Its 3:30 in the morning and I’m in ITG’s dashboard drafting up Torchlight: Ready the Torches!, when I get a tell from a Steam friend. He reminds me that I first told him about Killing Floor about 6 months ago when it was first released by Tripwire Interactive in May of 2009.  Now he is at a friends house who has the game, watched them play it for a bit, and then right when he got home he logged into steam and purchased it. Its comparable to Left 4 Dead with the whole survivalist, multiplayer co-op and solo playable features, along with achievements and a interesting level up ability I will discuss in a bit. I’d like take a min and say that L4D and Killing Floor are very similar…but not identical. Overall they serve the same function, which is to lay waste to a seemingly insurmountable horde of zombies and demonic creatures, and live to tell about it.

The graphics are quite good, with repeatable and enjoyable play time, and a pocket friendly price of only $19.99 via the Steam network. If you haven’t gotten L4D due to any number of reasons (price being the only one I can think of right now) then you should give a look at Killing Floor. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Take a look at the  HD Trailer below to see if you think this could be a viable L4D alternative:

Lets talk about some of the features now. We know the basics: Co-op Survival Horror FPS, setting takes place in ravished country sides and some cities in  England. Check.  Let’s talk perks:

• 6 player C0-op
• Persistent Perks System (PPS):  Allows the players to convert their in-game achievements into permanent character improvements, increasing stats and abilities
• Over 40 steam achievements and 2 Character expansion packs (priced at a meager $1.99 each)
• Slow-motion “ZEDtime” Killing blow factor, (this feature is so sick, I’ve become addicted to just watching heads exploded in Zedtime)
• Nine different creature types with aggressive behavior problems
• Weapons: 12 weapons to choose from, knives, flamethrowers, axes (a few different types), shotguns, rifles and a cross bow!
• There are many features in this game that are pushing it above others in its genre, like being able to weld doors shut to better direct the onslaught of undead
• Open, non-linear play areas.  You can run about or play defensively, what ever your play style is.
• Fully adjustable difficulty and creature waves  function
• Steam support and functionality
• SDK for creation of new levels and mods

That’s a lot in-game bang for your buck right there!!

The perks system is a bit hard to describe, when you first log in and chose either multiplayer co-op or single player you will be able to select your basic character and specialty.  You can choose rifleman, melee, etc. When you pick a specialty you get a bonus to your core ability.  For example, I normally go rifleman, and with that I get 10% increased damage with rifles, and faster reload with rifles and hand guns. Say you were to choose a melee core play style, then you would get 10% bonus to melee attacks and damage taken reduction, increased swing speed (I believe) and so on.

What do you think?  Have you played both Left 4 Dead and Killing Floor?  Is KF a viable alternative to L4D?  Holla back!

- Kaldeem