Hands-on with Killing Floor 3: a terrifying evolution of the series’ monsters
8.26.2024
By Francisco Dominguez, Contributor
When I first encounter a Siren in my Gamescom 2024 preview of Killing Floor 3, playing fan-favorite commando Mr. Foster, it's clear that something’s a bit different this time around. For one, she can confidently drop 50 feet to land right in front of me instead of staggering across the map from a comfortable distance. Next, her neck extends to grotesque lengths in a terrifyingly unfamiliar attack wind-up. It’s clear this isn’t the same old Killing Floor I remember.
After guiding me through a solo run on a map modeled after Area 51 gone very, very wrong, KF3’s Creative Director Bryan Wynia gleefully explains how Tripwire Interactive is out to shock players, upend expectations, and inspire panic. To this end, keeping with the series’ origins as an Unreal Tournament 2004 total conversion mod, they hired many of Killing Floor 2’s finest mapmakers and modders who have proven their considerable talent in scaring the wits out of players in creative new ways.
“We're really trying to double down on the action-horror,” Wynia says, adding that he's proud of how many players they've "got" with organic jump-scare moments at Gamescom so far. “What we’re improving for KF3 is enhanced Zeds. Basically, Zeds have more ways to kill you now, [and there's] easier ways for them to navigate through the world.”
Swarms of Crawlers have unnerved Killing Floor players with their rapid advance on all fours for over 15 years (or so to speak; they actually have so many more limbs than that thanks to Horzine Biotech’s twisted experiments). Now they approach from walls and ceilings too. Husks can fly, shooting their fire-cannon at you from an aerial vantage point. And the Scrake—perhaps the most powerful non-boss Zed from previous games—now has a grab move to pull you into the horde when its signature chainsaw isn’t enough.

Nowhere feels safe. I find myself not just scanning the map’s horizon but casting panicked looks up to the sky, to the ceiling, and to every distant elevated vantage point in view. These changes make an experience as challenging as it is unfamiliar.
Assaulted by spike-wielding Gorefasts, I find myself struggling with an enemy that was once effortlessly dispatched. Before, you could bait an attack and comfortably backpedal to safety while they stab into the air. Now they demand mastery of one of several new movement mechanics: a timely side-dodge to avoid a lethal skewering. Along with new additions like mantling, sprinting, and ziplines, you’ve got new ways to put some distance between yourself and the ambushing Zed’s newfound precision.
That’s just one way Tripwire is looking to level the playing field for Nightfall, the rebels players aid in their helpless fight against Horzine Biotech’s army. Wynia explains flexibility for player expression comes above all else in their quest to achieve endless replayability.
“If we're making the Zeds more deadly, we have to give the players more tools and items to combat them: the ability to use gadgets, the ability to use tools, weapon mods for players to use, and the option to play off-perk with some of their weapons.” ("Perks" are KF's character classes).
These tools prove to be satisfying and effective. Shock traps let me slow Zeds at choke points with electrocution. One of Wynia’s favorites is the drone gunner that devastates anything in front of you with overwhelming firepower.

Endless replayability demands endless options, which are delivered by a new weapon mod system which promises a huge expansion on the previous games’ weapon upgrades. Each wave ends with the chance to buy randomized variants of my current loadout with assorted modifications, changing basic stats or even transforming weapons into something entirely new. With one purchase, my assault rifle transforms into a precision rifle with single shot fire and laser sights, which I complement with a sidearm SMG now loaded with acidic bullets.
That system is only set to become deeper alongside each perk’s branching skill trees that players unlock as they level perks over time. Wynia shared a few of Mr. Foster’s: the Hothead skill where headshots get a 20% chance of explosive damage to Zeds around them, and a grenade skill where one explosive splits into many for effective crowd control.
Killing Floor 3 feels very different from its predecessors, and its aesthetics are no exception. Of course, its visual quality and sheer gory spectacle is better than ever—the team’s particularly pleased with their dynamic blood system that paints enemies and maps in persistent grisly splatters. But there’s a broader shift in the background: They want to make their Zed apocalypse even darker. Horzine Biotech is only growing more powerful.
“Killing Floor is gritty grindhouse. Killing Floor 2 goes full sci-fi horror. And in Killing Floor 3, what we're trying to do is communicate a dystopian future.” Wynia says. He also promises that even in this hopeless, distant future, more grounded real-world locations—like those that made the series’ name such as the popular West London and Farm maps—will come in time.
By the end of the demo, I’ve dispatched hundreds of specimens with what I’m reassured is a respectable headshot ratio. And I’m ready to find countless ways to pop specimen heads and uncover more of their nasty jump-scare surprises whenever Tripwire Interactive will let me.
You can wishlist Killing Floor 3 on the Epic Games Store today.