Few horror villains need less introduction than Michael Myers. The iconic mask, the kitchen knife, the complete refusal to move faster than a casual stroll even if his target is seemingly blocks away- Halloween practically wrote the rulebook for the modern slasher. Years after their Friday the 13th game had to shut down servers, Illfonic is back with a fresh take on a popular genre they helped start.
A Party of One
Right off the bat, I will just say I didn’t get many opportunities in this early review period to play with others, and most of the real fun in these games is in big sessions with friends. That will always be the true measure of what to expect from a title like this, so a full score will come in time after I get more time with a big group.
What is there is something they’ve been touting for a while: an earnest attempt at some sort of single-player experience that isn’t just multiplayer with bots. The single-player campaign is a neat addition, especially for Halloween fans who have spent decades wanting to actually play through Michael’s infamous night in Haddonfield.
Controlling Michael feels appropriately methodical. You stalk victims, learn how his abilities function, familiarize yourself with the environments, and generally discover how Halloween wants you to think when wearing the mask.
There is something undeniably entertaining about slowly approaching an unsuspecting victim knowing that running around like an action hero would completely defeat the purpose. Halloween understands that Michael is frightening because he feels inevitable. The game essentially canonizes popular fan theories and memes of Myers having a supernatural ability to catch people. It gives him a shadow-shifting and ability to cover huge swaths of ground in almost no time at all, as long as nobody catches him in the act. It’s a fun ability, and having to do it in stealth adds an element of skill that will make it fun to use online.
The single player takes you through a simplified retelling of the original film, but don’t buy this expecting a long, in-depth survival horror experience. It’s fun and has great nostalgia and callbacks, but it is a much beefier, solid tutorial designed to teach anyone who plays how to use Michael effectively. There are even some fun unlocks to use in multiplayer, but the whole experience can be finished in a couple of hours, and it’s not likely to be revisited outside of hunting down all the challenges.
Not the Same Old Thing
One thing I got to see from the small amount of multiplayer I tried is how different it is. It’s not just a small map, one killer, and 4 players running around each other or circling a couch like a parody you’d expect from Scary Movie. It’s much more of a sandbox. The players have to find civilians, save them, get them to randomized escape routes, call the police, etc. It feels much more like the film, since it’s Michael Myers and the community he is terrorizing, not just a group of players on an otherwise static map devoid of life or atmosphere.
A Promising Start
Once we get more hands-on, I will be able to determine how much these additions to a tried-and-true genre add to the experience or make it harder to enjoy the power fantasy of using Myers, since the odds seemed stacked in the players’ favor in the very small amount of time I had. This will assuredly change once Halloween: The Game is live, and a meta develops, but it seems robust in the short term. Stay tuned for a full review in the coming days.
