Recent reviews by delboe

I don't normally write these, but this game needs the negative aspects represented more, and I got hung up on the biggest of this game, the NPC behaviors. The AI is in such a state I can't recommend the game. There is quality in this game, fun to be had, and this it makes its fault here that much more frustrating. So here:
Yes, they will move from point A to B. To stand there without cover, or if they're by certain cover they may crouch briefly, then pop back up in the same place until they're killed or ordered to move. If shot, depending on what else is happening it's not uncommon for them to have no reaction, continuing with whatever they were doing regardless, or they will go prone, though they do this a lot only to stand right back up, so it's hard to gauge. Squads will charge from different angles as if flanking, but do so with a total disregard for the changing context of the fight. It's regular to see them display a lemming-like behavior, sacrificing themselves by the dozens. Medics will to try to revive people in front you after shooting them, even multiple times. If you go inside of NPCs and melee them they tend to malfunction, sometimes they'll go prone, I've ran around with no ammo butting squad after squad to the ground with time to deathblow each, and loot them as my allies are all returning from spawn, and the enemy is taking the town I was in, well until a forced surrender, which as a side criticism is a mechanic not communicated, neither is your cause of death. One of the more striking scenes is an entire faction being distracted with firing every magazine they have empty at a single armored tank, to which small arms do nothing, until something else destroys it, or them. This happens frequently if you don't handle tanks yourself, this means it can every play session several times, they just don't seem to know not to do that, seems like it'd be a relatively simple turn of logic in any scripting or programming language, but what do I know. In general during skirmishes they will stop usually with considerable delay or bot-like aloofness followed by omniscience as they track through solid objects, and attempt to shoot you with regular occurrence through them to no avail until their gnat attention span is drawn to something else. Opposing soldiers will often stand at doorways, or in buildings staring at walls, and taking shots with their backs turned, oblivious to another, possibly at the very same walls.
Artillery and Anti-Air placements, tank cannons, anything mountable really, causes a similar situation with the inverse of bot behavior, causing them to small goofy things like drive on top of rocks, or get stuck on barricades or other structures. But make no mistake, that Churchill stuck on a few rocks the size of retention wall bricks is a terminator, and it knows you looked at it cross-ways. It might be stuck but that area (basically whatever comes in line of sight) will likely be locked down if you don't do anything about it. If it doesn't see anything to shoot, it's probably rotating around to do so at you, though there's no view port that has a visual on you, it senses you. The mountable entities seem to allow NPCs to be able to see you through solid props with greater ease, range, or they simply act on it more often, this applies to most foliage, and solid aspects of the map as well, even hills it appears. Aircraft is so rarely targeted by bots that if you damage the hull of a plane with any weapon chances are it will begin to solely target you, so if you're wondering what is spewing a sneeze-stream of bullets at you it's the Spitfire you just shot at with your sidearm, yes you on the hill with a base or two between you and the contested point, and they will indeed leave you a bomb if they have they have it after their strafe. I'll admit this flaw has the upside of allowing you to matador fighter planes out of the air which is hilarious, and ego stroking. And you might have to if they're a problem, because meanwhile the AA guns are being used to snipe, or mow down infantry, for instance through jungle underbrush. The NPCs are very effective at this in my experience, especially when it's through several bushes away from the main fight. In addition any soldier mounting a stationary Anti-Aircraft or Anti-Armor gun becomes a struggle for the bots to shoot. I commonly see them pile up dying around the weapons as they attempt to terminate the operator(s). This isn't everything, but whether it's made by one person, or a million for me the problem is too glaring, and with regular DLC releases and polls running about what the next purchasable content pack will be it doesn't look to be a concern. I could be wrong. I wanted to like this game, but eh, with this problem area I can't. There are others, but as bad as this one is it's difficult to see them as worth mentioning, or analyzing. I feel like I'm playing a multiplayer focused game with bots as a placeholder feature, like I'm trying to play pretend with mannequins, and it starts to make me feel silly.

I would suppose the most popular analogue for games such as this is Day Z, and justifiably so for it is the first truely successful open world apocalyptic experience as far as I know. Nether is quite similar, and though in its early stages demonstrates an already seemingly expansive world to explore with an overgrown nature engulfed city being telegraphed with such an immersive execution. The ambiance of the desolate city scape only further ensconces the player in the shoes of the survivor as both natural and unnatural sounds coalesce in echoing harmony. Combine this with post apocalyptic often fully explorable structures, and the perpetual looming animosity of other survivors then you can have a rather tense survival experience. However, the current state of the designated enemy is rather at times frustrating. The teleporting variants of the predominant enemy known as the Nether seem to teleport consistently throughout an engagement, however they do so in such imbecilic and interspersing fashion that during the course of the conflict they will at times simply not be visible. Teleporting a floor above you, in the room next to you, outside of the building you are in are common occurrences. This problem is largely absent when fighting outside, but many battles take place around structures or inside of them (hence city). Aside from this obvious blunder there are other problems which I'm sure will be fixed or reimagined as time progresses toward a completed product. Disconnecting from a PvP engagement will also pose a problem, as in the current state it is an overly viable strategy which is only propagated by the reset of all level progress upon death (and of course the loss of all items on your person). The latter I hope remains apart of the game for it adds the edge all games of this sort require to remain suspenseful. I believe this game will resolve most of these, and other problems as I said for it is still quite a work in progress although a worthy one for any of those interested in an immersive apocalyptic experience.

- I haven't touched the game since this review which was made around when it became early access. I stand by my opinion concerning the ambiance of the game, but the gameplay simply wasn't enough to hook me for more than 8 hours of play.

Killing Floor is a survival multiplayer game that utilizes: waves of enemies, poorly crafted innuendos, shockingly bad voice acting, and a myriad of conventional as well as unconventional weaponry. The sanguine lead revelry that takes place each wave is only made more demented and absurd by not only the appearance of the enemies, but the most dimwitted dialogue in the most grotesquely paramount scenarios. In short the periods in which you're not completely eviscerating the mutations known as specimens with the weapons you purchase between waves you'll be either disturbed and/or humored by the game's unique brand of voiced hilarity. Of course this humor quickly turns mundane after a few hours of play, but it will still leave you talking about dosh and how you should "grab it while it's hot". After certain facets of the game become stale you're often still beguiled by the sense of progression you receive while leveling up the various classes or "perks" the game gives you to choose from, and with the company of friends the experience is much more entertainingly refreshing as you blast through waves of specimens. These specimens come in various forms or types that all require certain strategies to terminate safetly, and so the game often requires teamwork depending on the set difficulty. Upon the end of all of these waves you are faced with a relatively challenging boss (once again depending on the difficulty) called a Patriarch which onsets the end of the map once defeated. It's quite painless to say that the waves leading up to Patriarch are far more enjoyable as most are dispensable slaughter fodder that satisfies the function of whatever weapon you choose. As I said before the weapon selection is quite varying, and your choice of device is often dependent on your selected perk. These weapons are purchased between waves some are cheap while others can be considered "pedestal" weapons that are afforded toward the latter part of each game due to accumulated cash. The varying weapons, difficulties, stock maps, player created maps, game variable changing mutators, and perk progression seem to keep this game afloat for some while others play each time a new update is released as the game is quite consistently receiving new content. The only notable con of this game is its propensity to become stale due to its repetitive nature, and while this seems inevitable for some all the gameplay leading up to such a state is well worth the purchase.