Killing Floor 2 - I forgot how sick this game is.

We’ve had a lot of zombie games over the years. For a while it seemed like it was one after another. Games like Left 4 Dead and the sequel, Resident Evil, and COD zombies are the main ones that come to my mind when someone mentions zombie games. And while there has been arguably a saturation of that genre in terms of sheer volumes of games, they are still fun. At least to me. Zombie games are the quintessential co-op game in my eyes; they are stressful, require some level of teamwork and can be hype as hell when everything works together. One such game that I played a long time ago, and just got back into recently is Killing Floor 2. I never played the original; I watched a lot of videos on it, but that was way before I had a PC to play games on. But the second game is awesome, and I can’t believe that I forgot how sick this game is.

At its core, Killing Floor 2 is a fairly standard zombie (or I guess in this case “Zed”) survival round based shooter. You select one of the 10 available perks for you to play as, choose a map, difficulty and off you go. Each perk has a weapon class it specializes in, alongside the trusty 9mm pistol. Berserker is all about melee weapons, commando for assault rifles, field medic has special medical weapons and so on. All the perks come with passive bonuses that increase each time you level up, and each perk has a set of skills that unlock every 5 levels that allow you to choose between two different skill trees, for a much more customizable role. Each tree feels as though it has a purpose, and can greatly increase your overall damage, or add some support/utility to the perk for you and your team. Every perk is really dynamic and unique to one another, with one exception: the Survivalist. This perk is the definition of jack of all trades, but a master of none. This perk has access to all weapons and can fill any role a 6-person team might need. The problem with this though, is that while it might do everything okay, it doesn’t excel anywhere. So, I would personally advise against this perk until you know what you’re doing. But other than that, there is absolutely something here for everyone. The weapon variety is one of the reasons why this game is so fun for me. Even if you only want to play one perk and level it up all the up to the max of 25, there are enough different options in one perk that it shouldn’t get boring very quickly.

There are a large variety of maps for you to slay zeds on, and each has a theme with different levels of complexion in regards to their layout. Which, for a zombie game doesn’t make sense to highlight, but given that on harder difficulties, the game can spiral out of control very quickly, having a gameplan on where to go and relocate is a huge asset. Knowing the layout of the map can allow you take make quick decisions that can get your team out of a bind, or clutch a last man standing situation. There are short, medium, long, and endless modes to play on, being 4,7, and 10 rounds respectively. Endless is exactly what it sounds like; go as long as you can and see how many rounds you can beat. What’s different is that instead of one boss round at the end with the other lengths, endless has a boss every 5 rounds, with the game getting increasingly more difficult after each round. The difficulty is also tied to which one you choose, as well as how many teammates you have. The more members, the higher the total zed count each round and how much damage they deal and you take respectively. So, whether you only have 30 min to play, or want to grind out the game for hours, there are many different ways to play and enjoy Killing Floor 2.

There are a lot of different zed types in the game for you to decimate. Many returning from the original game, as well as some new faces. And each returning zombie has also gotten some love in terms of a visual overhaul; they look much more menacing and like their names suggest. Especially the big boys: the Scrake and the Fleshpound. Every zed should be treated with care, but these two boys need to be put on the highest priority in terms of taking them down. Just one of either is bad enough, with their large health pools, high mobility, and huge damage potential. They can cause a lot of chaos for a team and separate people when it’s least desired. Take head for when you hear their incoming sounds. Don’t worry, you won’t miss them. The bosses are all largely different as well, at least visually. The Patriarch, the main boss from the first game has returned and is badder than ever. And there are plenty of others you’ll come across in your travels, each providing their own ways of trying to take you out. Like the vendor says: You’ve earned the money. Now spend it”.

After each round you’ll have the opportunity to use the money you earn to purchase new weapons, refill ammo and armor, and upgrade your gear at a vendor that will move to different pods across the map. A very simply strategy for beginners is to try and position yourself close to the trader pod when you see you have a very small number of zeds left in the round. That way, you don’t have to spend half of your allotted time for upgrades, running to the next pod and not being to purchase what you want. The rabbit hole goes much deeper than that in terms of overall strategy and tactics to employ when you’re with a team, like which perks synergize well with one another, which ones should stay away from each other; because believe it or not some perks shouldn’t mingle with others because it can throw off their aim or make it more difficult to do their job. But at the very least one thing to remember: be close to the pod before the round ends.

The game also has really strong music choices; most being something very heavy medal to help reinforce what you’re doing; which is obviously slaying out on zombies. But each track is really good in its own right. And the original main menu theme which you heard during the intro montage, is really something special. It’s a shame it’s not around these days; I wish I could hear it again. But either way, the music in general gets a big thumbs up from me. No complaints.

Killing Floor 2 has been around for many years, it will be 6 years this coming November. The reason I even got back into it was because it was free on the Epic Games store and all my friends wanted to try it. Me, being the contrarian, bought it on Steam because there is cross-play so we can all enjoy the game. And I’m very glad I did. Compared to games like Tarkov, or even Apex, it’s nice to be able to kind of turn my brain off and shoot zeds for a little while with a variety of different guns. I don’t have any perks leveled all the way up to 25, but I am eager to get there and see how crazy the harder difficulties are. I have memories of it being really brutal, so we’ll see what happens. I highly recommend this game for anyone looking for a really fun and exciting co-op zombie game. Killing Floor 2 will not disappoint. Let me know in the comments if you play this game and what your experiences are with it, I’m curious how many other people have enjoyed this game as much as I have over the years, and now more recently.