| Killing Floor 3 | |||
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| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Killing Floor 3 is an action FPS horde-shooter by Tripwire Interactive and the third installment in the legendary Killing Floor series. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn’t do well, and if it’s worth buying.
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Killing Floor 3 Review Overview
What is Killing Floor 3?
Killing Floor 3 is a wave-based horde-shooter by Tripwire Interactive that pits a series of Nightfall Agents against an endless legion of bio-engineered super weapons called Zeds. Now unleashed on a new engine with UE5, Killing Floor 3 introduces new agents, a new perk system, and an expanded weapons customization system to go with its slew of new Zeds and levels.
Killing Floor 3 features:
⚫︎ 6 Nightfall agents to choose from
⚫︎ Unique perk trees for each agent, unlocked through gameplay
⚫︎ Hyperrealistic graphics using Unreal Engine 5
⚫︎ Weapons customization and resource gathering mechanics
⚫︎ 6-player co-op mode and single-player solo mode
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Killing Floor 3's gameplay and story.
 Steam |
 PSN |
 Epic Games |
 Xbox |
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| Price | $39.99 | ||||||
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Killing Floor 3 Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Great Graphics, Upgraded Gore New and Remixed Zeds Build-crafting Has Never Been Easier |
Fewer Classes, Worse Perk Tree Fewer Weapons, Less Wackiness Mixed Bag of New Mechanics Another Battle Pass, Because Why Not? |
Killing Floor 3 Overall Score - 68/100
Killing Floor 3 is NOTHING like the previous Killing Floor games—and whether that’s a bad thing is up for debate, though I tend to lean negative. It took bold steps forward but just as timidly stepped back, shaking up the arcade mayhem formula until it’s barely recognizable.It takes itself too seriously—maybe tried a bit too hard to be something else—and in doing so, it kind of succeeded to its own detriment.
Killing Floor 3 Story - 5/10
The story’s never really been the point of the Killing Floor games, though, to Tripwire’s credit, they’ve always made the effort to include one. In Killing Floor 3, it mostly takes a back seat to everything else, making it a little hard to appreciate, but the continuation of Horzine’s saga and the introduction of Nightfall as a counterforce is still an okay touch, even if it feels a bit underused.
Killing Floor 3 Gameplay - 7/10
Killing Floor 3 is a mixed bag of upgrades and downgrades—some applied to mechanics that never needed changing, and others to ones long overdue for a tune-up. For the most part, they balance each other out, like the trade-off between fewer guns and deeper customization. Still, the game ekes out a slightly better score thanks to the freshness it brings, even if the need for some of those changes feels questionable.
Killing Floor 3 Visuals - 8/10
What can I say? Unreal Engine 5 brings out the best in almost any game, and Killing Floor 3 makes the most of it with killer new designs for both the Zeds and Nightfall. It’s a bit too dark for my taste, but everything else leans beautifully into the whole cyber-undead vibe. Let's just hope they flesh out the animations sometime soon.
Killing Floor 3 Audio - 7/10
While Killing Floor 3’s music doesn’t quite hit the same intense, heart-pounding highs as the first two games, it’s competent, present, and used well for what it is. A few improvements wouldn’t hurt—especially when it comes to the voice acting—but overall, the audio holds its own.
Killing Floor 3 Value for Money - 7/10
Honestly, I can’t complain too much about what this game offers for its price. At $39.99, it’s well below what I expected, even if it’s shaping up to be the black sheep of Tripwire’s catalog. AAA visuals at a AA price? I’m in.
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Killing Floor 3 Review: Reinvention Gone Wrong
There’s a certain appeal to wanton destruction that keeps some game series charging forward—not always in the same way, but driven by that same itch for chaos. It’s the urge that sends Flint and Steel to TNT in Minecraft, or tempts bored players into save-scumming rampages in sprawling RPGs. The purest form of that destructive craving, at least in my eyes, lives in horde shooters like the Left 4 Dead and Helldivers series.
But before either of those took center stage—back when Unreal Tournament still mattered—one mod quietly carved out a space in the hearts of players who just wanted to mow down waves of faceless enemies. That mod eventually became Killing Floor, and over time, it blossomed into something bigger. But it's latest bloom? It’s a far cry from the legacy it wants to claim.
Forget different—Killing Floor 3 is nearly unrecognizable, and for a series built on formulaic, cathartic mayhem, that might be its worst offense. It’s not what we remember… but is that all that matters? The wave’s about to start, agent. Let’s find out.
Horzine’s Back and Bigger than Ever
So, what’s Killing Floor 3 about? Killing Zeds—what else would it be? That’s what the series has always been about, and that’s not changing anytime soon. But for the uninitiated, here’s the gist: Killing Floor’s story centers on a (very obviously) evil biotech company called Horzine, which has been creating bio-weapons known as Zeds in a decades-long bid for world domination.
