I'm disappointed they made Rachel Clamely an enemy

[trar]

I know lore is definitely not the most important thing about Killing Floor but I saw Rachel in KF1 as a sympathetic character. When I first heard about the Matriarch I thought it would be something like Kevin (Patty)'s mistress. I guess having Rachel go mad with the power of biotech isn't a bad idea but it doesn't feel earned, you know? Especially after her sympathetic appearance in KF1.

[Stellifera]

Same...

Also I wanted her also playable in KF2...

[screeno42]

The fact that she would have made a way better ally and should have been the objective announcer instead of the random nobody we got in Dr. Buyu isn't even the worst part:
Emma from KF:Incursion was a much better candidate for the role of Matriarch.
She is inferred to have IT skills, has a good reason for both fighting humanity and siding with Patty, and has already been established as an antagonist. Most people who were aware of her rightly assumed she would be the matriarch when rumors of the boss started up, and some datamined endless quotes from patty seemed to suggest it as well.

There is absolutely no reason why Rachel should be the Matriarch aside from keeping Dr. Buyu from being a pointless addition to the lore(which she kinda still is anyways). I was worried when Back and Kicking Brass dropped that the writers may not do the best job with KF2's plot, and this recent decision has kinda confirmed to me that they have absolutely no idea what they're doing.

I don't care that lore isn't the franchise's focus; the pieces are there for a good, cheesy zombie apocalypse story, and these writers have absolutely squandered it.

[Hudson]

Her turning to science and even ending up in the National Labs in the hopes of working with her father only to experience the events of KF1 which made her realize that she'll need more than a pair of good legs and a science major to fight off her fathers clones and himself seems pretty self-explanatory to me.

I get the grief though.

[trar]

Originally posted by Hudson:

Her turning to science and even ending up in the National Labs in the hopes of working with her father only to experience the events of KF1 which made her realize that she'll need more than a pair of good legs and a science major to fight off her fathers clones and himself seems pretty self-explanatory to me.

I get the grief though.

Rachel realizing she needs much more firepower is a good point; it's been a while since I played KF1 Transit so I may have forgotten some of this context. It's not inconceivable that she would go mad with the power either, as I said, but I don't feel like it was earned story-wise. It was just dropped on us out of the blue, and while I know that's how TW does things it wasn't the best way to handle this particular revelation. I think it would have left a better taste in my mouth if Rachel had stayed an ally while, as screeno42 suggested, Emma from KF Incursion became another ally of Kevin's.

[screeno42]

Originally posted by Hudson:

Her turning to science and even ending up in the National Labs in the hopes of working with her father only to experience the events of KF1 which made her realize that she'll need more than a pair of good legs and a science major to fight off her fathers clones and himself seems pretty self-explanatory to me.

That's true, but making her the Matriarch creates some plotholes:
1. If she wants to kill her father, why is she attacking us? Saying she's obsessed with doing the deed herself is kinda dumb; why not help us, then whenever Patty shows up, demand we back off?
2. If she hijacked the EDARs to help carve through the zeds to lure out her father, why do they only shoot at us and appear as backup in Patty's own fight?

Additionally, I highly doubt she would believe that she could handle her father's tech better than him; mainly because she already has, in a way, when project zed was still in development. She may have even been present when Kevin became the Patriarch. Is there a possibility that she may turn to it out of desperation? Sure, I can see that, but I feel in that case that one of her top priorities would be avoiding her father's fate; maybe limiting herself to only enhancements that let her maintain a human appearance. Thereby giving her a reality check every time she sees her reflection: "I'm still human," "I'm not a monster like my father,"

[Hudson]

Originally posted by screeno42:

1. If she wants to kill her father, why is she attacking us? Saying she's obsessed with doing the deed herself is kinda dumb; why not help us, then whenever Patty shows up, demand we back off?

Since she's lost her marbles and obviously abuses biological Horzine Tech which doesn't seem to further someones sanity in a positive manner she's considering the Mercenaries as a nuisance and attacks them, possibly thinking that them interfering makes it harder for her to find Kevin herself. It's like when you work at a PD and some street justice group keeps trashing mobsters so the real head of the operation goes into defense.

Originally posted by screeno42:

2. If she hijacked the EDARs to help carve through the zeds to lure out her father, why do they only shoot at us and appear as backup in Patty's own fight?

