Players get access to a whole pool of Jason variations, with Part III’s iconic take being the default. Jason’s a joy to watch and even more fun to play. It’s also worth sticking around to see exactly Jason will take down his next target. Throughout my several hours of play, I can firmly say I didn’t encounter a game that was identical to another.
That sort of skill stagnation is what kills games’ longevity, and IllFonic was wise to avoid it here. Unlike the broken systems found in lesser games, this ensures that players won’t just unlock certain perks at certain levels and then stick to them.
These perks are randomly generated and purchased through points earned by playing matches. Each character has a different allocation of stats, and has access to three perks. Players have access to a whole smattering of teenagers, all varied in their age, gender, race, appearance, etc. The result is what feels like the first true marriage of good multiplayer and slasher flicks. It seems as if the developers took note of that game, played it, then figured out what didn’t work and did it better. Illfonic’s asymmetric multiplayer game is a title takes the core concept behind the janky Dead By Daylight and does it umpteen times better. Yes, Friday the 13 th: The Game is more than just a bunch of fanservice, despite certainly being that. Hodder doing the motion capture, Manfredini behind the score, and Savini at the drawing board – it’s all here. From top to bottom, this is an authentic snapshot of the franchise’s high points, that sweet spot between The Final Chapter and Jason Takes Manhattan. Speaking as one of those nerds, it’s hard not to look in admiration at this love letter to the celluloid gorefests of the Reagan era. IllFonic is clearly a group of unabashed nerds of Sean Cunningham’s iconic slasher franchise.
Redemption is exactly what the old hockey-masked freak of nature has found in Friday the 13 th: The Game.
Undoubtedly, Jason Vorhees is the movie killer most in need of gaming redemption. Widely considered one of the worst games ever made, it’s arguably the epitome of bad licensed games. But perhaps one of the worst examples is the notorious Friday the 13 thfor the NES – a miserable slog of a game memorable only for its incredibly broken difficulty and goofy cover art.
All the major franchises, from Halloween to A Nightmare on Elm Street to Saw, have gotten a crack at the video game bat and whiffed hard. Games based on movies generally don’t fare well, but there’s a special space in hell reserved for games based on horror films – Alien: Isolation notwithstanding.