For many months, I tried desperately to ignore the fact that Friday the 13th: The Game’s servers are shutting down at the end of the year due to an ongoing legal dispute. The thought of simply not being able to play one of my favorite games was too painful to bear, so I just turned a blind eye to the situation. There were other games to play, like the trio of behemoth JRPGs that swallowed the first half of my 2024, not to mention an unusually busy year for me personally.
But then Halloween 2024 rolled around, and I couldn’t ignore the expressionless, but somehow still sorrowful hockey mask beckoning from my PS5 library. It was time to do what was right and spend as much time with this dear ol’ friend of mine as possible before Gun Media pulled the plug, sinking and anchoring Friday the 13th: The Game to the bottom of Crystal Lake.
I still had the game installed on my PS5 when I hesitantly launched it. Would it still be the same? Would it be a lawless wasteland filled with cheaters, hackers, and trolls? Would anyone even be playing? Well, answering those questions sequentially, no, yes, and yes. It absolutely wasn’t the same game I remember defining my 2017 summer, but it was surprisingly active and, perhaps even more surprisingly, it was by far the most fun I’d had playing a multiplayer horror game this year, and I’ve been playing it daily since.
A camp with no counselors
As a non-cheating, non-hacking, out-of-practice player, there’s about a 2-3% chance I win any given game of Friday the 13th: The Game, but it doesn’t matter. Sure, the rush of escaping Jason Voorhees’ grasp isn’t quite as thrilling when Jason is being straight-up bullied by cheating camp counselors, and conversely it feels unfair when the killer somehow has every perk unlocked right out of the gate. But there’s an anarchic atmosphere that feels like a wild, chaotic party, which might not be the respectful sendoff the game deserves, but is a whole lot of fun.
If you can forgive the jank and free yourself from the pressures of competition, Camp Crystal Lake is a delightfully unbalanced free-for-all where nothing matters because we’re all going to die anyway. It doesn’t even seem to me that anyone is particularly interested in winning. It’s just all vibes, man. You’ll see camp counselors dancing around the fire, fully aware that Jason is approaching with every intent to decapitate them. Sometimes they get beheaded, and sometimes they inexplicably escape and continue dancing, whipping Jason into an enraged frenzy you can’t help but enjoy. Sometimes, you’ll die almost immediately, whether fairly or not, and have the pleasure of watching the most unhinged Friday the 13th movie ever (yes, even more than Jason Takes Manhattan) through static cameras and other players’ perspectives.
This is as much an early in-memoriam for Friday the 13th: The Game as it is a PSA that we have less than four weeks to play this wonderfully janky gem of an asymmetrical horror game before it’s gone for good, and it’s still absolutely still worthy of your time. For me, I had heard and written about the death of the game for so many years (new content development first ended way back in 2018) that I wasn’t sure anyone would still be playing. I don’t know if I’m just playing at particularly active times for the game – usually West Coast evening hours – but my lobbies almost never fail to fully populate within mere moments.
His name was Jason
When I say Friday the 13th is the most fun I’ve had with a multiplayer horror game this year, that isn’t to say it’s better than contemporaries like Dead by Daylight and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, nor indie gems like Content Warning and Lethal Company. It’s frankly incomparable. It isn’t even trying to compete with any of those games anymore, and in fact, developer IllFonic has long moved on to Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed and, more recently, Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game. Friday the 13th: The Game is a land without law, and with only weeks to go until it disappears, playing it feels a little like attending a Y2K party in December 1999.
Now that I’ve dated myself into oblivion, let me unpack just how well IllFonic managed to capture the campy, trashy, extremely ’80s atmosphere that makes the long-running film Friday the 13th series so endearing and lovable. Visually, it’s perfect. All of the maps, whether it’s the iconic Camp Crystal Lake or Pinehurst Youth Development Camp from Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, are faithfully recreated to be oddly inviting despite the presence of a mutant serial killer hellbent on making sure no one has a good time.
Friday the 13th: The Game has it all. The debauchery, the aerobic workout outfits, the silly haircuts, even the purple and blue skin inspired by the irredeemably bad NES Friday the 13th game. Then there’s the stiff animations, weirdly waxy skin textures, and eccentric facial expressions, which of course aren’t nods to the film series but are unintentional tributes to the low budget feel of the movies.
For fans, it’s a love letter to their favorite film series, and by far the best Crystal Lake sandbox to ever exist. So to lapsed players or curious onlookers who’ve been wondering what’s going on in Crystal Lake limbo, I’d strongly urge you to log in and join this wonderfully broken farewell for one of the greats.
It’s Halloween all year round when you marathon our list of the best horror games ever.