Shooters – The All-Nighter

If you or anyone you know owns a Playstation, chances are you’ve heard of this one. The Last of Us was immensely popular when it released at the end of the Playstation 3’s life cycle despite it being exclusive to that console. For a while, the remastered version on PS4 was one of the main selling points of Playstation’s new console.

Gameplay

The Last of Us is a third-person over-the-shoulder style shooter and stealth game. The characters you play as are on a trek across a post-mushroom apocalypse United States to save what’s left of humanity. This is played out through a combination of stealth sections, inevitable shootouts, boring puzzles, and cutscenes. The multiplayer mode, Factions features team-based tactical shootouts similar to certain storyline sections. It is unfortunately underdeveloped, as the developers were likely not expecting Factions MP to blow up so much. The multiplayer gameplay is arguably far more interesting than the gameplay provided in the storyline, but both gamemodes are not without their flaws.

Hats — *TLOU Multiplayer has no shortage of cosmetic items.*

Appeal

The storyline is worth playing at least once, for anyone. The characters are very humanized, and react to things in a way that is very believable. Because of this, the events that happen are a lot more emotional for the player. The multiplayer, on the other hand, is a remarkable test of skill, patience and strategy in a genre defined by sprinting around mindlessly and killing everyone. It rewards proactive players and punishes complacent players, despite being a slow-paced cover shooter. Matches often come down to the wire due to the limited amount of bullets that each player has. This means every shot has to count.

Why bother?

If you haven’t played what is regarded as one of the most emotional video games ever, you owe it to yourself. The multiplayer was decent as well, and with a sequel coming in 2019, it might be time to brush up on strategies.

Killing Floor 2 is marred with repetitive gameplay, slow development progress, and lackluster content updates. So why is it still played by thousands of people daily? Because despite its flaws, it is one of the best zombie shoot-em-ups out there.

Firebug at work — *Often, the best solution to battling hordes of monsters is a wall of fire.*

Gameplay

The concept of KF2 is simple enough: Join a game with some friends, fight waves of monsters of various sizes and shapes, and slay a boss at the end. You are given a choice to play as one of several fairly unique roles called ‘perks,’ and each perk has its own abilities that can aid the team in some way depending on which of the two given upgrades you choose at each tier. Several classes are completely unviable if you deviate from the generally recommended upgrade path though, meaning that you are objectively playing the game ‘wrongly’ if you ignore everyone’s advice. Despite this, it is very fun to get a full 6-man team and battle Zeds with a proper team build.

Style

The real draw of Killing Floor 2 lies in the style aspect. Hiding in a cabin with a baseball bat while zombies gnaw on the door is for weaklings and people who play TellTale Games (Rest in Peace). Real badasses in a zombie apocalypse face their eventual death with sheer arrogance, carrying things like akimbo Desert Eagles, or quad-barreled shotguns. Combine this attitude with a pounding metal soundtrack, and impressive gore physics, and you might understand why KF2 feels so cool to play.

Bloody Walls Screenshot — *An M79 grenade launcher can make repainting an entire hallway a breeze.*

Why bother?

It’s honestly a shame that the game’s content is updated so slowly. Many people’s complaints about the game lie in things like fighting the same bosses over and over, despite the wide variety of maps available. While this is a legitimate concern, there’s just enough content trickling in to keep me playing. There is just something about the feeling of turning the head of a bio-engineered, chainsaw-wielding Scrake into pasta sauce with an Anti-Material Rifle that really gets me going. If you can get past the mindlessness of doing the same thing over again in different ways, then this game is worth a try.