Killing Floor 2 is the sequel to Tripwire's 2009 Killing Floor. A lot of that game's elements and features have been improved on for this new installment. Treacherous Skies is a summer update event for KF2. A ton of new features were added. A brand-new stage, new enemies, four new weapons, two entirely new game systems, a new character, and a lot of new skins were added as well. The developer definitely wanted to bring a breath of fresh air to the game and community around it.

If you've never heard of or played either Killing Floor title, and shame on you if you haven't, then you should know that this franchise is synonymous with the horror survival genre. Waves of zombie hordes spawn and run at you to tear the flesh off your bones. You, and hopefully some online buddies, blast through them and accumulate credits that you can use in-between waves. In that interim, you'll use the Trader pod to buy new weapons, armor, and, now, upgrade your weapons. It's an adrenaline-filled shooting extravaganza.

Let's list a majority of the new features here and then discuss them in the gameplay section. There are two new stages. Four new weapons have been added. Two brand new game systems have been implemented. Each weapon is for a specific perk (or class) and feels powerful in its own right, for the most part.

Other additions include increased AI difficulty adjustments, such as increased sprint chances for Slashers, Clots, and other mobs. These are geared towards diehard players who play on the hardest settings. So even though lower level players won't necessarily see these new interactions, it's good to know that Tripwire has kept the more devoted players in mind in terms of game balancing and difficulty.

There are even more additions in Treacherous Skies, but these are the major ones that we felt were worth mentioning. We hope that seeing all of these new features will entice you to try the game out for yourself.

Let's be honest, no one plays the Killing Floor franchise for its narrative. But let us fill you in on why these Zeds are running among and why you're blasting through them with every weapon in sight (as if you needed a reason).

Killing Floor 2 takes place a month after the events of the original Killing Floor. A zombie outbreak is ravaging through Europe after the failed experiments of Horzine Biotech. Civilization in the E.U. is destroyed. The government has collapsed and its military has all been all but wiped out. The last bit of hope lies within a few civilians not willing to give up. These civilians, along with some mercenaries, have begun to track down Zed activity. They narrow in on the largest hotspots of Zed activity and drop in to eradicate them.

That's about it. There's no foreseeable cure in sight. Instead, the people have focused on the only thing still within their power to do. They kill as many as they can in hopes of exterminating all of these failed experiments before they spread to the rest of the world.

The two additional stages have entirely different atmospheres. The airship is entirely new and filled with David Lodge's excellent voice work for Ringmaster Lockheart. He is the star of this entire update. His monologues and quirky remarks made while you're mowing down mobs make this stage the most enjoyable one in the entire game. You also have to acknowledge that Lockheart sounds like a wackier version of Mark Hamill's Joker and we love it. Endless Lockdown was a fan-made stage that the community loved. So it's now been officially released to mixed feelings. We found it quite challenging, as did a lot of other players, but veterans love this closed off space because it's challenging. It looks visually stunning, you're in an overrun lab with narrow passages. It's easy to get trapped by mobs if you're not careful. But we feel that it's made for high level players only.

New Zeds, aka zombies, have been upgraded visually. There are too many new visual updates to list them all here. Tripwire definitely went all out to make the hordes look even more disturbing and worthy of a bullet to the face. Our personal favorites are the Alpha Clot (clown), EDAR Bomber (android), and Rioter (another clown, yeah, they're scary).

There are four new weapons in this update. The M99 (Sharpshooter) is possibly the most powerful weapon available, definitely out of the new ones. It has "headshot stacking", which means bonus damage for consecutive headshots. The railgun, an older weapon, is arguably just as strong as the M99. But having a choice between the two is better for a more well-rounded gameplay experience. Static Strikers (Berserker) allow you to go for a more melee-centric build. Gory, bloody, and satisfying are what come to mind when thinking of these piston-pumped, electrified, industrial strength gauntlets.

