Killing Floor 2 review

My favorite gun in Killing Floor 2 is the medic’s HMTech-201 SMG. It makes a tinny plink plink plink

sound as it arcs glowing blobs in a tidy line, kicking toward the sky like a scalpel swiping upwards. It’s

one of the least deathcore weapons in KF2, where others are carrying bloodied sawblades, katanas, or

double-barrel shotguns, but it’s delightful to me.

My little medi-SMG is imprecise but controllable, to the point that I can waste almost no bullets if I’m

in the zone. A delicate tap of my mouse button to launch one bullet into a failed science experiment’s

head, popping it like an overripe melon, and then another gentle squeeze to land one in the chest to

put it down. I play Killing Floor 2 to chase that zone, to feel the satisfaction of violently clearing up a

mess of pasty mutant zombie flesh—without ever looking down my sights if I don’t want to. It’s an

excellent way to kill time.

Killing Floor 2 is primarily played in Survival mode, with a simple ruleset that sends increasingly

challenging waves of monsters—called Zeds—screeching and slobbering at a group of players. (That’s

typically six or fewer players, though custom servers can have 50 or more players, at which point

you’re just goofing off.) Between waves, players can spend in-match money on armor, ammo, and

weapons.

It’s fun in its cautious moments, players grouped up, back to back, healing each other, trying to pick

off scuttling, arachnid creatures and cloaked acrobats as they burst through every doorway. But it’s

also fun in chaos, when a hulking Fleshpound scatters the team, or a faceless Cronenbergian demon

grabs you from behind and you spin around to pop its head off with a Desert Eagle. There’s a lot of

yelling over comms.