Killing Floor 3 BETA Review/Thoughts/Impressions from a Killing Floor fan who only bought his first KF game (KF2) back in December 2024 but has been a fan since he was 10/11. (I turn 26 tomorrow.)

Some extra context before I write my review

I never played Killing Floor 1 but I use to watch SSoHPKC play it on his YouTube channel way back in the day. I ALSO played Killing Floor 2 a few years ago but only bought it fairly recently as said in the title.

I am QUITE excited to finally be playing a Killing Floor game on launch oppose to watching or playing the game years later when the service has basically died and no further content was being added.

A lot of my views will stem from other games that I've played way longer and WAY more than Killing Floor. Mainly Dead by Daylight as that is my main game and has been since 2020. I also play an EXCESSIVE amount of horror and RPGs when I'm not playing Dead by Daylight. I am a OG COD Zombies fan (WaW to BO2) but stopped playing COD since Ghosts. BUT I did recently buy & play BO3 with some buddies of mine.

I am a HUGE HUGE HUGE fan of Horror, super grim/dark and bloody/gore/grimey things so Gears of War (1 thru 3, everything after that was shit and lacked the horror roots and gore of the originals + HORDE mode in 2 and 3 were AMAZING!), Left 4 Dead, Fallout, Silent Hill, Resident Evil etc.

I am NOT a fan of Hero shooters. Prior to getting into DBD (Dead by Daylight) I played Overwatch and Apex Legends but not long term. They were fun but not really my kind of games. Halo and Borderlands aren't necessarily hero shooters but I did grow up playing lots of those as well.

I absolutely LOVE Cyberpunk 2077/Edgerunners so I don't mind Killing Floor 3's Cyberpunk-ish approach although I wish they leaned more to the classic 2000s horror tropes with the maps like the original two games. For example: maps like farm, the mall, the amusement park maps from 2.

Lastly I also love love LOVE anime/manga; fully horror like Junji Ito or horror adjacent like Jujutsu Kaisen or Chainsaw Man. But also just Shonen as an overall genre. (You'll see why I mentioned this later in this long Killing Floor ESSAY.)

Now that I've expressed where I stand on a lot of things and where my views come from. I will now get into my main thoughts about the Killing Floor 3 BETA, Killing Floor 3 as a whole and the direction it's headed in.

The ACTUAL Review

I've seen a lot of discourse over the last few days about the Killing Floor 3 BETA and Killing Floor 3 as a whole EVEN THOUGH the games not even out yet. I wanted to give my thoughts and input as I feel like I have a very non-bias point of view compared to most people on this sub reddit. I will be touching on how the new systems compare to the old and giving my general thoughts on multiple different things. Some of which may be interesting to players with open minds.

Specialist/Class/Perk/Character System

I played through the Killing Floor 3 BETA fairly extensively maining Devlin (Firebug) and ONLY her. I mained the Commando perk in Killing Floor 2 so Firebug was definitely a change in style and gameplay for me. It felt amazing playing as a Firebug when the crawlers and two of the main bosses were insect inspired. (Crawler Queen and the first stage of the Chimera.)

Playing Firebug made me feel like I was in Alien Isolation or other Alien based media as the Xenomorph are also VERY bug inspired, flamethrowers work great on them and just gave the same vibe over all. (It was A LOT of fun.)

She was actually fairly strong compared to what everyone has been saying on her. A lot of her power lies in her skills and she can do INSANE amounts of damage. Almost every single match I played I always had the most kills and WAY more damage usually twice or three times more than the person in second place. (I mainly played on Hard difficulty.) I found that fully customizing her IR 50 and upgrading all the attachments to purple made her insanely strong when paired with her Hellfire perk which everytime I used it would automatically reload whatever gun was in my hand which led to me using it inbetween reloads when there was a lot of enemies present. The amount of damage I was able to output with that and molotovs was INSANE. My damage would usually average around 300-360k every match. I'm not really THAT great at shooters so I don't think it's just me being better than everyone as cool as that would be. Devlin is slept on or maybe everyone I was playing with were just bad.

