Killer Klowns

We sit down and review Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game. A new asymmetrical survival horror diving into the Kult Klassic IP. Here is our review of this Killer Klowns title

The Klownpocalypse is upon us as we see the full release of Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game hitting the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on June 6^th, or May 28^th for those who may have pre-ordered the game. This is the latest asymmetrical title that Teravision Games and IllFonic have been working on using the cult-classic title as an inspiration. Not only to add another title into the mix of theirs that fits this formula but also to give the fans of the Killer Klowns From Outer Space IP a whole lot of fun to play out. That is the question we have for now, though, is if it is going to be that level of fun you are expecting. That is where our review will dive in and let you know if you should be joining the Klowns or the Humans in escaping the weird and horror-filled world that is coming.

Story

The events of Killer Klowns From Outer Space have gone down and the aliens were thwarted before as we all may have seen. Only, they are back and attacking the area of Crescent Cove again. An area that has handled this problem before and a new batch of humans will need to survive the night. That or you get to see how the Klowns are descending back to take out more of the humans for harvest again. If you want to experience the game from the side of the Klowns…that is… From there, the story and fun of it all is up to us to make and fill in. Along with the various lore tapes that fill in what some of the characters from the Killer Klowns movie have been up to up to now.

Hated

When I look at things I had to experience in Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game, I have to look at the fact that I always had much more fun playing on the side of the Klowns than the Humans. Not just because you get to hunt them down and play more of the fun film side of things, but when it comes to the Human side, it feels like there is a little less direction on what to do. The core loop is for the Human players to try to escape and to do that, they need to search the area for things while avoiding the Killer Klowns. In the number of hours and time I have played as the Humans, I never once found anything that would aid in my escape or mostly anything useful. In fact, I would wander buildings and locations only to find that everything was either looted already or just random basic things left behind. In one instance, I found the escape area, cleared all the cotton candy, and just needed to find a key. I wandered the map for at least 5 minutes looking and could never find the key. Even in areas it should have been. I understand making it a bit of a trial to do all of that, but it still feels like there is a bit of balancing that needs to go in for that side of things as I found more lore tapes in the game than anything useful for the matches.

Dovetailing from that, the control scheme for Killer Klowns From Outer Space is also a bit rough for some reason. Klowns get set gear from the start while Humans have four different slots to hold things. Not bad, except that this is also when it comes to healing items, ammo, and weapons. Also, not bad until it comes time to swap through things and you load up a hamburger to your hand instead of a weapon to defend yourself with. This brings me to the issue of not making it easy for the Human players to access the items they need to survive in an easy way at all. I do not know how many times I died in the game due to the fact that in the heat of things, instead of being able to quickly swap to a weapon, I had to cycle through to it. Sometimes cycling through a few times as it would pass right over any weapon I did have on me. This is an issue in Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game, but one that feels as if it could be fixed with a future update down the line. It is also not game breaking at all, as I saw many other players able to survive very well, but one that will leave new players feeling frustrated out the gate.

Moving onto the Killer Klowns side of things, new players to the game will think they are getting the short end of the stick when it comes to powers and weapons the Klowns have. At first, that is. As this next big issue with things comes down to weapons and abilities the Klowns get at higher levels being less effective or just harder to use. When I hit the level in the game where they unlocked, I was happy to see I had options. Sadly, those options were a lot harder to use, operate, and get any of the kills in the game. Not due to lack of player skill, but they required a lot more build-up and timing to land where the weapons we get early in the game just seem to work well with much less effort. This is the same when it comes to the Killer Klown abilities, as I kept going back to what I had used before as even having the Balloon Dog to sniff out players felt like it was a waste of time to wait to charge up with how the gameplay normally flows. It all makes sense to have as an homage to the film, but the gameplay benefits just never seemed to land well during any of my time playing the game.

Loved

I am going to have to start out that playing as one of the Killer Klowns in this title has to be the biggest highlight of it all. Even if I did just gripe on their weapons and abilities we are getting in the game. When it comes to their gameplay loop, it is all about triggering the Klownpocalypse by killing the Humans or harvesting them for the generators. It sounds very basic, but in practice, it makes for a very engaging bit of gameplay where you can feel most of the focus is on the game. Even when it comes down to their weapons and skill swapping, Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game makes that a bit of a breeze with a few button toggles to swap between shooting the Humans and world or smashing them in the same way. Then there is the extra strategy that goes in with combining all of those aspects with others in the game. Even if they seem like they get a limited number of things to use besides running around and shooting, it all works and works insanely well. That is also just the basics of it all as then we get to dive into the bigger things they bring to the table that also land a spot in the 'oved' section of this review.

While playing as the Killer Klowns, you are given many different options on how to go about doing what they need to do. Killing the humans being one of them. While still a bit of a challenge to do, between the attacks, powers, and Klowntalities offered up, they are all engaging. Which, speaking of the Klowntalities, these have to be one of the best parts of killing any of the Human players as it will whisk both players into a void to let a special kill animation play out. All of them getting pulled from the Killer Klowns From Outer Space film in some way. Also, with the fun little added bonus of making you immune to the world during it all. A nice little feature that other asymmetrical games do not normally have and adds even more to the strategy of getting a quick kill on a Human or timing it just right so that you are saved from being taken down as a Klown by another Human who might be sneaking up. I was able to get this to help out many times so, not only did I get a fun kill to watch in the game, I was saved to come back in a few seconds to keep the rampage going. Effectively giving us something else to do in the game while things are going down.

This will bring me to my last highlight of Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game before letting you dig into all of the gameplay footage. When you die as a Human, the game does not just simply end and you are forced to just spectate the rest of the match. I am not talking about the fact that the game does have a resurrection mechanic that can bring all dead Humans back into the game, but the fact that you get to play minigames while spectating and then drop items for living players out there or keep them for yourself if you are resurrected before the end of the match. While the minigames are not overly intense, they not only give you something else to do besides watch, but they can also help you turn the tides of battle against the Killer Klowns. In one of my matches, I was watching as the last Human player was being carted off to doom in a cocoon. They can only break free if they have something sharp and just before they were killed, I finished a minigame, and was rewarded with a sharp item, I gifted it to them which allowed them to escape and bring the whole Human team back from the dead. It completely shifted the game and we were able to pull off a win. It is that kind of chaos that will keep players engaged during the matches as well as always having something new to come about to bring them back to play.

Overview

When all is said and done for Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game as of now, I had a really good time with this title and am still going back in to experience more. This is not something that I have been able to say in the past, even with other asymmetrical horror titles based around IPs I loved even more than this one. Sure, there are a few issues with it when it comes to UI and direction in some of the matches, but all of those are things that can easily get patched out or updated after the game goes fully live. Meaning, none of the issues feel like it is something that is on the core gameplay of it all. Maybe down the line, they might even feel more like features than bugs in the game. Nonetheless, I had a blast playing Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game and only see the long running issue of Human attention spans being any of the issues with the game. You can read that as it will be huge, and keep a lot of fans coming back, but given the nature of gamers, they will flock to the next thing they think is big which could cause the number of players to dwindle. That would be the only true drawback to the game when it comes to its longevity. For now, though, I will be losing more hours into the game and having a whole lot of fun doing it.

I give Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game 4 Klowntalities on the Klowntality scale.

Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game was developed by Teravision Games and published by IllFonic for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on June 4^th, 2024 with Pre-Order access starting on May 28^th, 2024. A PlayStation copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.