It’s the year 2091 and the mega corporation of Horzine has unleashed an army of monsters called Zeds upon the world. You recently joined the revel group Nightfall and it’s up to you to help them in their fight to save humanity! This is the story of Killing Floor 3. While not too deep of a story, it’s very interesting and one that will keep you playing just so you can find out what happens in the end.
But is the way the game plays as interesting and fun as the story? Well that would depend on what you’re looking for in a first person shooter. Let’s take a look at how the game plays and you can decide for yourself through the course of this review if it’s worth purchasing.
This is the first game in the series that I’ve played when it comes to the Killing Floor franchise. At least when it comes to the first person shooter entries. You see, the first game in the series I ever played was Killing Floor Calamity on the OUYA. Yeah, that’s right Killing Floor was released on the OUYA of all platforms and that was my introduction to the series.
That game is different from this game and really every other game in the franchise, of which I won’t go into here; though who knows, maybe I can do a future review on the OUYA release. Wouldn’t that be something? Well moving on then, this will be a look at Killing Floor 3 on the Xbox Series X.
Killing Floor 3 is a first person shooter and is rather fun to play., though at the same time is repetitive. When you start the game you choose from one of six playable characters with each having their own class. You can choose from Foster (Commando), Devlin (Firebug), Imran (Engineer), Luna (Sharpshooter), Nakata (Ninja), and Obi (Medic). Each character has their own set of perks, weapon sets, and special attacks.
Once you pick your character, you pick from one of the eight playable maps. These maps feature a wide variety of locations to play around in and various missions with objectives to complete. Aside from the eight playable maps, there is a ninth playable area which differs each week. The map environment, and objective changes each week to keep things fresh and interesting.
After picking your map, you board a ship and get transported to that map. Once in the environment, the game plays very similar to the likes of Left 4 Dead and Call of Duty Zombies. The game is a wave based survival shooter. Your goal is to complete mission objectives while surviving waves of Zed creatures. There are fourteen different types of Zed creatures and these will vary based on the map, difficulty, and wave you’re on. Each map features five waves of enemies to survive through and then you will face the boss of the map.
Between waves, you have about a two to three minute cool down before the next wave starts. It’s during this cool down period that you can visit a trade pod. Trade pods let you sell your current weapons for money or use your existing money to purchase different weapons and upgrade the ones you have if you so choose. In addition to weapons, there are also things like grenades, exploding door locks, and multi-tools you can purchase to help survive longer. One of the neat aspects of this game is that while each character has their own weapons, you can choose to purchase a weapon from a different class if you want to change things up a bit. Maybe the ninja shurikens aren’t doing it for you and you need a pistol, or maybe you want a gun in addition to the sweet Kitana that you have. You can have exactly that if you want it.
I really like the variety of weapons you get to use regardless of the class. It gives you a good sense of freedom in the way that you play the game and take on the horde of Zed that infect each map.
Besides the trade pods, you will also have environmental elements which require the use of the multi-tools that I mentioned earlier. These multi-tools can be used to open armor caches, activate turrets that will unleash a large amount of firepower, or can be used to open doors which otherwise remain locked. These doors can help you get into bigger areas to help you survive longer or offer a shortcut between areas that can also help you survive longer.
Once you get through all five waves, you will be taking on the boss of the map. Now this is where I have a rather large issue with the game. So I can appreciate the repetitive nature of this game. I am no stranger to wave based shooters and some of them can be a lot of fun, but Killing Floor 3 only offers three bosses.
Yeah, that’s right, only three bosses. I mean that to me just seems kinda lazy. There is a ton that this game has to offer and I really appreciate it, I really do. But to not have eight bosses for each map, or at the very least, have four spread across the eight maps is just unbelievable. I get recycling bosses and things like that to save time, I get that and can really appreciate that. But to recycle three bosses across eight maps with each one offering some variation, well it just feels lazy quite frankly.
