Friday The 13th

While at E3 I was able to see Friday The 13th: The Game in a more intimate setting than just a trailer. Here's my take on Friday The 13th: The Game

If there has been one game I was overly excited to see at E3 this year, that had already been announced, it was Friday The 13th: The Game. I’ve been so amped for this game since it was originally Summer Camp and now Illfonic and Gun Media have something solid for us all to see for the game. You may have seen some of it during their Twitch stream just before the event but if not then you are in the right place. I was able to meet up with the team and go through what they had to show for us all for Friday The 13th: The Game. You can see the video of it all just below but some of the context just isn’t there but that is what you have me for. All of which to get prepped for the final release on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC sometime this Fall.

The first thing that we get to see is just how Jason will play in Friday The 13th. This version of the character is the traditional slow stalker style from some of the films. This of course won’t be the case for all of the different variations of the character as Jason did move faster than a slow walk in a few of the films and when you unlock those “skins” you will get a bit of a faster movement. Although given that two of the abilities that Jason has are a teleport of sorts that could be a moot point.

If you look at the HUD for Jason you will see the left and right options with the Right giving Jason the ability to “teleport” to a specific area of the map in Friday The 13th. The left option allows him to materialize anywhere in a very short range so he could appear seemingly out of nowhere just as in the films. When doing this you can manipulate all of the angles so that you can get the perfect set up so you can perform the perfect kill. As you can see Jason do just in the video below.

You may also notice in the video that there are what looks like sound waves coming from all over the place as the counselors move about the map. This is the passive ability that Jason has to help locate everyone. Well at least when they are not using distractions like the radio or other sound generating devices that will “overload” his sense and give you all a little more free movement about the map with little to fear. Of course none of that matters if Jason uses his lower ability that lets him see those that have a high fear level at the moment. That is what will highlight the counselors and houses in Red. Of course the house glowing red is just a way to let Jason know that someone is hiding scared inside but it doesn’t define where they are.

The last ability seen here is also a more subtle one for Friday The 13th: The Game even though the results are not as subtle. That would be the Rage attack that Jason gets at the top of the list. This will allow Jason to have a surge of strength to perform actions like bursting through a locked door instead of slowly hacking and slashing his way in. I’m sure it will do other things in the full game but that was all that was shown in the demo so far. You can of course have a look for yourself right now.

Of course not everything can be summed up in a video and that is why I have just a bit more for you on Friday The 13th: The Game. One thing that isn’t seen here is the fact that you don’t get all of you abilities out of the gate in a match with Jason. You have to build them up and unlock them with the first ability being the Sense one. You unlock these as you kill the counselors and the more brutal the kill the faster things unlock. Seeing as you will have seven different players to kill it should unlock pretty fast but it is all about bringing all of those 80s horror tropes to life in the game to get all of the cool toys for later.

Also seen but not fully explained is the Fear level of each of the characters in the game. This is what allows for the sense to work in Friday The 13th and each of the counselors have a rating and it will go up and down based on their personal Composure. There is talk about how this rating will affect the players of the counselors in a visual mode but some of the mechanical ways it will affect them is in how well they can escape Jason’s grasp and how quiet they can stay while hiding. The rating gets increased by seeing Jason and the horrors he he brought and it can be lowered during a match by doing the things that would feel natural to calm the nerves in real life; locking doors, finding others to hide with, progressing to an escape route, etc.

Lastly, and this was directly pointed out, there is a combat and trap system in Friday The 13th: The Game even though we don’t see it in action here. Everyone will be able to swing a weapon and lay traps about the game map. Combat being as straight forward as you can think and traps being able to target anyone, self included, after being laid. As the team wanted to focus on the brutal kills requiring very specific actions or grappling the characters this is why you see Jason grabbing and attacking and not just swing his machete around slashing everyone to bits.