There was a lack of an official thread for this game on Era, so I've gone and made one. This game regularly receives updates, new content, and such over the year, with a big content update having hit a couple months ago and another one about to hit in less than a month in this topic's creation, so it's worth talking about.
Killing Floor 2 is co-op focused action-survival game (for 1-6 players co-op online, or up to 12 players in Versus) available for PC via Steam, Playstation 4, and Xbox One, telling a loose story of a Europe which has fallen to an outbreak of ZED monsters from a British corporation known as Horzine, who tasked with creating Super Soldiers by the British government, has instead created the end of the world as we know it. You now play as one of several characters fighting back against waves of these infinite monsters, as it turns out some people really just like killing things for a cause (and loadsemone, of course, you earn money each wave to buy weapons from a Trader, armor, ammo, and more). You do not, in fact, kill floors.
The reason this game has grown a following and is well regarded I think comes to four basic functions, which are easy to pinpoint:
01. Gunplay is Super Satisfying
There are dozens of weapons in this game, too many to list in this topic frankly, every from several types of pistols with different quirks, flamethrowers, shotguns, machine guns, crossbows, grenade launchers, katanas, revolvers, several types of grenades, and a lot of crazy out-there weapons. The guns do feel distinct however, and provide interesting quirks, ups and downs, and most importantly are very satisfying to use. The varied enemies and hit detection help this out, as well as a sorta' dynamic bullet-time event where time will slow down for a brief period for players to allow taking shots in slow motion and highlight the gore happening around you.
This is also a good time to mention that the enemies in the game are pretty varied. The following video is only about a third of the selection of enemies in the game (it also doesn't include any of the bosses, which there's a few of at this point and I'll detail later in this OP), but here's a trailer showing a few of them:
02. Player Roles are Varied & Interesting
Outside of just shooting things, the game provides a variety of roles for the player to engage and manage maps and the group in, from wielding doors shut to a healing team mates, playing a role of support to buff other team mates abilities, or crowd management with a role like SWAT, to even other type of weapons specializations such as explosives, flame, or melee. There's 10 different classes in the game which specialize in different areas, each class as a sorta' level-up system that unlocks new perks for each class as you climb the ladder for them (given a few perks to choose from, but can only equip a certain amount), the brief rundown of these classes (there's more special to each class than I'll mention, like how some have specialized grenades, or other abilities, buffs, etc) are:
Berserker: Specialized up-close-and-personal melee class with various buffs in guarding, heavy strikes, damage resistance, etc.
Commando: The 'eyes' of the team, can see enemy health bars, cloaked enemies are easier to spot, and specialize in automatic weapons.
Support: Specializes in piercing weapons for enemy armor, wielding doors (and a unique ability to repair broken doors in downtime), good with shotguns and chockpoints.
Field Medic: Specializing in healing the team, even at a distance with specialized weapons, with perks of faster movement speed and armor to respond quicker.
Demolitionist: A class that specializes in blowing shit up. They carry a lot of power, but must wield it carefully as it can damage others & themselves, as well as using traps.
Firebug: They like to watch ZED burn. Sets enemies on fire for passively burning them to a crisp, specializing in crowd control and lighting up an area like a Christmas tree.
Gunslinger: Master of the pistol and revolvers, and especially in duel-wielding, they're mobile and good at high damage up-and-personal, can stop sprinting ZEDs dead in their tracks.
Sharpshooter: Precision is key for the Sharpshooter, specializing in precision weapons at a distance like rifles and crossbows, lining shots to hit weakpoints to take down bigger enemies.
Survivalist: Jack of all Trades, but master of none. Essentially they 'fill' the role of classes not within the team, getting buffs in classes other players aren't playing, though not to the extent of the individual classes.
SWAT: An up-close class that specializes not in damage but crowd control. They can keep weaker Zeds back and in a group, and help slow-down and keep larger ZEDs in place for other classes to take care of.
There's a large variety of classes, and they're all pretty fun to play, allowing different styles of play.
03. Map Design is Intricate
I love the maps in this game, how they're designed with multiple points to hold out in, feed into each other, large enough to explore but small enough to not get lost in, and with a ton of personalized choices. It's also neat to see a room you do battle in take more and more damage, enemies splatter blood on the floors, walls, ceilings, etc., when you kill them, some limbs stay behind, lights in an area may be destroyed and various furniture shot about, it's a clear visual indicator of where fights have taken place and both encourages holding out in a place for a time, but not for too long to keep on the move.