The saving grace here is that the game can be played solo or with up to six players in total online. The online matches can be private matches, friends only public matches, or can be public and open to everyone. I really appreciate the variety when it comes to the multiplayer aspect of the game and truly, is where Killing Floor 3 shines. Playing the game solo, it’s not as fun and gets stale really quickly, for me at least. Wave based shooters like this are best played with multiple people, at least in my opinion. Even if you’re just playing with you and one other person, the game is a lot of fun. Running around with a partner doing objectives, reviving each other and getting each other out of near death instances, is just a lot of fun.
One thing that I think is a not so fun aspect to the multiplayer portion is that the more players you have, the more enemies will spawn. I appreciate the game throwing more enemies at you and having them be different depending on how many players you have in your party, but this can be difficult if you don’t have the right team. If you manage to get a team of people together that are familiar with the game or wave based shooters in general, you’re going to have an amazing time playing. On the other hand, if you get paired up with say five other people that have no clue what they are doing, you’re going to likely be better off kicking them all out of the game and going solo like a one man army.
While going all Rambo is fun and all, taking on a map of enemies that are meant to have six players in total is a lesson in humility. I mean I would suggest if you get a bunch of new people, just end the game and find a new matchmaking game.
Coming from the OUYA entry in the Killing Floor series, I was blown away with the way Killing Floor 3 presents itself. Regardless if you’re in the starting facility or on one of the eight maps (nine if you include the weekly), the environments will blow you away. I mean it’s bordering realism (ok not really, but it looks fantastic!). All of the textures have a lot of detail to them like they were plucked right out of the real world. There are little environmental elements like trash, leaves, and spent bullet cases littered throughout the map. Doors have lights on them as the game takes place in the future and they give off a pale light source when compared to other lighting within the environment. There are broken down cars that have smoke and steam coming from them and up into the air.
I wasn’t expecting there to be this level of detail in a wave based shooter, and I am glad it’s here. This attention to detail really helps it to stand out among other games in this genre.
Player models have some good detail to them as well, but the Zed models are really where the detail shines when it comes to in game models. Each one has a lot of detail to it with skin glistening, drool coming from mouths, bullet holes and gashes from damage they have taken from your weapons, it all looks really good.
I mean I could really go on for a while about how good the game looks, but how does all of this realism perform? Well I played this game on the Xbox Series X and it looks pretty much perfect. What really surprised me was how optimized the game is. I mean with how realistic it all looks, I was expecting the game to have some long load times, but to my surprise, the load times are no more than a couple of minutes when going between maps.
The only issue I found when it comes to performance is when you’re playing multiplayer and have six people playing. The performance issues I believe are based on the Internet connection that all of the players are using. So if one or more of you have a poor connection, there will be some stutter and popping, but it’s really not all that noticeable. Or at the very least you expect it so it’s not really an issue and doesn’t affect the game play too much.
Killing Floor 3 sounds just as good as it looks. All of the guns have a sense of realism when you’re hearing them fire. The sound of bullets ripping through the horde of Zed creatures is very satisfying and really makes the weapons feel like they are just punching through enemy flesh.
Even the sound the swords you use as the ninja sound really good as they are slicing through enemies. Aside from the realistic sounds of your weapons, the Zed can be down right horrifying. I mean you can be walking down a corridor and just hear a loud screech or howl behind you.
This will either make your blood run cold and you will freeze up, or the sound could give you a shot of adrenaline, you could do an about face and just let the horrific creature have the full force of your weaponry forced upon it. All of this to say that the game has some wonderful sound effects. The music in the game also has a futuristic techno sound that fits the game just as well as the sound effects that accompany it.
Killing Floor 3 and the rest of the franchise has been referred to as a AA series, the exception being the OUYA release. AA games are what I would consider S Tier indie games. These are games that are at the level of AAA but aren’t made by AAA studios. These are games that are being made by small studios that have some amazing talent among them. The OUYA release felt like an indie game, but that could speak to either the platform it was made for, or possibly how fresh the studio was behind the project.
Killing Floor 3 feels like a AAA game, it’s that good! If you’re a fan of the series, a fan of FPS games, or you just want to see what an S Tier indie studio can make; then you have to pick this game up. Killing Floor 3 is what AAA games should strive to become and a game that everyone needs to play at least once!
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.