I'd never played Killing Floor until I sat down to play the newest entry, and I can't believe what I've been missing

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"What the f*ck is that?" I shriek during my Killing Floor 3 hands-on demo, watching in horror as another hulking Zed pulls itself up from a ledge just meters away. It's no run-of-the-mill zomboid creature, though: this is a special variant known as a Slasher. Or was it a Charger? I don't recall, because I was barking expletives at it and pumping it full of lead almost instantly.

Ankle-deep in the blackened blood of these genetic freaks of nature, I take a breath and grin. An on-screen pop up alerts me that I've just withstood the first wave of enemies in Killing Floor 3, an upcoming horde zombie shooter that looks to put the 'laugh' back in 'slaughterfest'.  I'd almost forgotten how much games like these put me at ease, the ultimate stress relief after a long week at work – or in this case, a three-day Gamescom shift. The fact that my first ever Killing Floor experience was shared with the Tripwire developers themselves, chortling at my fury and cluing me in on all the cool new features? That's just the icing on the biohazardous cake.

Chilling, killing

Gamescom 2024

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Upon sitting down for my hands-on session with Killing Floor 3, I'm asked by the developers what my gun-of-choice usually is in a first-person shooter. "Precision," I tell them immediately, thinking longingly of the powerful pistols, magnums, and revolvers (or snipers, if available) I always favor for skull-popping action in shooter RPGs or third-person action titles.

I'm not told any official names, but the devs guide me to the pre-match store to swap my loadout around. They encourage me to select an elite-looking pistol, complete with immolating ammo and the ability to pierce through multiple Zeds at a time, but there's at least four other categories of gun on offer. Machine guns have never been my speciality – too unwieldy – and shotguns are a bit slow and plodding. But there's an automatic shotgun here that makes extra quick work of the Zeds, by far the punchiest video game shotgun I've ever handled, with a reload speed I can only dream of in the likes of Halo.

Part of what makes the gunplay such fun in Killing Floor 3 is down to the addition of weapon mods – 182 of them, to be precise. Tripwire wants it to be known that swapping around your mods and applying them to favored weapons is a piece of cake, allowing for greater build flexibility and for players to play in the most fun way for themselves personally. My demo session isn't quite long enough to master how it works exactly, but just know that the developer has heard your cries for gun customization and aims to deliver. I'm also told that Crawlers being able to actually crawl on ceilings and walls is another thing the fans have been crying out for for years, and it is my duty to let you know that those terrifying blighters are indeed scuttling about every inch of the battle zone in all their grotesque, gravity-defiant glory in Killing Floor 3. Oh, and did I mention there's "12 times the quantity and density" of blood in this game compared to the last? Because yeah, this might be the most red stuff I've seen in a video game since Dead Island 2.

The rest of my preview is a guns-blazing free-for-all, me versus the undead masses. As a long time Left 4 Dead 2 fan, I thought I'd be missing some companionship to help thin the crowd. But Killing Floor 3 still somehow feels like a power fantasy, even when I'm grossly outnumbered. Once again, it's down to the sheer unpredictability of each wave of enemies. Throwing down an electric landmine onto each edge of this sprawling, mechanical factory-like battlefield means that I fry clusters of Zeds before I even see them. That turbo-charged automatic shotgun I mentioned earlier? It rips through a bile-spewing Bloat with one powerful shot to the gut. I stop to laugh at its blood-spattered bare butt cheeks, its lower half slumping to the ground with a wet thud. Thankfully, the Tripwire developers are delighted by my ghoulish glee, and don't call security on me.

Perhaps my favorite thing about Killing Floor 3? The panic button. By hitting the mouse wheel, either on purpose or by accident in a state of urgent flurry, my player character goes into slow-motion. This special move sends a combat drone up into the air beside me, laying waste to the Zeds faster than ever. It only lasts about three seconds, but when cornered in a tight spot with nowhere to go, it's the coolest and most relieving three seconds of my life.

I might be starting at the wrong end of the series, but I can't say enough brilliant and bloody things about Killing Floor 3 right now. Not only does it deliver a gnarly horror experience with all the gore a girl could dream of, it's a wildly fun FPS with weighty gunplay and vast potential for build flexibility and experimentation. It seems I've been missing out on one hell of a horde shooter party, but trust me when I say I won't be sleeping on Killing Floor any longer.

Check out the best FPS games to play as you await Killing Floor 3.