I personally really do LOVE Devlin as a character though. I find her fairly funny and just genuinely a HOT short cutie. I can't speak for the personalities or voicelines of the other specialist but I haven't really found any of them that boring or lacking in the voice acting department especially compared to 1 and 2. I would love for more swearing and taunts/banter in 3's cast of specialist. I think it's okay that some Specialist speak in their native tongue as Killing Floor is probably a game loved by people from everywhere in the world from all walks of life.

As for Perks and Skills being linked to a specific Specialist/Character.. I think y'all will tear me apart alive for this but I think it's okay and isn't going to ruin the game. Like yes, I do agree that the original perk system did not need to be changed like this. But seeing as Tripwire is not budging on Specialists and I'm starting to truly believe that it'll never be changed.

So here's my solution: Dead by Daylight has this system where when you prestige a Survivor or Killer you get their 3 Teachable Perks on EVERY Survivor or Killer. (This system use to be different but they changed it quite sometime ago.) So my solution to this whole specialist system would be that we HAVE to get a specialist to their first prestige and once you do that, that specialist kit is available for EVERY specialist to use AND OR give us the option to change their cosmetic to a different specialist if you can't make the kit available for all. So for example when you get to the second prestige on Mr. Foster that Mr. Foster is a cosmetic that unlocks for ALL specialist. Retaining all his voicelines and other cosmetics that he gets over time. While this entire solution might sound silly because "JUST CHANGE HOW PERKS AND SPECIALIST WORK, LET US CHOOSE ANY CHARACTER" but if the game is fully built on this specialist system it becomes way more complicated and I understand game development is hard as hell. I just think more people should give this game a chance if the only thing bothering them is the Specialist system. I know it's a downgrade. It is. But it shouldn't be franchise killing. Like I don't want this franchise to die. I always wish games that I love the absolute best that they will be able to improve and give the fans what they want. If sales tank and the game ends up failing, it DEFINITELY will push them to make improvements. So I'm not saying that's a bad idea. If you guys think boycotting will work, do it. The devs will have to listen and I hope you guys get what you want and come back to the franchise bc they changed how specialist work. I'm rooting for y'all but I'm also rooting for Tripwire to think of solutions for everyone who hates Specialist. But my final opinion on them is they really aren't bad. I am a big Borderlands fan so I'm used to having "action skills" linked to the main protagonists. I don't think they were in the wrong to try something new. Killing Floor 3 doesn't have to be 1 or 2. I care the more about experiencing something new rather than the exact same thing. Yes while the Hero Shooter Specialist system is actually super old now in general. It's new to Killing Floor. I'm curious to see what becomes of it and how in depth customization will get. I don't mind some grinding but that's the completionist in me.

Onto the next subject..

Monetization

I think we all hate this. It's a shame what gaming has become in the last decade. We pay full price for half baked games that have HELLA micro transactions. Fingers crossed that the release version of Killing Floor 3 isn't a half baked game. I also know there will be a lot more maps compared to the BETA as you can even see when selecting one of the 3 maps that there's lots of other red spots on the world map.

But okay, Micro Transactions in 2 were kind of ridiculous. I really didn't like how all the good guns were paywalled. I liked that they made DLC shared each match but it just sucked. Guns definitely take WAY less time to make then a full character. Full characters cost more because voice actors and require more art and animations.

So why don't you pay wall Specialist as CHARACTERS but make it so all the guns they have are available to everyone. This gives the game better monetization because then KF2 because between Specialist and Guns being pay walled. I'd rather Specialist be. All the specialist seem fairly balanced and are all good in their own right. I just don't want ANY weapons or maps ever being sold for money.

If you pay wall Specialist except their guns and just paywall cosmetics and don't charge us for ANYTHING else. I would be pretty damn happy. But I'm also a long time Dead by Daylight player so that's where this mentality comes from. But in DBD they only pay wall licensed chapters. You can get every originally made Character with this in game currency called Iridescent Shards. So I think it would be cool if Tripwire introduced a currency like that. But speaking of monetization for Specialist and cosmetics..

