Developed by IllFonic and funded by vehement horror fans via Kickstarter, Friday the 13th is an asymmetrical-multiplayer experience that pits the infamous Jason against several unbeknownst camp counselors. This Kickstarter horror experience just recently wrapped up its closed beta period, but not before I got to try out the game myself. Before we go on, it’s important to note that the build of the game that I played was definitely in the beta testing stages, and much of what I experienced is subject to any number of potential changes or tweaks.
After booting up the game I was immediately surprised by the professionalism and quality of the menus. Now I don’t mean this as a negative slight towards IllFonic, but I’m just simply not used to this visual and professional aesthetic from a crowdsourced game and an indie developer.
Thematically they’ve got the series pegged perfectly. Everything has this campy, retro vibe while still sporting mostly modern visuals. There are some facial animations that are laughable as well as some obvious texture streaming issues, but for the most part the game looks mighty fine. The amount of detail that went into some of the visuals to insure authenticity deserves a fair amount of praise. Every loading screen is hand drawn feels straight out of the movies (except for the space one) and everything feels like it belongs.
The game as it currently stands is strictly multiplayer. When a lobby loads up players choose one counselor and one Jason variant to play as. Both Jason and the Counselors have various options at their disposals. Aside from a few cosmetic modifications you can make, which weren’t available in the beta, there is a small selection of perks you can choose from. There are several different Counselors available, each based off of a character stereotype from the Friday the 13th Movie series (it even mentions which one) and each with their own skill proficiencies, such as increased stamina or quicker repairs. The different variants of Jason that are available to you are each movie’s version of Jason. The beta included the Original Jason from Chapter II, the Undead Jason from Chapter VII and pickaxe-wielding Jason from Chapter XIII. Each Jason has their own unique perks, weapons and character traits.
Each round in the beta begins in the exact same way. A young girl is walking towards her friends, all of whom are sitting happily around a fire, and is quickly murdered by Jason. This spurs the counselors to scream and hide. Some of the mood is killed here because of one specific animation that is hilariously bad, but otherwise you get the picture. Jason’s back, and he’ll kill everybody given the chance.
As a counselor you don’t really have anything in the way of defense, most of what you’ll be doing is running away and searching for tools to survive. You can also hide under beds and in closets, but unless you set off a radio or a noisemaker in the house Jason can, and will, find you and kill you. The seven or so counselors begin the round split up, but I was usually close enough to another counselor that I could hear them via game chat and track them down. Eventually you can find a walkie-talkie, which helps you link up with the rest of the survivors. Teamwork is imperative here and it’s unlikely that you’ll survive alone through legitimate means. Counselors can run much faster than Jason, but only for an extremely limited time, which is both frustrating and balanced, with the exception of a Tommy and one of the faster counselors, who can both outrun Jason indefinitely, making for incredibly boring and elongated matches. There’s more than one way for the survivors to get out, you can: call the police and run to them when they show up on the outskirts of the match, repair and then drive the two or four-seater cars, or simply survive the full length of a match (20 minutes). Survivors can also call in Tommy Jarvis, who boasts a shotgun, a walkie-talkie and maxed out player stats. While Tommy can’t kill Jason, he can stun him with the use of his shotgun and is generally more powerful than any of the other counselors.
There are a few weapons lying around, mostly household objects like pots and pans, pieces of plywood or a kitchen knife, as well as tools like noisemakers and pocket knives. While getting into combat is ill-advised, counselors do have a “combat mode” they can activate, allowing them to block attacks and attack Jason. This mostly ends in death. Weapons are mainly useful when attempting to rescue another counselor from Jason’s grip before he brutally executes them. I never fully grasped the combat style with my few days in the beta, in part because it felt rather janky and confusing, and in part because it usually ended in swift death. Players can attempt to escape from Jason’s grip themselves by button mashing or through the use of a pocket knife.
Jason is a much different experience, as he actually has legitimate and paranormal abilities at his expense. Jason is much slower than every counselor, especially the two I mentioned before. Each Jason is a little different, but each one can teleport across the map, sense counselors and noise from a distance, or do a shorter ranged blink of sorts. Other than these abilities, Jason is simply a walking tank. There’s very little that can stun or slow Jason, and while playing as him I actually felt his power.
Most of the game boils down to counselors grouping up and scurrying around, locking doors and desperately trying to survive while Jason picks them off one by one. Both experiences feel incredibly authentic and the game is actually incredibly fun, despite the large list of glitches and exploits I encountered.
Now, Friday the 13th is a beta, but some aspects of the game have quite a long way to go. In one of my matches Jason got stuck for the entire match, but aside from the obvious technical glitches, there and multiple exploits and balancing issues. On multiple occasions counselors outran Jason in circles, Jason’s short range grip is incredibly hard to use, the system used to open/close doors and search in drawers feels extremely finicky and with Jason’s unlimited use of his sense ability, hiding feels pointless.
Despite these issues, I’m pretty excited for Friday the 13th. The feeling of mutual powerlessness created some real bonds between me and other players, and the power I felt while playing as Jason felt intoxicating. I only worry that aspects of the gameplay, such as the movement or the combat, may feel too wonky for gamers to stick with the title for longer than a few days.
