Killing Floor has come a long way since its days as a relatively awkward Unreal Tourament 2k4 mod. Rather than flare out and fade into obscurity like so many indie multiplayer shooters, it has risen again and again, becoming one of Valve’s own favorite holiday fixtures. It was even the focus of a great amount of attention during the Portal 2 ‘Potato Pack’ event. Tripwire Interactive are nothing if not giving, either. December is here, and with it a free weekend for the game, starting tomorrow. On top of that, a horde of Christmas-themed monsters to slay (sleigh?), a boatload of new weapons to play with and even a new level and all for the price of free.

This is the second Christmas event (the first is featured in the above trailer) that the game has run, and while the first was fairly impressive, the addition of new weapons for all character classes in this update really helps bulk out the variety of the game. It’s a pretty fancy bundle all round – here’s the official list of additions, straight from the horses mouth:

Special DLC Character “Baddest Santa“: Complete the Twisted Christmas achievements during the event and unlock the special DLC Character, Baddest Santa!

New Map: Ice Cave – Evil Santa Clause has retreated underground to a sprawling Ice Cave tunnel system. Battle it out with all of Santa’s Twisted Christmas minions in this all new level.

New Weapons

44 Magnum Revolver – The Sharpshooter gets a shiny .44 Magnum revolver – good for dual-wielding for even more stopping power.
M-4 Carbine – The Commando picks up a US Army surplus M-4 Carbine, with a nice, new red dot sight fitted.
M-4 Carbine With Grenade Launcher – For Demolitions, we’ve removed the sight and added the under-slung M-203 single shot grenade launcher. Wonderful all-purpose weapon!
Claymore Sword – Berserkers can go all Scottish, with a massive two-handed Claymore. Perfect for the holiday season…
Combat Shotgun – Support Specialists can get their hands on a semi-automatic combat shotgun.
MP5M Medic Sub Machine Gun – Following on from Horzine’s earlier experiments with healing darts, they have now provided the Medic with an MP5 machine pistol, mounting a dart-firing device.
Husk Gun Fireball Launcher – Ripped from the arm of a dead Husk the Firebug gets his asbestos-covered hands on the fireball launching Huskgun!!! Charge this baby up and watch the zeds explode in a ball of flames!

It’s not all generosity – to help further fund the development of the game, and perhaps to give veteran players a way of directly saying thanks, they’ve also released another pack of (non-gameplay-affecting) character models for around the two dollar mark. If you want to look fancy, in a retro-future sorta way while murdering the hordes of Evil Mutant Santa, it’s always an option.

Don't you know buckshot is bad for your 'elf?

Killing Floor has been a personal favorite for quite some time. It’s slower and more tactical than, say, Left 4 Dead, but manages to keep up an atmosphere not entirely unlike Doom, with swarms of expendable shambling enemies being punctuated by big bruisers that whole teams of players have to really focus fire on. It’s loud, cheesy, good fun for all, if you don’t mind a little grungy metal in your soundtrack, and Dog Soldiers-inspired silly British dialogue between the characters.

[Killing Floor On Steam]

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