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Killing Floor 2

Killing Floor 2 - PS4 Hands-On

We played the PS4 version of Tripwire's shooter at a hands-on event last week.

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Last week Tripwire Interactive hosted a zombie themed event in Reading to showcase the upcoming PlayStation 4 version of Killing Floor 2, and after we were put through an intense Killing Floor-themed experience, with actors dressed up as Zeds and our mission being to kill them, we got some hands-on time with the game.

One thing to note is that there isn't a whole lot of change from Killing Floor 2 on PC. In fact, Game Director David Hensley said "it looks exactly like the PC pretty much". The game's Creative Director William T. Munk also weighed in on this, saying: "We didn't want to make a game where PC guys could say it's better on the PC and the console guys would feel left out or vice versa [...] we weren't like 'oh, let's do console so we can cash in on it, let's just plop something out'. The reason this was our first [console game] is because we felt like we could actually make sure we made something awesome on console without compromising anything."

This commitment to quality, especially in comparison to the PC version of the game, is apparent from the beginning. As we sat down and looked at the menus, everything seemed to look great and run smoothly, even when we got into the game and the intensity started cranking up. When bullets were flying, blood was spraying and a hundred Zeds were up in our face, the game still ran impressively well.

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Quality is still there in terms of visuals as well. Tripwire have been hard at work optimising everything graphically, especially in regards to particle effects, to make sure everything looks good and nothing slows the game down. Blood still remains on the floor and the Zed time is still there in its black and white, so fans of the series won't find that they are lacking anything that the PC has, the point being that Tripwire have made every effort to transfer all of it to PlayStation 4 unscathed.

This includes content as well. When we asked Hensley and Munk about whether the PlayStation 4 was getting exclusive content, they made it clear that their stance on being uncompromising in between PC and PS4 also applied to content, and that neither would get more than the other. They also assured fans that content would still be put into the game regularly, except now on both platforms.

To talk a little bit more about the mode we were given to play, we were given a team of six to face seven waves of enemies with a boss, The Patriarch, at the end. All of the characters we were given were fully levelled up in terms of perks and so we went off, fighting Zeds and experiencing the glorious joy of teamwork and slaughter that Killing Floor 2 is famous for.

As expected, it played the same as the PC version in principle i.e. the format was the same, as were the characters and the gameplay, however, the big difference was obviously the controller. "We've got a couple of really passionate guys in the studio that use controllers and they really helped out a lot," Hensley said, "but it's really about trying it, blind testing it on people", and this work seems to have paid off. The controller works really well, and given the intensity of the game we soon found ourselves getting to grips with the buttons and what we needed to press to survive.

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Also on display at the event was the PS4 Pro version of the game, which we were eager to play. The game of course looks better on a 4K television screen and the performance is just that little bit smoother, however, we wouldn't say there's much of a reason to invest in either for this game specifically. Sure it looks and plays just a bit better, but the gap isn't huge enough to make us think we'd prioritise it over the PS4 version. Also, small visual issues become clearer in 4K, ironically, and some jagged edges of round objects became apparent when we were looking around the levels. Below you can find some footage and screens from the PS4 Pro version:

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Since we last previewed Killing Floor 2, however, content has been added to the game which also makes its way to the PS4 version as well. This includes two perks, the S.W.A.T. and the Sharpshooter, and all the content within those perks, like freeze grenades for the latter and an FNP90 for the former. There have also been maps added, changes in UI, new characters and more, all of which are included in what is a full updated version of Killing Floor 2 for PS4, keeping with the theme of consistency yet again.

Overall, Tripwire's stance on not compromising when it comes to developing the PS4 version of Killing Floor 2 is evident when playing it. It feels the same, plays the same and looks the same as the PC version and apart from the controller there isn't much to separate the two, and its admirable that Tripwire are committing such time and effort to doing this. It should certainly be worth PS4 players looking into.

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Killing Floor 2Score

Killing Floor 2

REVIEW. Written by Mike Holmes

"It's a focused and deliberate game, one that knows its strengths and sticks to them."



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