The Killing Floor

The Killing Floor, for those who don't know is a Zombie Shooter that, the creators say, is definitely not Left 4 Dead.

So, with that in mind, let's compare it to Left 4 Dead.

Well, Killing Floor is a hell of a lot cheaper than it's zombie filled brother. Here in the UK, you get about twelve quid off.

That's where the positivity ends, annoyingly. The Killing Floors graphics are... okay and whilst I'd like to think we're all mature enough to look past a few graphical flaws, they're symptomatic of a larger problem.

The problem is the Unreal 2004 Engine. This was never the best game engine in the world and time really hasn't been kind to it. The developers have worked some impressive wonders with it but it still feels remarkably imprecise and wooden compared to any game from the last three years you care to mention.

It's not terrible, by the way, it feels quite good fun for the first half hour or so. Blasting the heads off zombies with a well placed shotgun blast feels remarkably satisfying, particularly as there isn't a cross hair so the aiming is mainly down to your instinct as you rarely have time to use the iron sights.

Sadly, the gameplay would feel much better if the weapons were more interesting. There are a couple of shotguns, which are okay, there are two pistols which are okay, there is an assault rifle which is... okay. None of the weapons have really been crafted the way you'd expect them to be. In Crysis or Left 4 Dead, the weapons all have personality, here they're just generic boom sticks.

There are a couple of interesting weapons like a completely useless bolt action rifle and a flame thrower that has so much recoil it's rendered completely useless.

As far as the enemies go, there are an impressive number of types but the best word for them is generic. There's little you haven't seen before in some other game. Left 4 Dead, House of the Dead, Resident Evil... Killing Floor borrows from all of them and not in a good way.

The only original zombie, as far as I can tell, is the patriach who is the games final boss. He has a chain gun, a rocket launcher, a sword and can turn invisible. When he comes along, it won't be long before you see the “your squad was wiped out” screen.

Yes, Killing Floor is an absolute sod when it comes to difficulty. A lot of the enemies have far too many hit points, considering your limited ammo supplies and the limited team play aspects don't really help.

You're encouraged to compete against your team mates as you earn money by killing zombies. This means it's more advantageous to go off on your own and look for things to kill rather than stick with your mates.

There are other annoyances like the fact that you're always left running around at the end of each level looking for the one zombie you have to kill in order to move on, but I'm beginning to feel like I'm punching a disabled kid for not being able to run a marathon. Killing Floor isn't bad, if it had come out five years ago it would have been absolutely brilliant but time has moved on.