You can try Killing Floor 2’s Sharpshooter class right now with an opt-in beta

It’s finally here

There aren’t many games that make me obsessively speculate about upcoming character classes, but I and many others have been waiting for Killing Floor 2‘s Sharpshooter perk (read: class) since it released on Steam Early Access last year. Since it was in the first game and was missing in action for the past year in the half, most of the playerbase has been anticipating being able to use their scoped weapons to kill tougher enemies. Though Sharpshooter isn’t officially out yet (Tripwire Interactive is making an announcement next week at E3), you can play the huge new update right now.

By right-clicking Killing Floor 2 in your Steam games list and going to properties, you can access the beta tab. Select “preview -” and you’ll begin downloading the new Bullseye update. This includes the Sharpshooter perk, a reworked Berzerker, Demolitionist, and Commando, two new maps, an updated Hans fight, a new tutorial mode, a new enemy resistance and incap system, and a crapload of other fixes. I plan on writing up detailed thoughts tomorrow, but here’s what I feel in the few hours I’ve played:

Sharpshooter is great so far, even at low levels. The M14EBR is incredibly fun to use, though I wish you could turn off the laser sight. As far as the most powerful weapon at the perk’s disposal, the rail gun, I love how it looks and feels, but I’m a little unsure of it’s ability to lock on to Zed weak points. It should either take a bit longer to lock on or have a smaller cone, since Sharpshooter is all about skill-based headshots. I like the new tutorials and tooltips, since Killing Floor 2 can be overwhelming for new players. The biggest change that is throwing me off right now is the resistances; it may because I’m not used to these, but right now certain Zeds feel bullet spongey depending on the weapon/perk you’re using. I know this is to give each class a more dedicated role, but it seems a little drastic. I might change my tune after a few more hours with it! We’ll see tomorrow. Here’s the some of the gigantic changelog (the rest can be found here):

• Sharpshooter Perk
  • M14
  • Railgun
  • Liquid Nitrogen Grenade
• 2 Community Maps
  • Containment Station
  • Hostile Ground
• Added Basic Training – Tutorial (cosmetic items rewarded for completion)
• Resistance/Weakness System
• Incapacitation Changes
• Updated Perks
  • Demo
  • Commando
  • Berserker
• VS Survival update
• Updated Hans Fight
• New Character – Rae
• 32 New Achievements
• Menu/UI Design Updates
• 2 crates 2 USBs (new precious items)
• Several battlescarred weapons updated to look better
• Steam market item view inside Trading Floor
• Support for Double Byte Character sets
  • Chinese Localization added
  • Japanese Localization added
  • Wider range of special characters
• Performance Optimizations

General:

• All incapacitations (knockdown, stumble, etc. ) will now build up and fall off over time unless they reach the triggering threshold
• Resistance and Weakness system added per weapon type – See wiki charts for more information

Menu/UI

• Weight added to the HUD
• New kill alert added when human teammates die
• Interaction widget updated, will now resize itself to fit the text inside it.
• Info text added to matchmaking and solo game menus
• Loading Screen Tips
• Perk menu layout changed to make reading passive bonuses and skills easier
• Menu bar updated
• Added boss health bar
• Players can now choose to recycle all their duplicates of an item at once (leaving one behind)

Perks:

• Added Sharpshooter
  • Level 5:
    • Sniper – Inflict 25% more damage while stationary with sharpshooter weapons
    • Marksman – Shoot 25% faster and move 10% faster with sharpshooter weapons
  • Level 10:
    • Stability – Inflict 30% more damage while crouched
    • Ballistic Shock – Stun power increased by 100%
  • Level 15:
    • Rack ‘em Up – Each consecutive headshot increases your damage by 5% up to 75%
    • Combat Ready – Reload your weapons faster
  • Level 20:
    • Deadeye – Reduce recoil by 10% and increase headshot damage by 10% when aiming
    • Always Prepared – Get 25% more ammo for sharpshooter weapons and grenades
  • Level 25:
    • Assassin – Headshot will knock down any Zed
    • Ranger – Headshots will stun any zed

• Demo Changes
  • Level 5:
    • Bombardier – Explosive demo weapons now do 25% more damage
    • Grenadier- Demo weapons fire 20% faster
  • Level 10:
    • High Impact Rounds – Do 25% more damage on a direct hit with demo weapons, but lose 3 ammo from the max ammo count per weapon
    • Extra Rounds – Increase max ammo by 5 for every demo weapon
  • Level 15:
    • Sonic Resistant Grenades – Demolition weapons have a 100% chance of avoiding siren scream destruction
    • Fragmentation Rounds – AoE of your explosions increase by 50% but AoE damage is reduced by 30%
  • Level 20:
    • Armor Piercing Rounds – Direct hits to a critical zone will do an extra 50% more damage
    • Concussive Rounds – The hit reaction, stun, stumble and knockdown of all demo weapons is increased by 50%
  • Level 25:
    • Destroyer of Worlds – Previously nuke, this has been tweaked slightly
    • Mad Bomber – Shoot and reload in near real time
    • Passive Changes

