Killing Floor 3 isn't revolutionary, but the simple bliss of Zed blasting makes me feel like it's 2009 again – even if it's missing the original's heart

Playing Killing Floor 3 at launch is my first time playing the co-op horde shooter series in years – and it's to this threequel's credit that after the rote tutorial my muscle memory kicks in. I'm blasting off the heads of Zed's (essentially infected zombies by way of a Hellraiser loving metalhead teen's scrapbook), and collecting 'dosh' to refill ammo, buy new guns, and upgrade armor at the trader between waves like I never stopped playing. As the extra dangerous and extra gross boss dies at the end of my first map clear, it feels a little like coming back to my hometown after years away.

Except I really do mean that. Hometowns never stay the same as they were – and there's still the nagging sensation with Killing Floor 3 that as happy as I am to return there's something missing. It might be the way battle pass challenges muscle in on the action, or extremely boring fetch quest story missions, or even the way the glossier graphics are about as far away from the rough and tumble gnarly textures of the original as you can get.

Killing Floor 3 also doesn't have text chat – an annoying omission that doesn't feel out of step with modern online rivals. Nor does it have a server browser – again, should I have expected a 2025 shooter to? Both feel like pillars of my time with the series years past, so it's a shame to see features like this get clipped. In fact, I returned to the very first game (hey, Killing Floor 2 was almost 100GB so I didn't feel like doing that one), and it's still active, filled to the brim with fan servers, many of them with custom maps. Jumping in, it's still easy to coordinate with these stalwart players to request spare change for mid-match upgrades, and console one another on inevitable violent wipes.

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It's hard to say Killing Floor 3, with its lashings of gore, feels sterile, but there's definitely the feeling that it's been smoothed down somewhat. Killing Floor's core loop was joyous in its simplicity, yes, but the rest of the package around it felt messier for the better. It was unique and off-kilter, its infected apocalypse filled with silly over-the-top cockney accent barks, and maps with circus monkeys trading in their cymbals for chainsaws. This latest entry, on the other hand, feels like online shooter business as usual.

Though I do long for the years spent doing waves with pals back in the day, I do have to admit there's still a lot I like about how Killing Floor 3 has been modernized. I'm pleased to see the cheeky sense of humor still intact – even if I'm already noticing a lot of repetitive lines. I like how easy it is to flick through gun modes, mantle across the actually pretty impressively vertical maps, and just to sprint itself (the original was the kind of '00s FPS where you had to get the knife out).

I've seen others complain that the guns feel a bit lightweight and yes, that's true – but I don't mind it so much myself. While I would appreciate a bit more oomph, I'm used to Killing Floor having a clarity of control that guns too realistic could get in the way of for me. These are simply the bullets I use to cleanse the maps of Zeds, almost PowerWash Simulator style.

I really dig the Zed redesigns, both across their especially nasty visuals and even AI. They're still not too complex, they're designed to be mowed down after all, but do have a variety of behaviors that feel fresh and take me off guard a bit in earlier rounds, like crouching down to try to flank you just a little bit. Still, they're easy enough to deal with most of the time. While you'll get stomped in harder modes, Killing Floor 3 in general might be easier than ever to recover if you get separated from the group – and I'm not sure that's a great thing.

Killing Floor 3 finds itself in an odd spot when it comes to carrying the series' sense of identity forward. This is a glossy, stripped back, battle-pass-loop-ready online shooter that's following in the legacy of the first Killing Floor's wonderfully duct-taped together chaos and Killing Floor 2, which successfully added loads more features throughout its long life until it was bursting at the seams.

I can't help but think of Payday 3's rocky launch, and its relationship with the feature-rich Payday 2. At launch, I think I prefer Killing Floor 3 to Payday 3, but it's a similar situation where it feels like some sauce has been lost by being a bit too smoothed down, a bit too eager to hit the usual battle pass structure.

Still, I've been having a good enough time with Killing Floor 3 so far – it's done a great job of reminding me why I loved the series in the first place. I love how straightforward it is compared to say, Call of Duty: Zombies, which always ends up losing me each time I try it because there's just a bit too much going on. But, at the same time, I had just as much fun returning to the very first game. I'm more than happy to jump back into Killing Floor 3 to blast Zeds in co-op, but it might need some bigger updates before I'll be the one enthusiastically texting people to jump online. But I hope we get there.

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