In Killing Floor 3, Horzine’s back and bigger than ever, expanding its operations—but this time, there’s organized resistance. Enter Nightfall, a covert paramilitary group determined to take the fight to Horzine. Their agents are regularly deployed to battle Zed hordes, sabotage facilities, and bring the company’s twisted plans to a halt. Classic good-versus-evil setup. You’ll catch on quick.
That clash plays out as all-out warfare across various maps, where waves of Zeds pour in and Nightfall’s agents gear up with everything they’ve got to push them back. Guns, gore, and chaos—it’s business as usual.
Now, you might think this is a pretty nonchalant and stripped-down take on the game’s lore—and you’d be right. That’s on purpose, because even this is more than you’re likely to get from the game itself. Not because it’s hidden—if anything, the game can’t stop talking about it—but because it’s all set up.
The story exists purely as the backdrop to everything you do. Unlike other games where narrative drives the experience, here it’s more like set dressing. It’s context without much narrative, and honestly, that’s pretty on-brand for Killing Floor. That’s not a knock on the writing, either; the world-building is solid, the stakes are real, and the premise is compelling—it’s just not why you’re here.
And speaking of why you’re here, let’s talk gameplay, because that’s where most of what I have to say really starts.
Upgrades, people! Upgrades!
The core loop of Killing Floor 3 centers on its wave-based combat and perk systems—both returning features from previous entries in the series… mostly. I’ll get into the “mostly” in a bit, but as it stands, the loop is simple and familiar: Survive the wave, restock, upgrade your agent—repeat.
Each match is essentially a drawn-out last stand on a chosen map. Zeds come rushing in, you take them down in whatever brutal fashion you prefer, and then, between waves, you use your hard-earned cash to restock ammo and consumables. Sometimes you’ll have enough to grab a new weapon and shift your approach entirely; other times, you’d rather ride out the whole match with the same gear you started with.
At the end lies a boss wave, where a particularly huge Zed will test your squad’s abilities. It’s usually not revealed who the boss is until the last wave hits, so they can catch you unaware if your kit is useless against their whole gimmick.
Whether you win or lose, you get to go back to base to lick your wounds and upgrade your kit. In older Killing Floor games, this means picking a new perk to add to your agent, which usually defines your playstyle entirely. In Killing Floor 3, however, it’s a bit more complex than that.
What used to be a binary perk system, where each level lets players pick from one of two perks to add to their agent’s kit, has been replaced by an upgradeable and much more branching perk tree that players can unlock tiers of. Each tier has a choice of perks from one to three, each with its own push toward a playstyle.
Each of these abilities can also be upgraded using perk points, which are earned by playing the game and earning levels. The higher the player level, the more perk tiers they can access. The more they upgrade each perk in each tier, the more potent they are.
Now, on the subject of agents and upgrading, the entire concept of agents is new to Killing Floor 3. In previous games, specializations were just interchangeable classes anyone could pick up. Here, each agent is both a class and a distinct identity, and that’s not going away.
This time around, you’ve got the Commando, Engineer, Sharpshooter, Medic, Firebug, and the new addition, Ninja. Each one brings a unique playstyle—Firebug is all about setting the world ablaze, while Ninja focuses on high-mobility melee combat. Every agent has their own perk tree, too. While they do end up sharing weapon pools once a match starts, their starting kits are locked to their roles, making each feel more defined from the outset.
Lastly, let’s talk weapons. Killing Floor has always featured an armory’s worth of ranged and melee options you could buy mid-match, though that arsenal’s thinned out a bit in this installment. Traditionally, perks interacted with weapon types to provide specific buffs, but in Killing Floor 3, there’s an extra layer of strategy involved thanks to the new weapon customization system.
Unique to this entry is the option to craft and customize weapon loadouts that can be purchased between waves once you’ve saved up enough cash. To compensate for the smaller pool of available weapons, players can now fine-tune their gear with different ammo types, attachments, and gadgets. Build-crafting plays a much bigger role here than in previous games, with weapons and perks designed to work together instead of just picking whatever’s meta for that map.
On paper, all of this sounds like good news for Killing Floor 3. New systems, more player choice, meaningful upgrades—it seems like the series has taken a bold step forward.
Well… see, that’s exactly the problem.
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Some Things Didn’t Need Fixing, But They Did Anyway
The biggest problem with Killing Floor 3 is that it doesn’t feel like a Killing Floor game. Sure, the core combat loop is intact, the lore’s still kicking, and the Zeds are as grotesque as ever—but the changes made along the way have stripped out the soul and replaced it with cybernetics. Which, grimly enough, feels a little too on-theme given what Horzine’s all about.
