Series originally built upon the foundations of others are now ones building their own legacies.

Games like Left 4 Dead were hugely inspirational many years ago but in the absence of a third game, we look to titles like Back 4 Blood, Zombie Army and, of course, Killing Floor 3 to lead the line for us.

Tripwire Interactive are back with their multi-million selling franchise and it’s pretty much exactly what you’ve come to expect from the series over the years.

In some ways, a good thing. We don’t need to go reinventing the wheel here with a Zombie shooter. We just want lots of guns, plenty of action, overwhelming waves of enemies and sick bosses for us to fill full of lead with our friends. Killing Floor 3 mostly provides all of that in abundance.

That said, it’s not entirely a carbon copy of other games in the genre, either. Smart additions like cross-play are hugely welcome here as people have preferential platforms they like to play on and in this day and age, isolating communities to their eco-systems for such an online-focused game means some platforms may struggle to get any matchmaking at all. So good job getting that in!

There’s also a class and perk system now. You can choose between six different characters, each with their own unique points in support, survivability, damage and health, as well as their own specialist guns and gadgets. Having a mix of these will really help and benefit you with progress, though I definitely found working through the levels a bit of a grind.

Perks can also be somewhat customised by reaching a level with a class and then choosing which perk to equip and upgrade. It’s a nice way of creating your own builds and specialisms in each class so you can try to find the most optimal way of maximising your output.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be an online shooter in 2025 without some sort of Battle Pass system. It’s there in living color, for better or worse, with the option of buying up the first four seasons as part of a Deluxe Pass or grabbing individually if you so choose. It’s a way of spending some extra coins in game – or spending actual money to get more – and grabbing some unique player cards, bundles, trinkets and skins. If you’re so inclined.

This is further expanded by customising perks and loadouts, actually being able to craft custom apparel that can then be used in the game, like ammo, weapon barrels, and even sights and magazines. It’s a fun way to be able to make a gun, from scratch and design it in a way that feels appropriate for you. Just as well as the range on offer at launch does feel a tad restrictive.

But of course, the core components of the game remain, with plenty of blood, and various sci-fi settings to run through and explore. There’s some neat possibilities with the traps you can set and using the multi-tool to activate turrets and open crates and lock doors really ensure the different class types can benefit the wider party.

And the in-game story will provide you with a series of objectives that can be fulfilled by bouncing between the different settings, gathering samples, destroying equipment, and generally surviving the waves so you continue learning more about this post-apocalyptic world. It’s also a good way of keeping the game replayable while incentivising people to go back and forth between levels they already completed.

Assignments and Weekly Operations can also play a part in this by adding to your Supply Pass XP as well as giving you Perk XP to build up your classes as mentioned above. And there’s quite a few Zeds to meet, though not as many as I’d like.

All that said, on paper there’s quite a bit that’s fundamentally changed here and Killing Floor 3 definitely benefits from that, with many reasons to keep dipping in and out of the gameplay.  But beyond that, the game is pretty comfortable sticking to its lane and never really goes through the gears to be anything more than the sum of the same, seen before parts.

In many ways, it’s refreshing to have a game just strip things back and do what it says on the tin, but overtime you also kind of hope the game will be able to evolve and iterate, offering more for players to keep it relevant and interesting. Killing Floor 2 certainly did that and has remained wildly successful for years. Perhaps that’s why there’s such a mixed reception for KF3 at launch because some of the features people love have not made it back here for KF3.

The worry for a lot of people in general is that these games with wildly ambitious long term roadmaps don’t happen because players don’t invest at the start and so the game ends up being forgotten about. In this genre particularly, people have seen this hand play out once too often and nowadays, it certainly doesn’t instil confidence to invest.

For me, I had a good time playing the game – not so much alone, it was torturesome – and I truly hope we see much more of Killing Floor 3 in the years to come so it can become the game it really wants to. But for right now, this is not the most creative of games and in many ways it follows a lot of trends of what works well in other games – to some extent also, what worked well in KF2.

Visually, there’s a jankiness to the game on Xbox Series X, with some textures feeling a bit smoothed out, areas coming across being a bit too dark without turning up the brightness significantly and some of the creature AI a bit cluttered and messy, with enemies just randomly appearing out of nowhere and sometimes running a bit aimlessly. And then sometimes you’ll get a bunch that just suddenly swarms right next to you and backs you into a corner with no place to go. I’d prefer to see where enemies are coming from, rather than having a random spawn point.

The bad ass soundtrack at least puts it up there with DOOM, giving everything a smash-mouth, head-pounding vibe and the character voice acting actually gave me a little chuckle with very prim and proper British lines, as well as over exagerated energy which also feels entirely appropriate in this setting. Not everyone’s cup of tea, perhaps, but it all contributes to give the game a good feeling sense of humor.

And the loop for each wave feels nicely paced, giving you a number of enemies to gradually work through, a trader post to break things up so you can pick up some nice new items, refill your ammo or even change up your weapons, then all concluded with a boss wave to add that final challenge. Between completing your mission objective, you’ll also want to go out there trying to complete your dailies and story-missions and sometimes have to make the choice of splitting off from the safety of your group and facing the hordes alone, which adds a nice kind of pressure.

Plus Killing Floor 3 does at least have 8 levels to play through, each with different styles of environment, from a nuclear bunker to sewer systems, army depots and city streets. And there’s three standards of difficulty which really amp up in the most intense way. While Normal can present its own challenges, most multiplayer runs can breeze through it, so you’ll quickly find yourself notching up to Hard. The highest difficulty is hell, though, so make sure you’re prepared for that.

Generally, though, it’s incredibly easy to pick up and Killing Floor 3 is a game you can find yourself losing hours to, especially if you have a solid group of friends to play with. Even if you don’t, the servers seem fairly active right now and you should be able to get into a match pretty sharpish without much waiting around.

I think part of the issue with Killing Floor 3 today is that you can tell it’s being setup for long term development and while its great to hear the game will have a long tail, it’s a little too bare bones at launch and a bit of a tough sell at its current price point. Which potentially also puts that long tail at risk. There’s not even a working text chat right now, though you can at least place markers down on the map to show people where to go and voice chat, of course, works as intended.

With the recently released Ready or Not, Division 2 getting back into its stride with a new expansion, the excellent Elden Ring Nightreign and even games like Wildgate and Abiotic Factor only recently dropping, what’s here right now feels a little bit too sparse and with rception already being quite mixed for the game, means it could struggle over the long term.

It’s not a bad game by any means and for those who’ve played Killing Floor before or fancy some mindless zombie killing for a few hours, this is a pretty well put together package that promises a lot more depth in the months ahead – and we’ll be sure to check it out when it drops. But basing it on the game it is today, it’s enjoyable in doses and will entertain when you’re in the thick of it, yet it definitely feels a bit empty and at times too simple and soulless to really be overly memorable.

Verdict

Killing Floor 3 has a decent and enjoyable loop that you and your friends will quickly slip into and appreciate for a few hours at a time, mindlessly blasting zeds while also trying to find the right build and class to suit your playstyle. Aesthetically, the high tempo you expect from the series is ever present and the promise for the future seems bright for the game, but for right now, there’s definitely limitations and in such a competitive market for the genre, that makes it a trickier sell. You hope Tripwire will get the chance to fulfil some of their lofty ambitions, the question is how long will it be before those come to fruition. A feat by which these live service titles live….and unfortunately, might die.

Pros

Killing Floor 3 is out now on PC, PS, and Xbox

Played on Xbox Series X

Code kindly provided by Tripwire for review purposes