Killing Floor 2

The original Killing Floor was one of those games that quietly grew to be something more than the sum of its parts. Of course there were solid enough mechanics sewn together to make the whole, enough to attract and maintain a community at the very least, but it was the extensive post-launch support that the co-op shooter enjoyed that kept it breathing long after other games of the same era were left abandoned by the wayside.

It's a proper cult classic, if you want to give it a label, and it's that status that means this sequel is hugely anticipated. Not only is the community there - one nurtured since its days as an Unreal mod and after its subsequent 2009 standalone release - but things could get a whole lot better for creators Tripwire Interactive because this time they're bringing their grizzly first-person shooter to console; it's also down for release on PlayStation 4 as well as its traditional PC stomping ground.

We've been playing the Early Access PC version, and after several rounds of chaotic co-op zombie horde shooting, we have to say that this sequel is shaping up rather nicely indeed.

Straight off the bat, it looks great. There's three different maps in the version that we tested - Biotics Lab, Burning Paris, and Outpost - and there's plenty of contrast between the different environments. BioticLabs was probably our favourite of the three; it's an internal level with zombie experimentation going on throughout and in the background. There's tons of little details that you'll notice if you stop to take in your surroundings, such as zombie conveyor belts, or a bloody operating table in a glass viewing chamber that you can walk over.

Outpost is a mixture of internal and external environments, with the outdoor battles taking place in deep snow. BurningParis is, as the name suggests, set against the backdrop of the French capital at night, with abandoned cars littering the flame-filled streets. They're all good maps, and they're all mildly interactive; once during every match you can weld each set of doors shut to hold back the tide, which is handy during later rounds when there's dozens and dozens of mutant beasties coming to get you.

There's only one mode in the build we tested - Survival - although you can adjust it so there's a sterner challenge (though even "normal" is a nice challenge), and increase the number of rounds to be played. Seven seemed the perfect number, but you can go higher or lower should you wish. Between battles there's a chance to stock up ammo and health using credits earned in-game, in the process steeling yourself against the coming tide. With each round you get an increasing number of enemies to contend with, and as well as increasing in number they increase in strength and/or variety too.

There's some great enemy types to fight, and if you've never played the original, you're going to be hugely impressed. Experienced players will no doubt recognise most of their opponents in KF2; in this respect it doesn't look like Tripwire has strayed too far from their original blueprint (at least in the build we played, we're hoping there's more new stuff to come). Familiar they might be, they also look fantastic. The visual overhaul - which was much needed - has done wonders for the game, and now the character models are more detailed than ever before, and more menacing as a result.

The gunplay is really, really great, and there's some excellent reload animations that are slow enough to wrack your nerves during more frantic exchanges. There's a real authenticity to the actions as you switch weapons, or swap between guns and your handy health boost (the animation for which also seems to take forever, it's also limited by a cooldown timer). There's a wonderful sense of heft to the weaponry, and they each feel suitably different from one another. Heads pop satisfyingly when you line up your shots down the sights and fire with care, and there's a constant (and persistent) spread of red as you paint the world around you with the blood of your enemies.

There's a slow-mo camera - Zed mode - that regularly makes an appearance, which can happen at odd times if one of your co-op buddies activates it while you're reloading or similar. When you get it working in your favour, and the colour is sucked out of the screen and all goes grey and red, everything slows down for a few seconds and you can trace each and every shot as it exits the barrel of your gun. During moments like this you see each shot burying itself in the exploding skulls of onrushing enemies, scything them down mid-attack during heroic last stands or keeping swathes of mutants at bay with a flurry of well-placed shots. As you can no doubt imagine, it's satisfying stuff.

As you blast through the three maps currently on offer, you can do so with one of seven different playable characters, and there's four different classes, and each of these starts with different weapons - and there's even more to come. When it came to guns we tended to gravitate towards the assault rifle, although there's shotguns and melee options in there too if you want to get up close and personal (the melee combat feels improved over the original as well).

All of the content that we've seen so far seems very polished, and it's clear that Tripwire are cooking up another decent game (their last offering was the rather excellent and hugely under-appreciated Rising Storm; they're on a roll it would seem).

However, despite the positive impression we were left with, there was one niggle that had us frustrated. The boss battle with Hans Volter seemed overly difficult and out of place. He can throw grenades, lay down toxic gas, and deal out damage from melee attacks; he's a total bastard to kill. During one attempt to beat him (admittedly we never had a full team, the maximum number of players is six and the most we had was five) he eventually wiped out all the players except one, who then had to run laps around the map as they tried to whittle away at his health. A regen ability made it seem impossible to beat him, and in the end went back to the main menu after watching this excruciatingly boring dance for more than fifteen minutes. He feels a touch over-powered, and these encounters certainly paled in comparison to the rest of the experiences we had.

We're not grumbling too much though, as it's early days and as yet we've not levelled up all that much. We're hopeful that as we get better, and when playing with a full cohort, these boss battles will be more manageable (if they're not, then we'll most certainly start complaining a bit more loudly). Having said all that, you might want a stern challenge from your boss battles, and Killing Floor 2 most certainly delivers in this respect. In fact, the Early Access build of Tripwire's co-op shooter delivered in nearly all respects. It looks wonderful, it feels great, and it has all the hallmarks of a game being made by a studio at the height of their powers.