Let’s start with the shift from a class-based system to a character-centric one. Killing Floor 3 gives you six agents. Six. That’s nothing compared to Killing Floor 2’s ten classes—twenty, if you count perk specializations. And yeah, sure, tying classes to individual agents with unique cosmetics and voice lines makes things more complicated, but did we really need to shrink the experience to make that work?
It’s not like there wasn’t room to expand. Ninja is a completely new specialization that effectively replaces the Berserker from KF2, so clearly the design space is there. But instead of building on what worked, the game starts pruning. And once you get to the weapons… it stings even more.
Customization? Great. More depth, more choice, all welcome. But fewer weapons overall? Not so much. And the real kicker is how generic most of them feel. One of KF2’s most charming features was its absurd variety, from hilariously over-the-top to painstakingly accurate. That range gave the game personality. Here, everything just feels… sanitized.
I don’t see why we couldn’t have had both: all the new stuff layered on top of the old foundation. That’s what made Killing Floor Killing Floor. But this game feels like it’s tried to reinvent the wheel instead of just tuning it, and in doing so, it’s lost what made it roll in the first place.
Some Changes Are Welcome
That said, not all the changes are misses—some are genuinely welcome and actually improve the game. Ironically, it's because they do exactly what I wanted: upgrades that build on the foundation rather than tear it up.
The new perk system is a big win. Upgradable perks have been on my wishlist for ages, and they finally made it happen. It works hand-in-hand with the weapon customization system—hollow as the weapon selection may be—and together they make for a strong build-crafting experience.
The engine upgrade and improved visuals are also a major plus. KF2’s graphics have definitely started to show their age, so seeing everything rendered in gorier, high-def detail is a treat, even if it wasn’t strictly necessary. Sure, I’d like a bit more color, saturation, and brightness here and there, but that’s more of a personal nitpick than a real issue.
There are new systems too, like harvesting resources by tearing down Horzine’s tech scattered across the map. Those feed into the armory crafting system—it’s simple, cleanly implemented, and never gets in the way.
And then there’s the new field apparatus, which I honestly enjoy using. Welding is now tied to consumables, so it can’t be abused in high-level play. Add in deployable turrets, armor drops, ziplines, and the verticality in map design, and you’ve got some solid upgrades across the board.
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Another Battle Pass Haunts This Game
Are you surprised? I’m not. This is exactly the kind of game that would have a battle pass. Live-service model, character-centric classes—it’s practically made for it. Honestly, though, it’s not that bad. It’s all cosmetic, and nowhere near as intrusive as whatever Overwatch 2 has going on, so it gets a pass—pun fully intended.
Just don’t let the FOMO get to you, and you’ll be fine. I’ll ignore a cosmetic battle pass for a paid game any day (looking at you, Rainbow Six).
Kinda Good, Kinda Bad, But Not Killing Floor as We Knew It
And so here we are at the end. Killing Floor 3 feels like a push toward the future that didn’t entirely need to happen—or at least, not like this. A lot of improvements were made, but they came with little consideration for what already worked. It’s innovation for innovation’s sake, and for a series as well-defined as Killing Floor, that’s not really a virtue.
Some core foundations were torn out without offering anything meaningfully better in return, yet the new additions do bring just enough freshness to keep it from being a total misfire. If you're in the market for a solid UE5 shooter that scratches that chaotic itch, it’s worth a shot, especially at $39.99. But if you came looking for Killing Floor 3, in spirit as well as name… this isn’t quite it.
Is Killing Floor 3 Worth It?
Surprisingly Cheap, Doesn’t Account for Quality Though
This game doesn’t look like it would cost just $39.99—not with its UE5 graphics and generally polished gameplay, legacy shake-ups aside—but it does. It’s a fair and competitive price for a AA shooter of decent quality, and one that new players will probably have a good time with.
Just don’t come in as a longtime fan expecting more of what the previous games delivered, because you won’t find it here. Manage your expectations, and there’s a solid chance you’ll enjoy it anyway.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
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| Steam |
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Epic Games |
Xbox |
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| Price | $39.99 | ||||||
Killing Floor 3 FAQ
Will Killing Floor 3 Have Post-Launch Support?
Yes. According to the game’s developers, Killing Floor 3 will continue to receive additional support after its official launch.
What Languages is Killing Floor 3 Available On?
The game is available in the following languages for its voice and audio: English, French, German, Spanish, and Simplified Chinese.
Additionally, localized text languages include: Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Latin-American Spanish, and Traditional Chinese.
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Game8 Reviews
Killing Floor 3 Product Information
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| Title | KILLING FLOOR 3 |
|---|---|
| Release Date | July 24, 2025 |
| Developer | Tripwire Interactive |
| Publisher | Tripwire Interactive |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam, Epic Games), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | Horror, Shooter, Multiplayer |
| Number of Players | 1-6 (Online Co-op Multiplayer) |
| ESRB Rating | ESRB Mature 17+ |
| Official Website | Killing Floor 3 Website |
