Friday The 13th Single-Player Challenges Review
Friday The 13th Single-Player Challenges Bring Players back to Camp
“and so they found the whole camp murdered. Their throats were slit, and their skulls were crushed…. Fine don’t believe me. But it happened right around here…. They say her son Jason came back to get his revenge. He still lurks the woods to this day.”
And so the stories go about the legend of Jason Voorhees and Camp Blood. We’ve all heard these stories growing up about a masked man or lunatic wandering the woods and preying on the lives of campers. We’ve seen this in television, and bonfire stories, but now we get to live it in Friday The 13th’s Single-Player Challenges. Whereas the NES version placed players in the role of the helpless camp counselor, in this game players take on the role of the infamous hockey masked killer.
Overview
To help prepare players for the role of Jason in online multiplayer, Friday the 13th The Game has introduced 10 single-player challenges. You must be stealthy, deadly, and creative as you murder your way across iconic locations from the movie franchise. Each challenge has three skull objectives and several side missions players can complete to earn additional experience points.
Skull objectives are the same in each challenge.
- No survivors / Kill all counselors
- Undetected / Kill all counselors without being seen (this includes not having your corpses discovered)
- Reach a certain number of EXP
In order to clear the challenge and unlock the next, you have to complete 2/3 skull objectives in a playthrough of the challenge. If you only earn one skull, you will fail the challenge. To assist the player, side missions provide clues as to how players can increase their chances of earning the XP skull. These missions include for example: stabbing a counselor multiple times with a kitchen knife, or killing a counselor while he’s on a smoke break. Keep in mind though that in most cases it is impossible to complete every single side objective in a single playthrough. This is because side objectives may involve killing the same counselor in a variety of ways. The only person we know who could survive that kind of torture is Mr. Body himself (ah good old Clue).
What is enjoyable about the single-player challenges
What kept me playing the single-player challenges for around 6-7 hours straight was the variety in which you could defeat the counselors but also utilize the “stalk points”. Across each level there are certain “stalk points” that enable the camera to shift from a 3rd person to a 1st person perspective. If you look at it carefully, you’ll notice the camera slowly pans from left to right and it felt very similar to the original Friday the 13th film where viewers watched from the killer’s POV when stalking victims. In the challenge mode, stalk points enabled the player to see when important counselors were moving to objective locations, enabled them to plan their attack, and immersed players into the world of Friday the 13th .
The cut scenes caused by completing side missions provided more entertainment since instead of relying on the usual kills players could use at any point in time through shift grabbing, we were rewarded by waiting and attacking counselors at the right moment to engage a unique cinematic. After seeing all of this, it was that I then realized this is where the game shines the most, the nostalgia factor.
Ever since the NES game players have wanted a chance to return to Camp Crystal Lake, but in a more spooky setting that was honorable to the films. As of today, Friday the 13th The Game not only provides a fun multiplayer experience where you can choose to be the hunted or the hunter, but it ties back into the film series that fans enjoy. I can confirm after playing all 10 challenges that there are certain kills and moments in the game that are taken directly from the films, thus completing the nostalgia circle fans have been craving for years.
To summarize what makes this experience so entertaining is the little things. From the stalk points, planning your attack, homage to the films, and Harry Manfredini’s stinger that plays when you grab counselors, you get the Jason experience that feeds your nostalgia. Thanks to all of these features in the single-player challenges, even if you don’t have a stable internet connection or if you’re timid to try the multiplayer experience, you can find your own piece of Crystal Lake and return to camp.
What I’d like to see / What could be improved
Granted since this just released two days ago, there are some bugs in the game such as Chad being able to see through walls, and toilets not being available to do a swirly kill. But that’s just me being picky. (Note, if you keep getting caught by Chad in the second challenge despite having several rooms separating you, morph behind the barn so you’re out of his range and then kill him last by sneaking up on him.)
What I noticed is that a lot of the maps felt like a tribute to the Friday the 13th films from parts 1-5. So I’m hoping although this could be a push, to see more challenges in connection to the 2nd half of the film franchise (Manhattan, Jason X, New Blood, Hell, Jason lives, etc.) I understand the Grendel map is still in development, so I’m hoping for additional challenges later on in a year or two.
Before I say this last bit, let me say that game development is extremely hard so I understand the difficulty with combining path finding, animation, and coding all into one seamless experience under constraints. There were moments in the game where I wish I had a second chance to attack a particular counselor. Often times during the single-player challenges especially in challenge 7, I felt rushed keeping track of all the counselors moving from towards the bathroom and the kitchen, and that if I missed just one moment, it would prevent me from getting the kill that would’ve otherwise gotten me the XP skull. I would then have to reset the challenge since there was a time limit as well and I knew at that point completing the challenge was impossible unless I start over. However, I understand that these are challenges, and it’s a part of the game. After all, it’s hard being a masked murderer in the woods.
I plan to do another playthrough of the single-player challenges now that I have a bit more experience and I’d like to try out different Jasons. If you have a favorite challenge (no spoilers if possible) let me know in the comments below.
