Case study (video game project)
- 2. Killing Floor 2 Killing floor 2 is a first-person shooter game mixed with a survival horror. Where you have to eliminate waves of enemies in each round. For every enemy you kill, the more money you get. With the money you earn in the match, whether that’s multiplayer or single-player, you can buy upgrades. These upgrades vary from different weapons to armour, grenades, and ammo. In Killing Floor 2 you can pick from a total of 10 classes. These classes determine the guns you start with as well as your playstyle. Each class has different weapons that you can buy when you can afford them with in game money that you earn. However, choosing one class doesn’t mean you have to stick with that class you can change your class at any time even in game, but it has to be at the end of one of the rounds when the trader is open. The games enemies that you fight are known as Zeds. The Zeds vary from a Scrake to a Flesh pound. As each wave passes the enemy count will increase with different enemy types, and at the final round there will be a boss along with some Zeds, depending on the boss. The boss will be determined randomly upon the start of the last wave. Each boss has strengths and weaknesses. At the start of a round the player starts with a primary weapon, a side arm, a healing syringe, and a welder used to weld door together to stop Zeds from coming through. Random weapons, ammo, and armor can be found by exploring the level, though players have a limited amount of weight they can carry. The game is based on events from Killing Floor 1, in which bio-tech firm Horzine's attempt to create military clones is hijacked by an insane researcher and unleashed on the UK. The clones have now rapidly spread across Europe, paralyzing the response from the European Union.Within Killing Floor 2, taking place a month after the first game, the outbreak has spread beyond Europe,causing governments to collapse and communication systems to fail. Main cover for Killing Floor 2 (above) Killing Floor 2 gameplay screenshots that have been edited
- 3. Killing Floor 2 classes: -Berserker - The up front melee character. Mainly focuses of up front attacking. As you level up his damage resistance goes up. -Commando - The classic class of shooters. A soldier that focuses on assault rifles. Can also see invisible Zeds, and health bars when close enough. As you level up Zed time is increased. (slow motion). -Support - The support focuses on using shotguns. meant to clear out large amounts of lower class zeds, and can deal high damage to higher zeds. Also, gives allies ammo when they interact with you. Also every 5 levels will give you 1 extra weight to carry weapons. -Field Medic - Fairly up front. The healer of the group. As you level up, it can heal more, move faster, and healing syringe recharges faster. -Demolitionist - The explosives expert of the group. Kills large groups. It's worth noting that explosives to 25% extra damage to flesh pounders, while bullets do 25% less. As you level up, amount of explosives you carry increase, and take less explosive damage. -Firebug - Uses flamethrowers. Burns through smaller Zeds, and does little damage to big enemies. As you level up, gain more starting ammo, and fire resistance. -Gunslinger - Uses pistols. Can deal low to high damage, depending on the gun you use, usually runs with duel pistols. Two fire mods. Standard holds both in the center, but no sight to go off of, or alternative, where you get a sight, but more recoil. -Survivalist - The jack of all trades, its skills are set up to be weaker versions of other classes abilities. Leveling up will increase damage resistance, and movement speed. -Sharpshooter - The sniper, high damage output, and can kill most enemies in one shot, except big Zeds. Uses rifles, and leveling up grants increased headshot damage. -SWAT - The SWAT uses SMG's, used for putting ammo down range. Leveling up increases magazine size.
