gaming Killing Floor 2 - I Never Dreamed this Would Happen...

[Guest]

So I was a HUUUUUUUUUUUGE fan of the original Killing Floor. Killing Floor 1 was ridiculous levels of fun and had some  amazing charm to it. I remember spending hours playing on a Doom server that I loved. However Killing Floor 2 hit stores in early access last year and I got it shortly after release as a birthday present from my wife. I have over 61 hours on record with the game, and when it first came out, I was already in love.

 

When the first major update came out, releasing some of the other perks, and new maps, I knew we had a golden game. Since then though... Things have taken a turn for the worse. I was willing to overlook minor flaws before, but Tripwire has just started to behave in a manner that is unsavory. I feel like they are sabotaging this game before it's official release and we're just reaching a point where by the time the game comes out, no one will care. If you're paid attention to the Steam reviews, recently they have moved from "very positive" to "mixed" and continue to decline. Why? Well I can spell out some of it:

 

1. PS4 version that was advertised to come out last year has not even been mentioned since then.
2. Game was promised to be finished in 2015, and we're almost halfway through 2016 with no end in sight.
3. Updates are insanely slow. Sometimes 2 months between updates and over 2 weeks between progress blogs. As I write this, we are still missing 3 whole classes, 2 of which were in the ORIGINAL Killing Floor.
4. Broken classes that have either not been fixed, or nerfed to the point where they are useless. Support, which was one of the best classes has received a considerable nerf now to the point where the class is not nearly as good which sucks as it was my best class.
5. nVIDIA FLEX was introduced as a gibbing engine only to be removed because too many people couldn't even  use it, wasting considerable development time as almost 4 months was spent developing it.
6. Promised that the game would not go down in price so as not to punish early adopters: goes on sale 2 weeks after the game comes out.
7. Tripwire complained in streams that their fans were "too demanding" for wanting the game to be finished on the time they promised it would be finished. Now the release of the game is just unknown.
8. Microtransactions in early access... Expensive ones at that.
9. DLC weapon packs now are more mandatory to remain competitive.
10. Pointless PvP mode which doesn't work well with the type of game. Clearly made just to sell weapon packs. No one was  demanding PvP.
11. Many of the Tripwire staff have just quit.
12. Released boss with game that was far too powerful, then nerfed him to being insanely easy to where you would have to TRY to get killed to die.
13. Humorous dialogue from the first game is removed and the new dialogue feels bland and boring.
14. Polls to ask which characters people would like to see return for the sequel only to ignore said polls.
15. Tripwire is actually BANNING people for giving negative reviews on their Steam discussions page.
16. Tripwire introduced a new policy that gave them the right to ban people for just "being mean" on the game, even on private servers. In an M rated game, it's amazing to think you could be banned for calling someone a shithead.
17. Tripwire actually gave their employees a cruise vacation in the middle of development on money gained from Microtransactions while the game is STILL in early access, over a year late.
18. Pay-to-win gambling based microtransactions. Imagine CS:Go crates, but more expensive. Now imagine that in early access. Now imagine that for a game that isn't even finished.

Ultimately this saddens me because I loved this game and wanted it to do well, but I doubt Tripwire can recover from this. By the time they finish the game, it'll be at the point where the reviews will bury them. I am super disappointed as I feel this will kill the Killing Floor franchise.

 

However it's an indicator of a bigger problem:

 

When a game is early access, it gives developers far less incentive to finish it when the cash is already in their hands and they have no obligation (as per steam policy) to finish the game.