to be met regardless of income and resources. In an marketplace that offers Unreal Tournament and all it's game play modes and sequels, Left 4 Dead and its campaigns and sequels, Killing Floor fills a niche that nobody needed filled, especially with such a mediocre title. Overall the game is derivative in many ways and the few things is does well can't justify the price.