- 4. Killing Floor 2 consists of lots of different characters that you can play as and customize with unlockable outfits and headgear through crates, or just the standard ones given to you when you get the game. You can also buy in-game outfits with real money. There are a total of 12 characters that you can play as. Other players can pick the same character as you and you both can still play together. Killing Floor 2 has different difficulties. For difficulties there is normal mode, hard mode, suicidal mode, and Hell on earth mode. The harder the difficulty the more zeds per round as well as less cash per wave. Also the Zeds have more health, move faster, and do more damage. Zeds can also charge you and Husks can now use their weapon as a flamethrower. Zeds also have new abilities and moves on the harder difficulties. Killing Floor 2 has 3D graphics and a first-person view, at the end of the match when you win you get an Ariel view of your character and get to control him until the match has ended with your score and how many kills you got, etc. Killing Floor 2 is both multiplayer and single-player, you get a weekly challenge as well as a few daily challenges. Once you complete one of the challenges they give you cash for your in game vault that when you get to a certain amount it will give a crate. They also give you experience points for the class you have active this helps when leveling your class up. Killing Floor 2 has a few player goals one of them being, getting clothing and accessories for the 12 characters and trying to reach the highest level for each class which is 25. Every 5 levels you get 2 perks, but you can only have one of the perks active along with the other ones you get every 5 levels. These are some of the player goals within KF2. There are even trophies/achievements for you to earn for Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox. This gives you more player goals and the trophies vary from easy to extremely difficult especially the ’Complete Hell on earth difficulty’ one as that is a pain to get.
- 5. The Killing Floor 2 interface is very well layed out as its not overcrowding your screen as well as not covering your screen so you cannot see parts of the screen. At the bottom right of KF2’s interface, it shows how much ammo you have as well as how many grenades you have left and how much ‘Dosh’ you have. It also shows a little picture of a welder with a red bar, when you use the welder you need to wait for it to refresh and that bar will show you when its refreshed. On the bottom left of the screen it shows your health and armour at that current time as well as the medical syringe bar which does the same ting as the welder bar. It also shows your class symbol with your current level for that class underneath the class symbol. Above that is another bar which I currently don’t know what it shows. At the top left of the screen there is two boxes, the top box showcases how far from the trader you are and the bottom box shows how many ‘Zeds’ there are left. Just above the number of Zeds left, it shows what wave you are on and how many waves there are left. This picture shows Killing floor 2 gameplay on the map ‘Outpost’.
- 6. Picture of one of the bosses being killed, Hans Volter and the gamer earning a PlayStation trophy. Example of one of the weekly game mode challenges The Killing Floor 2 main menu Showcasing the skills of one of the classes in Killing Floor 2
- 7. Audio Killing Floor 2 has a unique soundtrack that plays on the main menu and when in-game fighting Zeds. The soundtrack for Killing Floor 2 was released by Solid State Records on April 21, 2015. It features original compositions by zYnthetic as well as metal tracks from a variety of artists. It is definitely a different and unique soundtrack, that doesn’t shy away from being different. In KF2 there isn’t any cut scenes, therefore the characters don’t speak very much along with the game not having a story system like most games do. However, the characters do speak and make noises such as some of the characters may scream or shout out in pain when they are getting swarmed by Zeds. There are many sound effects in the game along with the Zed and character noises as well as the Bosses voices as they all have their own unique voice. An example of one of the many sound effects is the sound of your guns whilst firing. The music in Killing Floor 2 gives the game a dark fast-pasted feeling with a horror aspect.
