Killing Floor returns later this month with Killing Floor 3, which works to continue polishing the experience of fighting waves of monsters with friends. Story takes a backseat in this series, as your main focus is on surviving each wave of enemies until you finally face the Patriarch. While the concept stays the same in Killing Floor 3, the closed beta that I participated in showed some differences in this game from previous releases, and they might not be for the best.

Having sunk hundreds of hours into the first two games, I went into the Killing Floor 3 beta with high hopes. It's not the finished product yet, with the full release coming on March 25, so there's potentially time to make some changes to improve what hasn't worked as well in this version compared to previous versions, especially when it comes to the game settings. It's also worth noting that I only played a limited portion of what will be available at full launch. With that in mind, this preview is based on my experience of the closed beta only.

The Combat Is Smooth But Leaves Me Wanting More

Zed Time Has Changed Too Much

Zed Time is the slow-motion feature that you can activate when killing zombies in Killing Floor, and it might be the series' most iconic feature. Traditionally, Zed Time slows down the world around you, making it easy to headshot enemies and see their gory demise. Killing Floor 3 has tweaked this feature a bit. The slow motion doesn't feel as slow as it used to, but the enemies also take on a red grid style when it's active, which is an unusual - and unhelpful - addition.

I don't think that the Zed Time changes are inherently worse, but they do present issues. The grid style makes it harder to differentiate between enemies, so you can't use Zed Time to its fullest each time it's active. The feature also takes away from the joy of slow-motion gore from previous games, which is another hallmark piece of the series.

In of gameplay, the combat is mostly a smooth experience. During my time with the beta, I struggled with stuttering and random FPS drops. While that's not unusual for a pre-release game - and it wasn't bad enough to make KF3 unplayable - it does have me a little concerned. On the plus side, it's fast-paced and often feels like a hack-and-slash style of game, especially if you play the Ninja Specialist. Overall, the combat itself is promising, but setting the game in the future and having the style reflect that makes it feel like less of the series' soul is present.

Customization Has Me Worried

Weapons & Character Options From The Closed Beta Felt Lackluster

In previous games, it felt like getting a new weapon from the trader made a huge difference in how much damage you did. That doesn't feel like the case in Killing Floor 3. For the most part, I didn't change my weapons and was still able to get through waves easily enough. You can pick upgrades in the form of small perks from the trader, but those also don't feel like they make that much of a difference.

Characters are in a similar position for Killing Floor 3, at least in the beta. Each Specialist has a default character you play as. A lot of DLC content in previous games gave you character options as a result, letting you change up your look as you play, which wasn't a part of this closed playtest.

We confirmed with a PR rep after the beta that it "did not include all customization options for characters/weapons or all maps," but that more won't be revealed until further down the line. Hopefully we'll see more Specialist options and changes to the weapons that make it feel worthwhile to save money to purchase them.

Graphics And Visual Effects Can Cause Motion Sickness

There's A Need For More Options

Perhaps the biggest issue I ran into during the beta was motion sickness from the graphics and visual effect choices, which I didn't experience in either Killing Floor 1 or Killing Floor 2. Instead of gore, you have a lot of explosions happening on your screen at any one time. Then, the Zed Time effects in KF3 switch up those visuals, and you have special enemies that can cause effects like shaking on your screen. Unfortunately, this left me nauseous.

There are options in your menu that you can turn off to help with the effects that tend to cause issues like motion sickness, but even with them turned off, there are still visual effects that can leave you feeling unwell if you're prone to motion sickness in games. It's not uncommon for these issues to be present in FPS games in particular, but it's sad to experience it in the latest addition to a series I've spent hours in beforehand without the same issues.

Overall Thoughts From The Killing Floor 3 Beta

A Rough Start

In the end, Killing Floor 3's beta was okay, but it's left me with more questions than answers when it comes to what we can expect from the final product. We know there'll be more maps and such when the game releases, which will hopefully leave the final product more akin to those that came before it. If I could only choose one game in the series to play, it would be the first one, and Killing Floor 3 does feel very different to that in of its world and style.

As for improvements, more options to remove effects that cause motion sickness would be ideal (unless the issues themselves are fixed in time for launch). I also found that weapons needed more of a difference in ability to truly them worth purchasing from the trader, though again, this may be due to the closed beta's limitations.

From the slice I played, it's possible the game has leaned too hard into a futuristic setting without needing to, and it might be better for Killing Floor 3 to work on returning to the series' roots to keep its core essence alive. Still, my time with the game has left me curious enough to wait for the full release on March 25, 2025, though hopefully we'll see some improvements outside of the closed beta.