I don't think we need to mention that EDARs were poorly implemented regardless in both the game and story-wise, they are supposed to attack ZEDs -technically- but unless you somehow accept that the Matriarch set them to "Hunt Mercs"-Mode or the EDARs have their own Predator-like scan to determine the biggest threat you'll be disappointed. The reason why EDARs appear in other fights could be simply dismissed with "they were hunting the ZEDs first and ended up redirecting themselves onto the mercs", which obviously isn't the case.

Also the EDAR stats sheet simply says "it's another Horzine Weapon Program and it went wrong lole!!11", not that impressive. (https://killingfloor.fandom.com/wiki/E.D.A.R.?file=Zed_statssheet_edar.jpg)

Originally posted by screeno42:

Thereby giving her a reality check every time she sees her reflection: "I'm still human," "I'm not a monster like my father,"

Pretty sure the ZED juice she injected herself with to get that awfully similar tentacle made her not that credible anymore.

[TheCryptidKit]

I was disappointed she ended up being the Matriarch after she fought so hard to try and stop her father. What gets me though is she turned to all this science and technology to fight him and his army of zeds, but we're a bunch of scrub mercs that do it without mutating ourselves.

[screeno42]

Originally posted by TheSaltyBeatle:

we're a bunch of scrub mercs that do it without mutating ourselves.

That's actually debatable. Patty has an endless mode quote that explains our healing juice is "zed tech," and I could easily see some of the bonuses perks give and even zed time being the results of genetic enhancements. It would also explain why we can do sh!t like dual wielding .500 magnums without breaking our arms.

[Robin (Don Quijote)]

Players need and explanation on why Rachel is the best candidate to be the matriarch. I mean, other than she went nuts because of power. Thats just very rushed and lazy imo. It looks like devs felt they needed to deliver content somehow. This game still is one of the biggest MacGuffins that ever existed.

Even Goldenface, the villain from the movie "Threat level midnight" featured in the office series, has a better backstory than any piece of lore in the KF series

[Mr Groovy]

Originally posted by TheSaltyBeatle:

I was disappointed she ended up being the Matriarch after she fought so hard to try and stop her father. What gets me though is she turned to all this science and technology to fight him and his army of zeds, but we're a bunch of scrub mercs that do it without mutating ourselves.

To be fair, are you sure we are not playing as some mutated humans that got inhuman strength?
Think for yourself, how Berserker can regenerate that fast and get health out of killing, while also run like crazy in zed time? Or Demo blasting himself up when he reach 5hp and stay alive? Support is a walking tank with supplies. SWAT directly pushes huge zeds away in zed time and is invulnarable with armor. I can think of only Commando and, maybe but still questionable, Medic with Firebug gain weapon modifications and Gunslinger gain experience in zeds anatomy.
I am pretty sure most humans will be lvl 0 survivalist at maximum if any appear in this game.

[Sterling]

People asked for Rachel to come back, since she's pretty much a fan favorite, but I guess Tripwire was doing some illegal drugs and understood it completely different.

[trar]

Originally posted by screeno42:

Originally posted by TheSaltyBeatle:

we're a bunch of scrub mercs that do it without mutating ourselves.

That's actually debatable. Patty has an endless mode quote that explains our healing juice is "zed tech," and I could easily see some of the bonuses perks give and even zed time being the results of genetic enhancements. It would also explain why we can do sh!t like dual wielding .500 magnums without breaking our arms.

To be fair, zed time was in KF1. Dunno if the mercs in that game would have been modified.

[Cr@ckerJ@ck (PERÚ)]

¿and?

[Rex-Wil]

Originally posted by Robin (Ixca Cienfuegos):

Even Goldenface, the villain from the movie "Threat level midnight" featured in the office series, has a better backstory than any piece of lore in the KF series

That's extremely funny and unfortunately true.

[Rex-Wil]

I'm glad I'm not the only one upset to see Rachel turn evil. I really wouldn't mind it if it was explained better, but i just can't see any reason for her to work with us in the first game and then try to kill us in the second. I was REALLY hoping the objective in the Biotics Lab would have some explanation for her change. Especially with the holiday event titling the completion of that level, "Settling a Family Affair." Also, making her the boss of that objective level would have made it much easier to get 10 Matriarch kills (Even though I know this is no longer needed for the event)