04. The Game has a Lot of Personality
Between a weird sense of humor the game has, a metal as fuck soundtrack composed by bands including Demon Hunter, Fit for a King, Living Sacrifice, and more, and how the gunplay, enemies, and systems within the game create a very unique feeling style of arena shooter which gets more engaging as you go.
Now a bit of a personal story, Killing Floor and it's sequel hold a special place for me as the original Killing Floor was going through a free weekend event when I first really started using Steam. I decided to try it with some friends, absolutely loved it, and did end up buying it for myself and several friends. It became one of my favorite 'arena survival' games, and I think the sequel is even better. I could sing praises for this game for a while and the support both Killing Floor 1 and 2 receive, Killing Floor 1 was supported for years after release with several updates a year with new maps, weapons, and more. Killing Floor 2 has continued that trend, and does help bring me and my friends back to it every few months, and it's always a good time for us.
The timing of this topic is also probably good as Killing Floor 2 released one of its bigger updates recently, one for an endless 'Onslaught Mode' with a lot of challenging enemy quirks for the mode, which has a trailer that details the additions of the update nicely:
The game is also receiving it's next big content update in the next few weeks for the Summer Seasonal Event. These events also during the period have a specialized 'side-quest' to do in newly added maps in the update to unlock limited time costumes you can use, and all of the enemies during the period are given a new visual look as well to fit with the theme of the season
Game Modes
(as of May 2018)
The game has been updated several times now, which has included new game modes over time. What sorta' modes can you expect getting into the game? Well...
Survival: Basic survival gameplay for 1-6 players. Fight through waves of enemies. Can either be a Short game (4 waves), Medium game ( 7 waves), or Long game (10 waves), and at the end you fight one of several boss monsters randomly selected (more on them later). Earn money each wave from kills and other activities you do (support, healing, etc.), earn money for surviving. If you die you respawn the next wave, but with no additional money than when you died and you've lost all of your gear (outside of the weapon you were holding when you died, which lands on the ground and either you or a teammate can pick it up).
Versus: 6 vs 6 Players, one team plays as humans, the other plays as the ZEDs themselves, spawning in as a 'random' Zed among NPC ZEDs, but the human ZEDs have a special coloring and abilities the normal ZEDs cannot do. The humans must kill all the ZEDs as usual, the monsters must wipe out the humans and given a random monster to control each wave as it goes.
Holdout: 1-6 Players, for specialized maps that support it, essentially 11 smaller maps and each round you're on a smaller map and must hold out, and then next wave go to the next smaller map.
Infinite Onslaught: 1-6 waves, Recently added, essentially an endless mode with waves that get progressively tougher, the goal is to see how long you can survive. Waves and Monsters begin to get increasingly out there as waves get certain random effects, which range from giving players buffs, monsters buffs, special scenarios like all of a single monster type one round and other quirks.
The Big Ole' List of Killing Floor 2 Maps
(as of May 2018)
Killing Floor 2 at this point has a pretty decent amount of maps, and that number only increases every year. On PC there's also literally hundreds of custom user made maps you can play on, but the official maps are nothing to scoff at. One of my favorite aspects of Killing Floor is the map design, so I wanted to spend some time listing them off to give people an idea of the sorta' environments you'd be playing in Killing Floor 2's arena levels.
I'll mention some maps have variations for the different modes, some are made for one mode specifically but can be played in other modes.
Burning Paris
A map split between city streets, a few shops and buildings, and some metro underground tunnels, all of which weave and churn in a more open-air burning post-apocalyptic Paris.
Biotics Lab
An underground research facility, lots of metal halls and testing chambers, split between a few different floors and sectors of the laboratory.
Outpost
A snowy base, split between the open air frozen wasteland outside and darker halls of the facility.
Volter Manor
A Swiss mansion with old-timey architecture, a storm rages outside in its gardens, while inside you may find a large library, and secret nazi experimental torture labs underground.
Catacombs
The infamous large catacombs become a dark labyrinth of death in this outbreak, the map is large and dark, meaning you'll need to take special precautions to survive.
Evacuation Zone
A survivor camp that fell while trying to evacuate people onto a ferry, you now fight around the overrun camp and ship to contain it.
