After spending time with Predator: Hunting Grounds, Friday the 13th, Killer Klowns From Outer Space and Dead by Daylight, I had become fairly sceptical of asymmetrical horror games. Halloween: The Game changed that view. IllFonic’s adaptation of the slasher film is rough around the edges, but its multiplayer design creates some genuinely memorable scares.
The premise is immediately familiar. One player controls the immortal Michael Myers, while up to four survivors attempt to escape his killing spree. Survivors can damage or briefly stop him, but defeating Michael is not the objective. They must gather what they need, find an exit and stay alive while the killer uses supernatural abilities to move around the map.
The game’s most important difference is its population of non-player characters. Townspeople fill each match, including some figures inspired by the original films alongside ordinary residents. They clean, watch television, smoke on porches and go about their routines, making the different-sized maps feel like living places rather than empty arenas.
For Michael, those NPCs provide a much larger hunting ground than a small group of human opponents. Survivors, meanwhile, can decide whether to rescue townspeople or abandon them. Helping people hide or contact the police earns experience that can unlock stronger starting equipment and other advantages, but every extra minute spent helping gives Michael more time to locate the survivors.
The danger is communicated effectively. When Michael kills an NPC or survivor, the match lets everyone know. If he is nearby, players may even hear the murder. That audio cue is particularly unsettling when a survivor is alone in a house, searching for supplies and escape components.
Michael Myers turns matches into stories
The strongest moments come from playing with other people. In one match, a player entered a house, locked the door and went to a bedroom to persuade an NPC to follow them towards a possible escape route. I was watching through Michael’s shadowy ghost ability, which lets him fly invisibly around the map and pass through unlit doors.
Michael cannot materialise in direct view or in an area exposed to light, so I moved into a nearby wardrobe and appeared inside it. When I stepped out, the other player screamed, broke through a window and fled, leaving the NPC behind. It was an absurdly effective horror-comedy moment, followed by an easy kill.
Once players understand the limits of Michael’s powers, he becomes both frightening and entertaining to control. Stalking is rewarded with bonus experience when a victim is killed while scared, encouraging players to create tension instead of simply rushing towards their targets. Cutting the electricity, smashing a nearby window and disappearing can be as valuable as the final attack.
Survivors are not defenceless. Flashlights, firearms, bikes and unusual magical items can help delay Michael while the group collects parts for a car, basement or another escape option. If the match runs long enough for bodies to accumulate and police to arrive, survivors may also escape in a police wagon. Rescuing townspeople provides additional experience while denying Michael both a kill and the associated reward.
Plans tend to collapse as soon as Michael appears behind a door. A carefully organised escape can turn into a desperate sprint before a survivor is grabbed and has their head driven into a television.
Bugs interrupt an otherwise strong multiplayer game
Halloween: The Game has a noticeable layer of technical roughness. Some glitches are amusing, such as NPCs becoming stranded on rooftops that players normally cannot reach. Others can ruin a match, including situations where Michael cannot attack because an object was collected too close to a wall or during an animation.
Executions are suitably violent and graphic for a classic slasher, but their animations can look awkward. Rejoining a match after death also seems unclear. In the matches I played, a dead player returned as a police officer only once, leaving open the possibility that the feature was not working correctly or that we had misunderstood its requirements.
The developer has said that a day-one patch will address some of these problems, with further post-launch support planned. However, performance issues and crashes were not included among every listed fix. Those technical problems will need attention, because the game is at its best when its systems work together.
The solo content is mainly a tutorial
A single-player story mode lets players control Michael and recreate several events from the original film. The attention to detail in these missions is strong, but there are not many of them, and the missions are not especially entertaining. They function better as a guided introduction to the game than as a substantial campaign.
Michael can also be played against bots outside the story mode, although that experience lacks the unpredictability and humour created by human players. Anyone considering the game primarily for solo play, or anyone uninterested in online player-versus-player horror, should temper their expectations.
For more coverage of games built around dedicated hardware and multiplayer play, explore RETROCADE’s arcade blog and arcade videos. Players considering a home setup can also browse the arcade machine buying guide or compare arcade machines.
Despite the bugs and underwhelming solo offering, I had already played almost twelve hours, levelling both survivors and Michael while unlocking cosmetics and abilities. The film’s atmosphere is strong, helped by its iconic music, and a group of friends can turn each match into a series of unpredictable stories.
Halloween: The Game is scheduled to arrive on PS5, Xbox and PC through paid early access on 4 September. The full release is scheduled for 8 September. It needs more fixes, but when the matchmaking, animations and performance hold together, it is one of the more enjoyable asymmetrical horror games I have played.
Leave a Reply