- 8. The game does share similarities with other games in its genre such as Payday 2 and Left 4 Dead 2, being that it can be played either on your own or on multiplayer/coop, however it’s better to be played on multiplayer. It shares a lot in common with games such as DOOM, as both DOOM and KF2 you run around hacking, slashing, and gunning down enemies. Thy both are also very dark with unique creatures in them both. One of the big differences with KF2 is that you can customize your chosen character, which is unique for a FPS (first person shooter) game, as not many of them allow you to do that. The only FPS game that allows you to do that other than KF2 is Payday. Payday has a mask system allowing you to customize or buy masks. In my opinion I think that Killing Floor 2 does have very similar gameplay to other FPS games but is unique in that it has its own music, story, and enemies. Killing Floor 2 has the same art style similar to Killing Floor 1 except KF2 has better and improved graphics as it’s a later game. The graphics are not photorealistic but are definitely good for a survival wave horror game where you run around the map gunning Zeds down, whilst listening to the coolest music. Comparing Killing Floor 2’s graphics, to different genres of games at the time of Killing Floor 2’s release, which was on the date, 18th of November, 2016. KF2 has okay graphics for its time, it’s graphics are not as good as some games that were released at that time such as Hitman or Mafia 3. However, they are all different genres of games and they both have a story to them, and there games focus on graphics, whereas KF2 doesn’t focus on graphics as much and focuses on aspects of gameplay. Dishonored 2 was released in November 2016 just like Killing Floor 2 was. Dishonored 2 has a lot better graphics compared to Killing Floor 2. The platforms that you can play Killing Floor 2 on are: PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Linux, and SteamOS. Killing Floor 2 uses the Unreal Engine 3. Unreal Engine 3 is a game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first- person shooter game Unreal. Although primarily developed for first-person shooters, it has been successfully used in a variety of other genres, including stealth, fighting games, MMORPGs, and other RPGs. With its code written in C++, the Unreal Engine features a high degree of portability and is a tool used by many game developers today. It has won several awards, including the Guinness World Records award for "most successful video game engine. The recommended system requirements for playing Killing Floor 2 on PC are: • OS: Win7 64-bit, Win8/8.1 64-bit • Processor: Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz or Phenom II X4 955 • Memory: 4 GB RAM • Graphics: GeForce GTX 560 or Radeon HD 6950 • DirectX: Version 11 • Network: Broadband Internet connection • Hard Drive: 10 GB available space
- 9. Bibliography SABRINA BARR. (Thursday 28 December 2017). Who classifying video game addiction as a mental disorder enrages social media . Available: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and- families/video-game-addiction-who-gaming-disorder-social- media-world-health-organisation-a8131166.html. Last accessed 20th of February 2018. .. (.). Killing Floor 2. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Floor_2. Last accessed 20th February 2018. SYDNEY PEREIRA. (12/26/17). WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SAYS VIDEO GAME ADDICTION IS A MENTAL HEALTH DISORDER—ARE THEY REALLY THAT BAD?. Available: http://www.newsweek.com/world- health-organization-says-video-game-addiction-mental- health-disorder-are-759660. Last accessed 20th of February 2018. .. (.). Video game addiction. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction. Last accessed 20th of February 2018.
- 10. One of the Original characters on the cover showcasing that he will be in the game, which will draw people who have played the old game in. It also is the center image along with the text being in the center as well. This shows what console the game disc is for. Deep Silver is a video game publishing division, and this shows that they were involved with the games publishing. This shows that Tripwire Interactive are the developers of the game and invites people who like their content to buy this game. This shows the rating of the game. The Zeds that are reaching for the main character shows that this game has zombies in it. The text that is used is a similar font to the one that they used in the original Killing Floor. This gives the look of familiarity with the cover. Also the text is just about in the center which is the focus point of a cover. The font they have chosen stands out as well, as it is quite eye catching.
- 11. Gaming Addiction Video game addiction known as VGA is a ‘hypothetical behavioral addiction’ that is gained through excessive use of games. These games can be computer games, video games, online games. This is an addiction that intervenes with a persons everyday life and makes the person who has VGA feel like they need to be gaming when they are not. This means they will always be thinking about gaming. Signs of VGA are compulsive gaming, diminished imagination, mood swings, social isolation, and a hyper-focus on in-game achievements or trophies to the exclusion of other events in life. Whilst some people discuss if VGA is an actual addiction or whether its just the effects of other disorders such as OCD (Obsessive compulsive disorder). Whilst some research has linked violent video games with increased aggressive behavior, other research has failed to find evidence. Recently the World Health Organisation has classified gaming disorder as an official mental health condition. Many people disagree that it is an actual disorder, as people believe its just a popular hobby. I gathered most of my information from the website newsweek.com and their ‘WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SAYS VIDEO GAME ADDICTION IS A MENTAL HEALTH DISORDER—ARE THEY REALLY THAT BAD?’ article.
- 12. Killing Floor 2 Zed Concept art