The Doomstick is for the support class. It's a more powerful shotgun compared to what we previously could use. Four rounds at a time can be loaded in. If you change the firing mode, as you can with almost all of the weapons, you can shoot all four rounds simultaneously for some serious firepower that'll be helpful for taking down the more powerful enemies such as the Fleshpound. The reload speed on this gun is surprisingly quick, too. You'd think that something this strong would be slow to reload, but that's not the case. It feels good to use this in whichever mode you want. Just backtrack a few yards while reloading and then step right back up to dish out some more pain. Man, this gun is satisfying!

The Goreshiv Survivalist knife is the least impressive weapon out of the four new weapons in this latest installment. It doesn't have better stats than any of the other knives. It just has a more unique aesthetic to it, which itself is polarizing among the Killing Floor community. However, there are rumors that this new knife for Survivalist may just be the first step to reworking the entire class. Maybe they'll change the stats for it, perhaps perks will be worked for this class, or maybe Tripwire has something else entirely planned. Survivalists have felt like the weakest class for a while and it appears as if the developer has acknowledged that and is taking steps toward correcting it in the future.

Another new addition is the weapon upgrade system within the Trader pod. Honestly, we didn't play this game before the Treacherous Skies update. So, it's quite difficult for us to imagine playing Killing Floor without a weapon upgrade system. It feels essential to the entire survival experience. Without it, we imagine early mobs being too easy to kill with strong weapons. Or the opposite, more powerful mobs being very difficult to kill with low damage weapons. Upgrading some of the basic weapons, such as your starting pistols, allows them to pack a punch later on. This way, you'll actually have more weapon variety with this new system. You probably won't want to use these upgraded basic weapons against bosses. However, they are still very effective for taking on regular mobs in later rounds.

The new Prestige system allows you to reset level 25 perks so that you receive some bonuses and items that are only available here. For instance, resetting your perk back to 0 will grant you a permanent 30% XP boost at the end of game matches (for this perk only), a modified perk icon (which all players can see), Vault Dosh (in-game currency), and unique weapon skins for this perk. This new system gives you something new to work towards once you reach end-game status. However, we're not quite sure if it's enough at the moment.

Most people know that Killing Floor looks visually great as well as atmospherically horrific. However, more attention should be brought to the soundtrack and voice acting. As stated above, Lockheart steals the show with his presence in the Airship stage. His sarcastic messages to the player lightens up the mood once you're covered in Zed blood and reloading a shotgun for the umpteenth time. There are five new tracks, four stage tracks, and one main menu theme. Tripwire calls these tracks "steampunk", but we have no idea what that means. The theme track sounds like it came from a possessed theme park. The other songs are metal songs through and through. They are cohesive additions to the already solid soundtrack to this game. Again, the sound of this game and the atmosphere it creates should not be overlooked.

The Prestige system is a good addition but it feels lacking. There need to be more reasons to reset a perk instead of just new skins, icon, and Vault Dosh. If they added additional perks, prestige only weapons, or prestige only costumes, then players would feel much more incentivized to reset a perk and grind for better rewards. It's definitely a step in the right direction, just like the idea of the Survivalist class being reworked in the near future.

We think this game has a great premise and could be a lot of fun for FPS as well as horror fans. When you play solo, it definitely feels like there’s an element missing from your game experience. You need to play with other people to fully appreciate the game and to actually enjoy it. If you play on your own, it feels really monotonous and as if you’re just grinding in order to unlock all of the perks and extra things that are available to you.

That being said, when you play with others online it feels as if you’re playing with high-level AI assistance. There’s no real communication going on between you and your teammates. At most, you have someone use one of their pre-programmed emotes to ask for money before being able to purchase new weapons or upgrades. More voice commands or possibly visual indicators that serve a strategic purpose would be the way to go. As with most games, playing with buddies through Discord voice chat (or some other program) is the best way to experience all that the Treacherous Skies update has to offer.

Treacherous Skies is a huge update that packs a lot of new and great features. If Tripwire continues to refine this franchise they'll have a major hit on their hands in the near future. The core community already loves this game. There just need to be a few quality-of-life changes that would draw in new fans and bring this game to mainstream attention on Twitch and YouTube.

Thanks for reading our thoughts on Killing Floor 2: Treacherous Skies. It's really a fun experience on one that we'll definitely revisit during Halloween season (we hope it gets another update around that time). Have a great day and we'll see you in the next one!