A gritty, gory, challenging Co-Op-Shooter. FUN!
Scroll down for simple Pros'n'Cons / or read my review (wall of text)! ;-)
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Overview
KF is an On-/Offline Co-Op Survival Horror First Person Shooter. It was first developed as a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, but due to its success, Tripwire Interactive took over and decided to release it as a full retail game built on the Unreal 2.5 Engine.
It can be branded "Indie Game", as it wasn't advertised that much like Valve's Left 4 Dead for example (though, both games share some similarities). But like much of the current indie games, that is what gives the game its special charm.
KF as a full game is 2 years old now, but it still receives much support & love by Tripwire and its very nice community. It gets constant FREE(!) updates & content patches, which is very common today! Tripwire know their community and they treat them VERY well and customer friendly!
The game takes place in a very dark, gritty London, UK, where a company called Horzine Tech did experiments, where something went awfully wrong - well, the usual zombie/mutations storyline ;-)
Gameplay
You are one of max. 6 players of a 'squad', which are placed on a map to "clean" the area. The "zombies", called 'Specimen', are coming in waves. The length and strength of single waves are dependend on the size of your squad and the chosen difficulty (from 'Beginner' up to 'Hell on Earth', or read "walk in the park up to ALMOST unbeatable).
The Specimen range from the standard slow-dumb zombie to the extremely dangerous 'Fleshpound'. After the last Wave, the map always ends with the boss fight, the Patriarch (given, your squad survives until then ;-))
You can always enter a running game between the waves, or re-enter if you die. GAME OVER is when all of your squad die in one wave. Killing specimen and healing your teammates (every player can heal others and/or himself) gives you money, which you then spend between the waves at a trader located at certain spots on the map. You can buy ammo, armor, grenades and, of course, GUNS!
Every player chooses a PERK, which is basically a 'class'. There are 7 perks in the game, each from lvl0 - lvl6, and you can switch perks between waves as you like and/or is needed the most by your squad (teamplay is VERY mandatory in this game!):
- Field medic (guess what?)
- Support Specialist (best with shotguns)
- Sharpshooter (the "sniper" class)
- Commando (best with automatic weapons like AK47)
- Berserker (the melee class, up close and personal)
- Firebug (best with flamethrower)
- Demolition (best with grenade/rocket launcher)
The PERK system is a very liberal one: You don't have to choose a certain perk to level it up! Every perk is leveled up when you use abilities/weapons that are associated to the perk.
For example, you can level Field medic up to level 6 without ever playing as Field medic, as every healing of a teammate gives you "xp" for the perk. Or you can play as berserker, and also level up your sharpshooter perk, as long as you score headshots with the standard pistol (everyone has one). You see, you are totally free to play whatever perk you like. To play the right perk with the right weapons will give you advantages, of course, which you won't have when you don't play the right perk with the right weapons.
The gunplay is one of the best things in KF: Every weapon handles differently in its own stlye. I can't describe the exact feeling, but the weapons in KF are VERY well implemented, and it is a HELL LOT OF FUN to blow the specimen's brains out with the desert eagle ('handcannon' ingame), or decapitate them with the fireaxe/katana, or blow them into giblets with the grenade launcher, or send them flying with the shoutguns, or...
There is no crosshair in the game, which first may be some kind of awkward, but if you get used to the gunplay, it will be VERY satisfying to run'n'gun your way through hordes of specimen! The weapons are always VERY accurate and once you get the hang of it, you will LOVE them!
Technicals
The Unreal 2.5 Engine isn't of course the most up-to-date engine, but it works VERY well in this game. The graphics are very dark, very gritty, not like the more coloured bonbon-style of Left 4 Dead. More like Dead Space. The mood within the game is very depressing, but thanks to god you got your guns to enlighten your day a bit ;-)
The sound adds to the dark atmosphere, the sound effects of the guns specifically are very well done. In fact, I don't know many games which have better gun sounds implemented. The voiceovers have a very british accent, which in my opinion sound very funny, but on the other hand very realistic as well. The background music is standard metal/grind/hardcore, and overall not that bad - if you like rock/metal music. It is a game where you can very well use your own music via winamp etc. while slaughtering around! Every Specimen has its own sound style, which helps you to distinguish what you have to fight in the certain situations.
THE advantage of the somewhat dated technical side of KF is: It runs VERY well even on a low-to-medium-end computer! I have a Q6600 with 4GB and a ATI HD5850, and I play with 100+ fps on highest settings (1680x1050). Very smooth.
Teamplay / Community
KF is still played a lot in every major continental region (US / Europe / AUS / don't really know about ASIA). Coming from Europe, I always find enough servers to choose from, and with almost every official map at the same time (look up player stats on steam!).
Teamplay is often very good, especially on suicidal/hell-on-earth difficulty, because you won't survive if the team consists of too many egos. There are no VERSUS-Modes in KF, which adds a lot to the friendly atmosphere between players, as there is basically no "L2P NUB" raging or cheating. Idiots are found sometimes, too, of course, but tell me one game which hasn't any douchebags in it... You get the point.
Overall, the community isn't as big as of major AAA titles like TF2 or COD, but it is very healthy, and I don't see KF dying anytime soon. Always remember: More players, more idiots! ;-)
Resumé
KF is one of the best Co-Op Shooters on the net. Period. =)
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Pros:
- SELLING PRICE!!!
- easy to jump in random online games
- fun and satisfying shooting mechanics
- motivating/rewarding perk system
- smooth overall gameplay
- dark, gritty, mature atmosphere - no 'comic' look
- very gory/splatter
- very good sound, especially the guns
- many difficulties for every player type (from VERY EASY up to DAMN HARD)
- LOTS OF maps, official and community-made
- low pc requirements, runs easily on a 3-4 year old rig
- good community / teamplay
- FREE content updates (there is also (very cheap) DLC, but just COSMETIC!)
- customer friendly developer
- LOTS of achievements to go after
Cons:
- dated graphics (although I find them to be perfectly fitting for that game)
- sometimes a bit frustrating, depends on the difficulty and/or your squad
- not as polished as your random AAA-title (if that's a Con for you...)
- only one (official) gamemode, and that's "SURVIVAL" ;-)
MY SCORE:
9.0/10