Show of hands, how many of you know of the iconic horror slasher series about the big, lumbering, hockey mask-wearing Jason Voorhees? Most of you? Go figure. This pop culture kingpin of the horror genre is among some of the greats that are associated with the massive category of cinema among the likes of Freddy Kruger (Nightmare on Elm Street), Jigsaw (Saw), and Michael Myers (Halloween). Here’s a fun task, we all know how atrocious movie tie-in games can be most of the time. Now, try applying that to a horror movie. That’s right, you’re entering some territory scarier than the material being used to base the game on. Ever since the days of the Atari 2600 and NES, we’ve learned that horror movies and video games DON’T mix in the slightest, with game adaptations like Halloween on the Atari 2600 and the NES version of Nightmare on Elm Street. Many years later, and games like the Xbox and PS3 Saw games show that about twenty years later, the quality for horror movie game adaptations have still not seen a rebound. So, since it’s the spookiest month of the year, and the fact that the 13^th actually falls on a Friday, this month, I thought now would be a better time than ever to talk about the most recent, and hands-down the best horror movie to game adaptation in existence, the 2017 Friday the 13^th game.

Let’s start where I’m sure everyone is pointlessly asking their computer monitor about, which movie is it based off of? Trick question, it features ALL of them, well, except for Jason X, actually, there was meant to be a skin for him from that, but I’ll get to the subject of skins in a minute. Not only does the game give you access to a few different locales from the movies, but you can also pick which version of Jason you want to use including one based off of his purple and cyan sprite from the atrocious Friday the 13^th NES game. This begs the question: What’s the difference? Well, sure, some look cooler than others such as the pre-order bonus version created by the person who made the original design of Jason himself, but the added bonuses are what influence most on which one to pick. One may have better speed when swimming than another or better attack, special attack reload speed, etc. The same can also be said about the counselors you can play as. One might be faster, while another might be better off with stealth. On the subject of them, they’re right out of the various movies as well, and in good supply, too.

Onto the gameplay. Luckily, this is a VAST departure from the NES game where the only terrifying thing about it was how bad it was. This time, it’s a 7V1 survival horror game where cooperation is merely a suggestion, but if you want to escape the camp in one piece and keep most of your blood still in you, then working with others is practically a necessity. The counselors can lay traps, fire weapons they find to stun him, and even break free of his grasp if their health and strength is high enough. The player is presented with five possible options of winning the game: the EXTREMELY difficult task of defeating Jason, surviving all 20 minutes of the match, finding a fuse, repairing the phone line and calling the police, fixing the car and driving away, or fixing the boat and hauling posterior across the lake. Another vital aspect of gameplay is that if someone finds the radio system, they can call in a familiar face from the series, Tommy Jarvis. This acts as a second chance for the first person to get killed off to return as him, and with better health, stamina, and even a good weapon right off the bat to fend for yourself.

Now we get to the part that not only strikes fear, but frustration into the majority of players, Jason’s role in the gameplay. One person in the game will be able to control the slow, monstrous goliath of a murderer with special abilities and finishing moves that can be used. While we’re on the subject, his special abilities are what many hate the most since they can make surviving near impossible if he decides that a player has been having too much fun and wants to be a total jerk. 1. That’s his goal, to eliminate all other players. 2. While I do agree, it can be as infuriating as can be, that’s part of the game. He’s meant to be this overpowered behemoth that you had better hope, pray, wish, plead, and clutch your Golden Girls box-set to that he doesn’t think that you’ve had enough time with a pristine set of limbs. His abilities range from teleporting around the map to being able to move incredibly quickly for a moment or two, and even be able to swim so quickly, it would put Olympians to shame. That being said, the special abilities Jason is given each have a cool-down timer that must finish before he can use any of them again. On the topic of Jason, the motion capture done for his model in the game was performed by none other than the same actor who played him from part 7 onwards, adding to how genuine it feels.

Speaking of both sides of the spectrum, how about those abilities? As you complete tasks in the game, you’ll be able to level up and invest points into getting new abilities and unlocking new counselors and even different versions of Jason based on each of the movies. As previously stated, each version of Jason has different perks, abilities, and weapon, but you can also use points to unlock different ways of finishing off the counselors. On the subject of the counselors, again, each and every one of them is from the various movies, except for a few of them who were Kickstarter backers who fulfilled a perk-tier to be featured in the game as one of them.

Regardless of the frustration it may bring and the occasional glitch or two, it’s truly the best slasher game to date, and arguably the best horror movie game to exist. First we get Jason as a playable character in Mortal Kombat X, and now this. What can I say, this character’s been on a roll in recent years. I guess you could say that this game really killed the competition.