• Commando Changes
  • Level 5:
    • Tactical Reload – Reload 20% faster with commando weapons
    • Large Mags – Commando Weapons have 50% increased mag size
  • Level 10:
    • Backup – Pistol and knife do 60% extra damage and 50% faster weapon switch
    • Impact – Commando weapons have 150% increased stumble power
  • Level 15:
    • Health Increase – Increased health and Armor by 25%
    • Ammo Vest – Carry 2 extra mags per commando weapon
  • Level 20:
    • Hollow Point Rounds – Commando Weapons do 25% more damage and have 50% less recoil
    • Eat Lead – Get another 50% increase in mag size for Commando

    Weapons

  • Level 25:
    • Professional – Reload weapons at full speed and switch weapons twice as fast
    • Rapid Fire – Do 3% more damage with commando weapons and shoot 3x faster with all weapons
  • Passive Changes

• Berserker Changes
  • Level 5:
    • Dreadnaught – Increased health by 50%
    • Skirmisher – Move faster, sprint faster, regenerate health every second
  • Level 10:
    • Vampire – Heal yourself 4 points of health for every zed you kill with a Berserker weapon, also attack 15% faster with Berserker weapons
    • Butcher – Attack 20% faster and do 25% more damage with Berserker weapons
  • Level 15:
    • Resistance – Gain 20% resistance to all damage, gain an extra 20% resistance to poison and sonic damage
    • Parry – Parrying an attack will increase melee attack speed by 5% and damage by 35% for 10 seconds
  • Level 20:
    • Smash – Hard attacks do 50% more damage, plus an extra 25% more damage on headshots, which have 200% more stumble power
    • Massacre – Light attacks do 20% more damage and are 5% faster
  • Level 25:
    • Spartan – Attack in near real time and gain 25% of your total health
    • Rage – Move and attack in real time
  • Passive Changes

Zeds:

• Reduced gorefast headless damage 50% and reduced the attack speed
• Hans fight Update
  • Hans shield can now be broken
  • If broken before his heal, he won’t heal that phase
  • If broken during his heal it will be interrupted
  • Hans now has more overall health to compensate for how the fight plays out

Weapons:

• LAR – Sped up bolt time
• Crossbow – Reduced stun power
• HX25 – Modified spread to more reliably hit the target that was aimed at

Versus:

• New ZED awards
• Scoreboard and match layout UI
• Team Swap every match
• Player Zed Spawning Decoupled from AI Waves
• Updates to Player Zeds
  • Health, speed and damage changes
  • Some can now block: Scrake, Fleshpound, Bloat and Gorefast

Maps:

• Added Containment Station
• Added Hostile Ground
• Updated Buring Paris art assets to bring it more in line with later produced maps

Weapon Skin Revisions:

• Battlescarred Weapon Revisions on the following skins to look less battlescarred
  • SCAR | Spray Can
  • Katana | Cyberbone
  • Scar | Horzine Elite Red
  • Scar | Horzine Elite Blue
  • Scar | Horzine Elite Green
  • Scar | Horzine Elite White
  • 9MM | Tactical
  • AR15 | Tactical

Bug Fixes:
General:

• Fixed an issue where spawn prediction checks would fail allowing zeds to spawn within sight or potential sight of a character (behind their backs)
• Fixed an issue where Zed would get confused about who to target (and constantly switching targets) leading to them not attacking
• Fixed a case where a mis-sized Steam avatar would crash the game on launch
• Fixed another case where players would enter a solo versus game
• Fixed crate opening animations getting into an endless loop
• Fixed ultra bright gore for Flex High settings
• Fixed grenades not bouncing in Black Forest grass
• Fixed an exploit that allowed players to keep trader menu open during a round
• Fixed Crossbow bolts disappearing when hitting a destructible item
• Fixed Gamepad – Voice chat receive volume slider breaks when pushed all the way to the right
• Fixed an issue with the hammer staying up on the Winchester 1894
• Fixed audio issues with the Winchester 1894’s running and melee sounds not triggering
• Fixed audio issues with the Crossbow’s melee sound not triggering
• Fixed an issue with blood not showing up on the Bowie Knife
• Fixed an exploit that allows players to keep more than 15 weight when switching from Support perks using Strength
• Fixed an issue when receiving grenades/ammo from other players prevents the player from receiving grenades for the rest of the game
• Fixed an issue with the Lacerate skill not functioning with heavy and stab attacks
• Fixed the trader menu not correctly updating with the Experience and Level of the player
• Fixed an issue with the Trader giving too much armor to Medics when purchasing armor
• Fixed an issue with players not being able to parry/block behind the spawn points

Versus:

• Fixed Player Crawlers being able to be killed by others after they had triggered their suicide

Map Fixes:

• Various Map Fixes
• Outpost
• Black Forest
• Burning Paris
• Biotics Lab
• Prison

SDK:

• Fixed landscape de-vised patches block grenades and paths, and don’t allow player to stand up when crouched

Known issues

• Bosses do not lose the freeze grenade frozen texture effect after thawing out
• Players are able to parry unparryable attacks from player controlled ZEDs in VS mode
• Some particle effects do not render when looking through scoped weapons
• Fire induced panic causes Sirens to stop screaming in some cases
• Doors on Containment Station map missing sounds
• Some visual issues on dynamic objects after swapping teams in VS mode
• Interaction messages on HUD (Opening doors, etc) will sometimes stay on screen until a new interaction message is prompted
• Some cosmetic items do not fit correctly on Rae
• Cosmetic item preview images are low resolution
• This beta has caused us to revert the Live Update balance changes for Versus Survival in the Live version. We do not recommend playing Versus in Live at this point