Happy Halloween! With Halloween on a Wednesday this year we had to take the chance to talk about a scary game.
Now If your reading this on Halloween then the game is still 75% off on Xbox and 85% on Steam. I'll spoiler my final verdict and recommend the game now. If you want to play the game at all then this sale is the prime time since it's $6. Now let's get into it.
Friday The 13th The Game puts you (and others) into a slasher film and all that entails. That's it. That's the entire premise. Fortunately, that's all it needs.
In the style of Evolve or Left 4 Dead
The game is a one vs all multiplayer. You are either one of seven counselors at Camp Crystal Lake or Jason Voorhees himself. As the counselors you need to find a way to escape the camp, hide through the night, or kill Jason (though it's not easy). As Jason all you need to do is kill all the counselors.
Counselors can work together to escape or survive and have a lot of options to do so. Most escape routes require a few objectives to be met along with items to be found. Different counselors have different attributes and their progress is tied more to random, though cheap, perks.
When confronting Jason counselors can try to fight him, stunning the killer for a moment while they escape. Jason can also be stunned with fireworks or a pocket knife when escaping his grasp. Though he gets stunned longer each time, stunning will eventually put him into rage mode(more on that later).
The best part of playing a counselor is how effortlessly the game creates tension and fear. Effective music cues are not only scary, but let you know Jason is around. These combine with all of the classic camp locals. Fun and rustic in the day they sell the horror movie aspect at night. Moving between cabins or through them in the dark is downright scary.
While it's fun to be scared, playing as Jason is the main attraction. Jason starts each match in his shack, urged on by his mothers voice. He has the first of his four abilities available right away, a teleport that lets he be anywhere on the map. This and the other abilities have a cool down that the Jason player has to manage throughout the game.
Other abilities will let you move quickly across the map Evil Dead style, sense counselors around you, and mute the dramatic music and your own sounds to sneak up on counselors. If enough time has passed and you've taken enough damage Jason goes into a rage mode. Your cooldowns are reduced and Jason can instantly smash through some objects.
On the attack Jason can throw knives, set bear traps, attack with his primary weapon, and grab counselors for an execution style kill. These are either one of four unlocked kills, or one relating to the environment you found the poor counselor in.
There are different Jasons, representing his appearances in the various films. Each one has strengths and weaknesses relating to the mentioned abilities along with a different weapon. These Jasons become unlocked through level progression but the real prize is unlocked through the points you earn each match.
The majority of Jason unlocks are the grab kills you can perform. The same points you use for counselor perks can be used to purchase new ways for Jason to finish off his prey and they are all great. From the brutal, to the inventive, to the camp. All of these would be at home in any slasher film. There's special ones to unlock for each weapon too. It's a lot of fun unlocking and trying all of the different kills.
The challenges are fun, objective based affairs. They require careful planning and skill but are rewarding to pull off. Your rewarded with both experience and unique unlocks like emotes.
The biggest problem with this game is that you don't always get to play as Jason. There's fun to be had as the counselors for sure, but the best part of the game is being the unstoppable monster.
The maps are also very big. This gives the counselors more of a chance to hide but makes finding the last one a big chore. It's also frustrating to have to be able to climb over objects, but not others. Finally many of the counselors faces show exaggerated emotions. Though a good visual indication of how much fear your character has, they look really silly.
The good:
-dozens of brutal, rewarding kills
-offline modes available
The bad:
-you don't always get to play as Jason
-some of then character models expressions are too exaggerated.
Since the game does have an offline bots mode you always have the opportunity to play as Jason. This along with great execution of a killer idea make Friday The 13th The Game a fun and satisfying experience for anyone who ever rented these films from a Blockbuster and wondered what it would be like.
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