friday the 13th: the game

I've never been into the whole Kickstarter craze. This is important to know, because Friday The 13th is the only game I've ever Kickstarted. I mean, it wasn't even a question. The only question was to what level do I back it? And how many copies do I want? I settled on one copy (for the time being) along with the soundtrack, because OMG, Harry Manfredini!

My wife and I are HUGE fans of Friday The 13th. I don't know how to properly convey that. Many of our first dates involved rewatching those movies (in order) together. I can't even fathom how many times we've seen them all over the years. Heck, I can't even count how many times we've watched documentaries about the series. It's just a huge deal for us.

I played that original Kickstarter release back when it launched on PC and had a great time with it. It was one of my favorite games of that year. However, since then I've moved away from PC gaming and bought an Xbox One copy as well.

Though you could view Friday The 13th as just another asymmetrical game a la Evolve or Dead By Daylight - and that would be fair - it's a total love letter to the series. I had been following the game long before it even had the license. It used to just be called Slasher Volume 1: Summer Camp, and I was all for it as an homage. But being able to play a game where you actually get to explore locales from the movie is mind blowing for a fan like me. They totally nailed the feeling of the movies big time.

My wife generally hates any game where she has to play with other people online. She won't touch stuff like that as it makes her really nervous. But when I said "hey, play this Friday The 13th game," she was happy to give it a shot. What makes the game so incredible is that each 20-minute or so match feels like it's a mini-movie where you can relay the plot of what just happened. It's actually exciting.

For instance, I remember playing one where I teamed up with another player and we spent a good deal of time together finding weapons, setting traps, and making our way through the map. When Jason found us we were on a bridge so we jumped into the lake and tried to swim off. He followed us. Just as he got to us another camper showed up on a boat and I hopped in. The camper sped off in the boat leaving my original partner in the water as bait. I felt horrible, but it was memorable.

This is the sort of game that's as fun to watch as it is to play. As such, I'm having a lot of fun just watching my wife give it a try. She entered Camp Crystal lake and immediately was like "wait, I'm Shelly? He's the worst character in the whole series!" Haha. I never told her what to do - just watched. It was great. She made her way through some cabins, and found a weapon. She decided to go solo - like maybe Jason would go after the big group of teens and leave her alone. Well, no. He detected a straggler away from the group and acted as a true predator. But damn, this game is fun. The funny thing is that even after dying it's fun to watch the survivors and see what they do.

Seriously, I'm underselling it here. This game rules.