Farmhouse
An old farmhouse in the country, it's surround yard and barn. It's actually a small but condensed map with a lot of viable strategies, close-quarters, rooms and floors.
Black Forest
An open forest map with creeks, an old decrepit house, and various trails. A unique trait of this map is as each wave passes, the map goes from day to dusk to night.
Prison
A Russian prison complex, full of different wings, a prison yard, cells, and multi-floored. It's got a lot of space, but ironically very easy to get trapped in a wing of the prison by ZED if you're not careful.
Containment Station
A Horzine space station creation facility you're tasked with taking out, go through the station's iron halls and creation facilities, ranging from engine rooms to a cafeteria.
Hostile Grounds
London is in a much deeper state of disrepair, whole parts of the city leveled. You now fight above and below street level the cramped streets.
Infernal Realm
In a place that can only be described as Hell, full of Brimstone, fancy architecture, blazing fires, hanging corpses, bones, and more.
ZED Landing
A tropical island where a volcano has begun to erupt. Fight on the beaches, tropical jungles, but as each wave passes the volcano gets more active, starting to leak lava streams into various parts of the island.
Nuked
The burnt remains of a town that was nuked out of existence, but still the ZED walk among it. The smog makes it harder to see, and the destruction has made a lot of open but partially destroyed buildings to explore.
The Descent
This map is a bit special, it is the first of a sub-'Holdout' mode, it's composed of 11 floors, you hold a floor for a wave, and then descend to the floor below you for the next wave.
The Tragic Kingdom
An amusement park gone to hell, the flashing lights and attractions still work (some even geared with traps), which you can make use of. Go between circus tents, minigame stands, and rides.
Nightmare
The second 'Holdout' sub-mode map which has you changing floors with each map. This time in a surrealistic nightmare landscape of a psychedelic clown.
Krampus Lair
Hoho, a Christmas-themed map starring Krampus' torture workshop. The map is large with a lot to mess with, and this map has a specialized side-quest where each wave there's points to 'defend', and if you do so you earn more money.
Power Core
A map added with the recent update, it's a power reactor core, and the third 'Holdout' sub-mode map where you change areas after every hold-out wave.
A map added in the recent update, it's an exclusive map for the newly added 'Endless Onslaught Mode', specializing in a large space, traps that have a cooldown meter, and a lot of points to hold out in with the endless onslaught and enemy buffs you must deal with.
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That's all the maps at the moment, but it's been confirmed with the Summer update releasing in less than a month's time two more maps will be added, which have been detailed:
Airship:
Lockhart is back, and it seems his problems are never ending. Last time you saw him, you had helped him launch away to his airship. Now, having followed him, you find the sky a most dangerous place, and not just because you need to help keep the Queen Victoria running!
Lockdown:
Waking up from Cryosleep, you find yourselves on a ship orbiting a planet near a red giant. The zeds aboard the ship have already caused mayhem on every single compartment. Eliminate the ZED threat before they tear the ship's hull to pieces.
So those two maps will be coming very soon.
Boss Monsters
(as of May 2018)
There's a lot of ZEDs to kill on the floors in this game, but the most personalized you'll face are boss creatures at the end of a match after the final wave. The boss is selected randomly from the pool at the end of a Survival or Holdout round, and the beasts you may encounter currently (as more have been added over time) are:
Hans Volter
A talkative German scientist who specializes in toxic gases, explosives, and draining other players health to recharge his own.
Patriarch
A bulking monstrosity that dons a minigun and rocket launcher, a wicked tentacle melee attack for up close. When damaged enough, he'll cloak himself and run off to use one of the syringes he's carrying on his hip to heal (he has a finite supply) unless players can gun him down before he does.
King Fleshpound
A super mutated fleshpound with two huge meat graters, some special attacks compared to a normal Fleshpound, and has a unique 'army' it spawns to protect it as it wrecks havoc.
Abomination
An oversized armor-wearing bloat that spawns walking toxic bombs, and tries to suck up players to eat them.
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A few things I've only lightly touched upon (or haven't like the cosmetic costumes you earn in the game), but this OP is already getting loaded and wanted to get this up before the Summer Event started and on something of a request. I adore the game, and have adored the original for years now, so was glad to oblige.
Who else has been killing on these floors (for a second time) lately?
