Friday the 13th: The Game

OccasionalCthulhu · June 17, 2017, 03:41:24 PM

I assume most people here would have heard of this by now (It's been out for almost a month and the hype leading up to it was fairly substantial), but for those that haven't here's a quick run-down:

The game is an homage to the Friday the 13th film series, taking place in one of three iconic areas (Camp Crystal Lake, Packanack Lodge, and Higgins Haven). The game is multiplayer only, pitting a group of counselors against one player being Jason. The goal is to either survive or escape. Unless you're Jason, in which case it's your task to hunt down the players. As Jason you have tools at your disposal such as throwing knives, a limited number of bear traps you can place down to catch counselors, the ability to instantly teleport anywhere on the map, the ability to turn invisible and travel a short distance in a very quick pace to close the gap between you and fleeing counselors, being able to see people highlighted in red if they're making noise or scared by your presence, etc. When you catch someone you have the ability to perform a gory execution on them including but not limited to impalement, putting your thumbs through their eyes, ripping off body parts, chopping of body parts, etc. You can also kill them using the environment in a lot of cases (I.E. tree stumps, coat hangers, walls, etc.). As a counselor you scavenge around cabins and other areas for items such as maps, flare guns, pocket knives, weapons, etc. to defend against Jason. You can hide in things like wardrobes and outhouses or under beds, in tents, etc. If you choose to just try to survive the whole match (About 15 minutes, not recommended) it's pretty difficult because Jason is nearly invincible and there's not much you can do to hinder him. You can choose to escape by repairing a phone and calling the police (they show up and you have to try to navigate to the exit they appear at in order to escape), repairing and fleeing by boat or car, or using a radio to call in an already dead player to return as Tommy Jarvis (armed with a rifle) to try and stop Jason (this is not easy by any means and should not be viewed as a viable way to win. Jason can just as easily kill Tommy).

The game so far, being out for almost a month at this point is actually very well done. The graphics are decent, the locations are spot on, and the gameplay is really fun. They captured the essence of the series very well. The only downsides are that there are massive server and connectivity issues at the moment, and there are a lot of weird bugs and glitches they need to patch out. But all in all it's an enjoyable experience, especially if you're a Friday the 13th fan. Game is on Xbox One, PS4, and I'm pretty sure it's on PC as well.

Anyone's thoughts on it? Anyone already played it?

Chucky · June 18, 2017, 12:46:50 AM

I was keeping tabs on it while it was being made and have seen plenty of YouTube videos but I'm kind of waiting for the single player mode (which I've heard will come out a bit later) before getting it.

Shadow · June 18, 2017, 11:03:18 AM

I've been watching it on Twitch and so far it looks really fun, though a bit buggy. Nothing a few patches can't sort out.

Not sure if I'd buy it any time soon. I tend to only really play multiplayer games with friends, and I don't think many of them would be into this game for very long. If they are planning a story mode though, then who knows.

OccasionalCthulhu · June 18, 2017, 03:32:39 PM

Well shit, I wasn't even aware there's a single player mode in the works. Although, considering how rushed and buggy the current release is it kind of makes me worried to see what kind of state it'll release in

JasonzSon · June 20, 2017, 06:42:06 AM

I've heard good things, though I haven't looked much at it yet. I have a friend who's been streaming the game.

EDIT: Apparently they're adding the Crash Dummie avatar now.

Shadow · June 20, 2017, 03:06:25 PM

Quote from: OccasionalCthulhu on June 18, 2017, 03:32:39 PMWell shit, I wasn't even aware there's a single player mode in the works. Although, considering how rushed and buggy the current release is it kind of makes me worried to see what kind of state it'll release in

To be honest if it isn't AAA (and in quite a few cases even those are subject to scrutiny) it seems like a good chunk of games out these days are half-assed. Especially the "early access" ones. Which is understandable to an extent- but why should I pay to be your glorified beta-tester?

I guess that's the beauty of the internet- online patches.

JasonzSon · June 20, 2017, 03:35:46 PM

I don't play many new games (I'm the type to play one game for about fifteen months before moving on), but I hear that's gotten pretty bad. At least with this one it's somewhat understandable; apparently the dev team is four people and they've been fixing bugs non-stop. I'm guessing the Kickstarter money wasn't sufficient to thoroughly test it before release.

Crash Dummie · June 21, 2017, 06:52:53 AM

The game looks really buggy, but tons of fun. I'll probably end up buying it.

And they just released an 8-bit Jason skin!

JasonzSon · June 21, 2017, 04:36:34 PM

Quote from: JasonzSon on June 20, 2017, 06:42:06 AM
EDIT: Apparently they're adding the Crash Dummie avatar now.

Okay, the old Crash Dummie avatar.

OccasionalCthulhu · June 22, 2017, 02:48:08 PM

Quote from: JasonzSon on June 20, 2017, 03:35:46 PM
At least with this one it's somewhat understandable; apparently the dev team is four people and they've been fixing bugs non-stop. I'm guessing the Kickstarter money wasn't sufficient to thoroughly test it before release.

I keep forgetting that the dev team is ridiculously small. I did read somewhere that from beta numbers they predicted a playbase of 30k at launch and when the game came out 75k players tried to log in at once and completely raped their servers. Considering their size they have been doing an admirable job trying to iron everything out.

Shadow · June 22, 2017, 02:52:00 PM

Quote from: OccasionalCthulhu on June 22, 2017, 02:48:08 PMI keep forgetting that the dev team is ridiculously small. I did read somewhere that from beta numbers they predicted a playbase of 30k at launch and when the game came out 75k players tried to log in at once and completely raped their servers. Considering their size they have been doing an admirable job trying to iron everything out.

Twitch giveth, and Twitch taketh away.

Chucky · March 05, 2018, 09:50:33 AM

I still need to get this game since it has now upgraded with offline gameplay. Not that I have a problem with playing games online but I don't really like the idea of buying a game and having it become useless a year or two later if no one is longer playing it or the servers are crap/taken down etc.

Chucky · September 19, 2018, 10:45:42 AM

Still haven't picked this up but noticed a couple of months ago that the developers are no longer allowed to continue with any further DLC because of some dickheads lawsuit over ownership of the franchise.

Dorkus · September 21, 2018, 02:31:50 PM

Said dickhead is Sean Cunningham, and yeah, that sucks.

It's a really fun multi-player game, even if it's buggy as hell at times. I recommend it cheap.

Chucky · October 10, 2018, 12:52:51 PM

I see there has been some recent movement in that lawsuit...

But anyhoo, I finally picked up this game as the new Slasher Edition on PS4 which has all the previous DLC. It's a pretty fun game, despite it's rather repetitive nature. They've done a lot of good things with it. Definitely recommended for any people who play games that are either Friday the 13th fans or slasher fans in general.