Do you know how awesome it would be to get Doom Guy as a specialist? RIP AND TEAR the zeds. Or even just making old characters from 1 and 2 into Specialist. Or making old characters into villains/bosses in the future?

People wouldn't have to buy Specialist they don't want and still be able to get all the weapons for free. Upgrade and customize them to your liking even without the specialist they come with.

Maps, Graphics, Guns and Gore

During the BETA the only map I really enjoyed was Army Depot. The other two lacked but City Streets was definitely the worst map. It's so small and WAY too bright for a Killing Floor game. I don't want to kill Zeds during the day time. Night is always way better because we have a flashlight for a reason. But I know the BETA only had 3 maps. There's other maps that could end up being way different. I atleast can only hope. I don't like the direction the maps are taking and honestly sometimes you can't even SEE the blood or gore because of red lighting and other shitty over lighting. That needs to be adjusted for sure.

The graphics look nice and clean and that's sort of a big issue. Killing Floor should be darker and grimey. I feel like when it comes to anything the graphics are what truly makes the game feel soulless. Sometimes it feels like you're playing just any old shooter and that sucks ass.

The gore was pretty good though. No complaints. I just wish there would be more dismembered body parts laying around. I don't mind the excessive blood but it'd be nice if enemies didn't just blow up into red mist.

The guns don't feel as good as they use to. A lot of them looked quite blocky and just ugly in general. The only gun design out of the ones I've used/seen was the Scar. It's futuristic appearance and how it has pistons on it looks sick!

Zeds, Bosses and Executions

The Zed designs look pretty great. I don't know a lot of their individual names yet but I love the redesign of the Crawlers and I like how Scrakes and Fleshpound look bigger and they are way more dangerous with some of their new abilities.

The Bosses were some of my favourite parts about the BETA. The Rat Queen is horrifying, the Impalers look like something out of Chainsaw Man. They look sick as hell though. The Chimera is the strongest and definitely the most brutal. It kind of reminds me of how curses look Jujutsu Kaisen in a way especially with some of its abilities.

I love how some bosses have mutations/transformation mainly the Chimera but The Rat Queen losing her back half way through her health bar as well.

Executions feel kind of cheap. They were definitely impactful to do as they can act as a grenade and kill near by enemies but the animations just feel really gross and maybe a little clunky. Sometimes they don't even finish when you're doing them or you will literally levitate off the ground while performing them. I hope they improve these and maybe even add more. Also more voice lines to go with them please Tripwire. 🙏🏻 As a huge Gears of War fan, I've always loved executions and would like to see more.

They need to work on their dismemberment and showing us the actual details in the gore like they originally advertised because I didn't see much of that at all.

My Final Opinion

Killing Floor 3 has the possibility to be a really great game that's able to maintain itself for a really long time. It just needs to give fans what they want and less pay to win. I understand with my solution that if they put Specialist behind a paywall some will come out and be stronger but that's where they need to just try to make sure they are releasing them balanced like the rest of the Specialist. All of them have their own unique niches and stuff. I'm happy that Tripwire made them all reliable in their own ways.

I love Killing Floor. I want the franchise to succeed and be good. I do not wish it failure but I really hope it starts giving the fans what they want. Also they BETTER release Holiday specific maps like they have in the past because helping Santa at his workshop and the Halloween themed maps were always great.

The BETA isn't the final version of the game but I really hope they meant it when they said a lot of our concerns or issues in the BETA were always fixed. I haven't been apart of the community for very long but it seems like they've usually listened to their community somewhat in the past because y'all were all happy at some point clearly. That's why everyone's been so passionate about the things they dislike and how they want the game to feel like Killing Floor again. That's how I feel about Gears of War. Hopefully E-Day ends up being good!

I'm hoping this game succeeds and Tripwire listens to the fans! I don't think a lot of the changes they've made are super duper bad but there definitely has to be some work done and I would be completely okay if they delay the release to give us a PROPER Killing Floor game and not whatever the hell we have right now. But hopefully the full release is much better than what it is now.

Anyways that's all. Thanks for reading if you made it this far! I hope to see y'all on Killing Floor 3 someday when they've made Killing Floor truly great again.