Those who were a fan of the movie series, which began back in 1980, are sure to have garnered excitement when hearing about this title. I was one of those fans. However, it is fairly common knowledge within the gaming community that movie-tie in games are rarely successful. With that said, could Friday the 13th: The Game buck this trend? Continue to read on to find out.
Once the game was installed on my PS4, I attempted to join an online game. Sadly, the servers were down, a real issue that many have experienced within the first week or so of release. Of course, you can only play this game online, so this was frustrating. Thankfully, it wasn’t too long before the servers were up and running; I was able to jump into a game.
The concept of this game is rather awesome, and it is the gameplay that is the real selling point of Friday the 13th: The Game. The visuals aren’t bad, but are mediocre at best. As for the audio, this is done rather well and helps to capture the creepy environments – the voice acting is decent.
If you love either the horror or strategy genre, then you’ll be attracted to the gameplay on offer. The aim will depend on whether you are Jason, the ultra-tall and ridiculously strong creepy guy, or one of the group of friends. Simply put, if you are Jason then your task is to eliminate all of the friends. The friends are tasked with trying to evade Jason whilst attempting to prepare an escape plan.
With four maps available, each has a variety of weapons and traps available for the group of friends to utilise, these can be found hidden in buildings, such as in drawers. There are also many hiding places that you’ll come across, such as in cupboards, under beds Interestingly, there are different methods of how you might plan to escape the map. These include: fixing a broken car or boat, repairing a phone to call the police, or simply waiting for the timer to tick down which puts pressure on Jason to find you. Another option is to call Tommy Jarvis, who can be of added assistance to the group; he is armed with a shot gun.
A variety of unlocks become available as your level increases. Furthermore, DLC updates have already allowed the customisation of Jason, allowing you to pimp him out with awesome clothing. The other characters can also be customised.
This could have been a masterpiece, something many gamers were hoping for, and it certainly falls short of this. Yet, this game probably deserves more credit than it has entertained, partly due to this very expectation. The gameplay is impressive, even though there are annoying bugs. It will also give other developers food for thought, since this concept could be applied in a better manor with a similar scenario in the future. It does do what a horror title should do: keep you in suspense and, at times, shock you. For me, the biggest issue was how much it costs to purchase, given the flaws mentioned, £30 is too steep. Yet, £10 cheaper and this would really be a game to be admired.
You’ll have plenty of fun with this online game, but your frustration levels will also be raised on occasions. With that said, I find it hard not to recommend playing, I continue to have enjoyment from Friday the 13th: The Game, it is quite addictive – I just hope the developer can introduce more features and tweaks soon.
