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The buckets of blood you’ll spill in one session of “Killing Floor 3” could fill an Olympic swimming pool several times over.
That may sound gratuitous, but in Tripwire Interactive’s co-op action/horror sequel to 2016’s hugely popular “Killing Floor 2“, that’s just part of your job description.
It’s 2091 and you’re an elite Nightfall specialist tasked with wiping out unrelenting hordes of bioengineered monsters – ‘Zeds’ – obedient to murky megacorp Horzine.
The future of humanity is at stake as you battle through dystopian streets, experimental research facilities, and abandoned islands, along the way unlocking new tech, weapon attachments, and increasingly violent perks.
Solo is possible, but six-player co-op is the proper way play. You’ll always remember your first headshot. Combat is a disgusting delight, every impact carving chunks of flesh and spraying geysers of blood.
Killing Floor 3 Specialists
Six different specialists deal death in their own way courtesy of a unique arsenal and special attack.
The commando wields a reliable assault rifle alongside a fierce auto-firing drone triggered with RB + LB. The ninja, meanwhile, carries katanas capable of deftly slicing off limbs, and uses a grappling hook to careen towards enemies. Killing Floor 3 Weapons Weapons aren’t as out-there as they could be.
The game foregoes the bizarre in favour of slightly more grounded designs. This feels like a misstep given you’ll be fighting giant zombies with chainsaws for arms. Team synergy is key on harder difficulties.
While you can get away with mindless mayhem on normal mode, the legendarily tough Hell on Earth difficulty requires carefully calculated efforts. Medics are needed to top up health, ammo bags need dropping, money needs sharing around, and different ammo needs implementing.
From acidic and electrical, to cut and cold, to biological and sound waves, spreading your damage types wipes enemy health bars faster. Truth be told there are a bit too many status effects (nine in all), leading to confusion over the best one to use – especially in the frantic heat of battle. It’s not as frantic as it was, though.
There are less Zeds in each match compared to “Killing Floor 2“, and the pace is marginally slower. This is to for good reason: it nudges the emphasis more towards strategy than speed Zed are more dangerous, dealing heftier damage with each swipe, so you’ve got to work harder to counter them.
The best way to do that is with the surprisingly versatile movement. You can now vault onto pretty much any ledge you see, from balconies to truck rooftops, as well as sprint and dodge in all directions.
Don’t expect to stay safe for long, because now more mobile Zeds will climb up to continue the chase. There’s also the robust melee system. You can parry attacks with your knife, bash to stagger enemies and interrupt attacks, and charge up more powerful hits. It’s possible to go entire rounds using the knife only.
The environment itself is a weapon, one you can use it to your advantage by powering up sentry guns, activating zip-lines, shutting doors, opening shortcuts, and unlocking chests of body armor.
There’s way more to “Killing Floor 3” than guns. The melee system, combined with overhauled movement and the class system, gives you plenty of diversity. That’s without mentioning bullet time. ‘Zed Time’, as it’s known in the game, rewards the whole team for subsequent kills with a shared slow-mo moment where you can line up headshots and savour the carnage.
It’s glorious, although the temporarily mandatory black and white filter spoils the party slightly. Between rounds, you’ll get free time to purchase weapons, ammo, grenades, armor, and more.
This is where an extra dimension of strategy emerges. Money savvy players might choose to horde their wealth and splurge on a powerful gun for the final boss round, in which the team must work together to bring down the likes of beastly chimeras that dig underground and towering mutants who perform whirlwind moves.
Charitable ones might opt to spend their cash on a healing firearm and keep their allies in fighting shape. Money management could mean the different between success and failure.
Killing Floor 3 Loadouts
After matches you’ll enter a hub space called the Stronghold where you can level your skills and customise your loadout.
These prove the hook of the game. Successive victories grant the XP to change your playstyle, whether you want to lay traps with proximity grenades, give yourself tanky body armor, or boost your firebug abilities.
Custom load outs call upon the crafting materials you’ve collected during matches. You can bolt on red dot sights, foregrips for reduced recoil, faster firing mags, and even little keychains to hang off your barrel. It provides more than enough excuse to keep re-entering the fray.
Killing Floor 3 Score
9/10
“Killing Floor 3” offers relentless co-op carnage that gets better the more people you play with. Churning through a thick wave of Zeds with highly volatile weaponry is a delight.
Solo play feels relatively lifeless by comparison, and the weapons could have used an extra burst of creativity, but the game gets a lot right. From the satisfying combat to the addictive grind, it wipes the floor with pretty much every other zombie shooter.
Time to paint the town red.
Killing Floor 3 Release Date
“Killing Floor 3” releases globally on July 24th for PC (via Steam and Epic Games Store), PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
