Nerds That Geek Game Review - 'Friday the 13th: The Game'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

When it comes to 1980’s horror icons, Freddy Krueger will always be my favorite, but I do have to admit, that there’s a soft spot in my heart for Jason Voorhees as well. While Freddy always had the bigger stories and incredible one liners, there’s something to be said about the strong silent serial killer type and quite frankly, I’m a huge fan of the big mysteries that surrounded Jason as well. After all, to this day we know little about how he’s gained his incredible powers and well, his supernatural abilities made him one fascinating character to say the least.
 
In fact, that shroud of mystery surrounding Jason Voorhees is what I firmly believe has allowed for the character endure for decades and oddly enough, the wonder of what he is and the world that he inhabits inspired a pair of companies, Illfonic and Gun Media to team up to bring Jason’s world to life in video game form by way of Friday the 13th: The Game. Now, I am fully aware of the fact that I am late to the party when it comes to this game since it was released in May of last year, but I’ll be honest, I’m not a big fan of multiplayer, so I bided my time for Single Player to come around.
 
But now that I have my hands on this game, I have to be honest, I am filled with regret that I didn’t pick it up sooner, because this is a phenomenally fun time through and through. Not only do you get to experience the sheer terror of being stalked by Jason if you choose to play a counselor online, the real draw of this game for me, is assuming the role of Jason Voorhees. Because there’s something incredibly unique about getting to step into the shoes of a film icon like Jason and well, the boys at Illfonic and Gun Media have outdone themselves when it comes to the gameplay. 

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​After all, you can choose which Jason you would like to become from your favorite Friday the 13th film (all but Uber Jason from Jason X, but he is on the horizon), and each iteration of Jason comes with his own set of unique and brutal kills and the fact that Kane Hodder did the motion capture for Jason in this game adds that special touch that only he brought to the role since he was the finest Voorhees of them all and really, the quality of these digital kills and the ability to do just about everything Jason can on the silver screen makes for a supremely good time.
 
Not to mention, this game also pays incredible respect to the original films. Every setting from the films is carefully and painstakingly recreated in this game, to the point where you can see exactly where iconic moments in the franchise took place and slowly but surely, characters from the films are finding their way into the game. Because you can also play as Fox and Sheldon ‘Shelly’ Finkelstein from Friday the 13th Part III since the original actors lent their likenesses and voices to this digital world and of course, what would a Friday the 13th story be without Jason’s arch nemesis Tommy Jarvis, and he’s here too, and Thom Mathews, who played the character in Part VI: Jason Lives reprises the role as well.
 
Either way, this game is just a joy to play and addicting as well because you simply crave more and who knows, this game may get me into multiplayer after all since I’ve started enjoying a few private matches with some friends, and with more patches and gameplay additions in the pipe, this is one I’m going to revisit for a long time. Now if we can just get these two companies to develop a similar game with Freddy Krueger at the helm, so we can enjoy that world and get these two to duke it out for all of digital eternity… 

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