Survival Horror is a surging genre in video games. With games like Outlast and Alien: Isolation, and Hideo Kojima’s ethereal P.T., winning isn’t qualified by defeating some evil force; instead, simply making it out alive is enough to warrant jubilation.
What better way to experience what Survival Horror is than to go back to the days of the genre in film, and with that one of the top franchises, Friday the 13th. Gun Media, translating the IP into video game format, takes lessons learned from modern games and throws in the most important aspects that made classic films so gripping: fear and uncertainty.
And Jason Vorhees.
During E3 last month, we had the time to chat with Gun’s Wes Keltner, the co-Creator of the project, as he showed us a prerecorded playthrough of the game. Their take onFriday the 13th may be a Many vs One multiplayer game, but the division between the two sides is much clearer than what something like like Evolve tries to pull off, and by design plays like two different games in one.
On one side, the single-player controlled Jason stalks and gruesomely kills the camp counsellors. This is the horror side, the action game, with special abilities, attacks and even fast travel. There’s a little bit of stealth thrown in, but let’s face it: Jason Vorhees is a brute and we want to experience all the pain he can bring.
On the other side are the counsellors, controlled by different players in a quest to escape from the campgrounds before the monster hunts them down. Should he come close, they have the option to hide or run, hoping he doesn’t find or catch them. There are multiple ways to escape, but they all utilize varying levels of teamwork to collect vehicle parts and play lookout as others repair cars or boats or warn each other. This is the survival side of the game, the side where blood pressure raises, hearts start pumping faster and beads of sweat form on our heads.
By creating two unique experiences, Gun is hoping that players will want to try both sides and not just roll with Jason each time. Fear is a way to entice players, not just action, and sometimes that fear is a more than satisfying reward.
Key to this is recreating the details of the series as best as possible to make sure that players and fans are drawn in to an authentic experience. Gun’s team is small but dedicated, and as huge fans of the series themselves they know that there are intricacies in how the characters and locale are portrayed. The main location of the demo, Higgin’s Haven, is recreated from photographs and interviews, videos and articles about the films. In fact, when the team showed the game’s version of Higgin’s cottage to former film cast, the actors began to say things like “I remember that mantle” or “I kept bumping into that side table.” Gun even went so far as to recreate the film grain and lighting used by the cinematographers of the films to provide yet another level of depth, and another aspect of the terror that makes Friday the 13th so memorable.
That panic-inducing feel is quite literal: Jason is intentionally overpowered, and the counsellors have a sort of panic meter that fills up as he gets closer. Jason can sense this panic, pinpointing the location of the other players on the map and by virtue continuing the fear-begets-fear cycle. The counsellors need to figure out how to mitigate that fear, reduce it, or prevent it. Keltner explains that the fear is brought on in similar ways that we would expect from a horror film, such as going into the forest alone, separating from our friends, or even going for a swim — all things that induce us to impulsively cry out at a movie screen, “don’t go in there, idiot!”
And, thanks to Jason’s variety of abilities, that fear can arrive at any time. In Gun’s iteration, Vorhees can teleport around the map, something that isn’t necessarily canon but is the only way anyone can actually explain how he’ sable to get from one side of a giant campground to another for a kill. Luckily it doesn’t break the game or experience, as Vorhees can only get so close to his prey and the abilities need time to recharge before they can be used again.
It’s at this point that the counsellors need to understand if they’re going to work together, leave their friends, or even try and hide. During the demo, Vorhees descends on a cabin after he’s detected a terrified counsellor inside. The counsellor smartly decides to turn on the radio and open a window before hiding under a bed, hoping to make it seem like he’s just escaped so that Jason leaves the vicinity. It’s unsuccessful, however, as the monster bust through the door, examines the room, and (just before he leaves through the door) stops and turns around, walking slowly towards the and stabbing through the mattress.
As a bystander it’s easy to think of the counsellor in the video as a moron, playing right into the hands of Jason and becoming a predictable victim. But taking a slight step back reveals that we’d probably be doing the same thing in that situation, with panic taking over and time running out and doing stupid things. That seems extremely enticing as a side effect of playing Friday the 13th. I want to be the smart one that survives the longest, but I could be perfectly fine being the dumb one, as long as my blood-soaked end is satisfying and enjoyable and reminiscent of the slasher films that it’s based on.
There is still quite a long way to go before Friday the 13th releases this October, but the project could be on a solid path to deliver a completely unique multiplayer experience.
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