Killing Floor 3 has officially hit shelves. The release was seemingly met first by confusion, with some not aware it was coming in the first place. Some have simply turned to blaming the game’s marketing, while others are just happy to see a follow-up to the long-dormant franchise. In fairness, there has been some big news for the gaming industry as of late, so no one can be blamed for a new release going over their head.
Now that it’s here though, Killing Floor 3 has certainly caught our attention. Unfortunately, not all of that attention has been positive. While previous games in the Killing Floor series are remembered very positively, the latest entry seems to be off to a rocky start at best.
Killing Floor 3 Release Struggles to Meet Fan Expectations
Killing Floor 3 has been out for just long enough to collect a fair amount of reviews on Steam. In fact, there was already some discussion about the game from its beta test. Of course, most are willing to give the benefit of the doubt when it comes to early builds of a game. However, now that Killing Floor 3 has launched in a more official capacity, so too have fans’ criticisms of the game.
Killing Floor 3 debuted to “Mixed” reviews on Steam, a far cry from Killing Floor and Killing Floor 2; which boast “Overwhelmingly Positive” and “Very Positive” reviews, respectively. Among the criticisms voiced online, fans seemed to focus on their feeling that Killing Floor 3 simply doesn’t live up to its predecessors. That perfectly explains the vast disparity in reviews, though only time will tell if developers can close this gap.
Killing Floor 3 May Have a Tough Hill to Climb
There’s no doubt that Killing Floor 3 had big shoes to fill. Games like Killing Floor 2 don’t necessarily lend themselves well to sequels anyways, as they can essentially just be enjoyed forever by any given group of friends. It’s the same reason you’ll rarely see anyone clamoring for Team Fortress 3, but can still find plenty of people to queue up for Team Fortress 2 with.
It’s worth noting that receiving a Mixed review rating is not the same as receiving an entirely negative reception. In fact, it’s not uncommon for games to release to a positive reception, and then devolve into the Mixed rating over time after some developer mishandling. If Killing Floor 3‘s Year One roadmap lives up to the hype, it could very well end up taking the inverse of this route.
All this to say that Killing Floor 3 appears to have its fans. However, even much of this praise is couched in reservation, with one positive review espousing the need to “analyze this game in isolation”. This quote is then shortly followed by the commenter admitting the game “fails hard” to live up to the expectations which come with the Killing Floor name, despite their own review recommending the game.
