Friday The 13th: The Game (PS4) - REVIEW

Welcome back to A's GAMING moments- so let's talk Friday The 13th.
I've always been a fan of the Friday The 13th series- I mean, after all, what's not to love.
You take a bunch of horny teenagers, you throw them in the woods, you add a masked psychopath
and- basically, boom, you've got yourself an instant slasher movie classic.
But how does all of this work as a game?
Well, let's find out...
So here we go, the game begins and immediately I'm Jason Voorhees, running around Crystal
Lake trying to kill seven counselors.
Originally, this game wasn't even meant to be a Friday The 13th game.
It was simply called Slasher Vol. 1: Summer Camp.
But then Sean S. Cunningham, the guy who created the original Friday The 13th, saw the game
and was so impressed, that he decided to offer up his licence, so that it could be based
upon his movies.
Then if you throw in the motion capture work of Kane Hodder, the guy who played Jason in
four of the films.
Plus Thom Mathews, returning to his role of Tommy Jarvis from Part VI- and bingo.
What you get is THE authentic Friday The 13th experience.
The game's got a variety of different Jason's, all coming from the different movies and each
bringing their own set of strengths and weaknesses.
But it doesn't matter which Jason it is, because they all get straight down to business, starting
off each of the matches with the murder of this poor guy.
Chad then pulls a stupid face.
Yep.
And then the seven counselors all scatter to begin the game and their 20 minute trial
of survival.
Let the games begin!
So the NES game may not have let you play as Jason, but at least here someone gets to
play as him.
Its an asymmetrical multiplayer- meaning that one while person's Jason, the other seven
are the camp counselors.
Now Jason's just as you'd expect.
A perfect lumbering mass of pure evil, with no other objective other than to kill everyone.
He just plods along slowly, but to help him out, he's got some special moves.
Like he can warp himself forward, so just when they think they're safe- oh, oh.
No they're not.
Plus he has enhanced senses, making it it easier to track people down.
He's even got his famous sleeping bag kill.
Here we go!
Actually though, it's the campers that I prefer to play as.
Here you're goal is to either survive for twenty minutes, or to make an escape.
An escape can be done a number of different ways- from either repairing a vehicle and
then driving off.
Or by fixing a phone, and then calling the police.
Ideally, to do all of this, you need to be working as team.
So mic up, and communicate.
You need to do things like make plans and work out who's got what item, so that you
can get things done quickly.
You need to delegate out roles to different people, perhaps depending upon their character's
skills or on their perks.
And the audio here is perfect to help with this kind of gameplay, because you can only
hear people if you're near them.
So if you go off by yourself, then you really feel alone and isolated from the rest of the
group.
Unless of course you've managed to find a radio.
And finding a fellow survivor, who perhaps doesn't speak your language, is always a fun
challenge, as you try desperately to communicate with them, so you have a chance of hopefully
making it out in one piece.
It's tense- just like in the movies.
Sometimes you'll only ever just make it out by the skin of your teeth, only to then be
caught!
But!
Thankfully you've got an all important pocketknife, to give you one last shot at making it out
to safety.
The game's full of moments like this, especially when you include the fact a human element
is involved, so it's always unpredictable.
Do you wait for the girl to get in your boat?
Or do you not risk it and just leave?
It's a unique multiplayer experience that can really bring people together.
I mean, after all, nobody wants to get caught!
Unfortunately it can sometimes take a painfully long time to join a match.
And even when you do finally get in, there's often some kind of connection error, which
wouldn't be too much of problem, if it wasn't for the fact that you only receive all of
your XP at the end of a match.
So, for example, if you're 19 minutes into a game, and something goes wrong with the
internet- well, guess what, you've just wasted 19 minutes, because you didn't complete the
match- so no XP.
Plus, if you die straight away, then you're put into spectator mode.
And again, if you quit, you don't get you're XP, so you're stuck watching other people.
Although, to be honest, I don't really mind this because I just see it as added pressure
to NOT die.
Plus watching others is kind like watching a mini Friday The 13th movie.
So- not too bad.
This game is true survival horror.
Sure, it's got problems, but even after only a couple of days, some of its issues have
started to be patched.
First aid sprays, for example, no longer take so long to use.
And even Chad doesn't look so bad anymore!
And what I'm excited for most is the prospect for the future of the game.
Who knows- maybe, Jason will go to space?
Maybe someday some other characters will get involved- like, say, Michael Myers?
Or maybe Freddy Krueger could haunt your dreams while you fall asleep waiting for a match
to begin?
I don't know.
Anyway, thanks for watching.

Friday The 13th: The Game (PS4) - REVIEW - A's GAMING moments

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