Killing Floor is an acquired taste, or at least it was for me, like chugging down a bucket full of rust and blood, with accents so dodgy they’d taken on form and floated atop the grungy broth like cockney croutons.
Where Left 4 Dead directs the players’ progress, toying with them, Killing Floor has the player run around in circles, waggling their most succulent parts at the mutants and freaks, encouraging pursuit. Crowd control, herding, elimination; it’s a butchery simulation with cattle that bite back. This summer’s special event, the Summer Slideshow 2012, adds new levels, enemies and guns. The trailer would have given me nightmares when I was a boy.
Carnivals and freakshows are a natural fit for Killing Floor, which has always felt like a nasty splatter of grindhouse exploitation. It’s almost defiantly ugly, from the tattered flesh and strange surgeries of its enemies to its lack of regard for consistency, thematic or visual. It’s a mess but it can be a gloriously brutal and hilarious mess to wade through.
So, here’s what the pack includes:
Free for everyone that owns Killing Floor – auto downloaded through Steam
All new level – Hellride – experience heaven and hell as you follow the course of this doomed carnival ride
All creatures in game replaced with freak-shows themed monsters including Pukey the Clown and his side-kick, the Fleshclown
16 new Summer Sideshow achievements return only for the duration of the event
9 All new achievements added
5 new official weapons – the IJC community weapon pack has been polished up and made an official part of the game
“Steampunk Mr Foster” playable character Unlockable again for the duration of the event
New DLC Character Pack – “Urban Nightmare”
Of course, if you own the game and play it regularly you’ll already know that because the update should have installed automatically. I enjoyed the trailer though, ‘orrible as it is, and wanted to blather on about Killing Floor. And maybe you haven’t installed it for a while and this summer’s sickening will convince you to weld once more.
The event ends on July 23rd.
