Friday the 13th: The Game launched on May 26, 2017, as a digital release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. It arrived with a hook no previous horror game had quite pulled off: eight players, one session, one of them Jason Voorhees.
The pitch was simple and mean. Seven players control counselors at Camp Crystal Lake. One player controls Jason. The counselors try to escape or survive until the clock runs out. Jason tries to kill them all.
Trailer, via Gun.
Camp Crystal Lake, 1979
Friday the 13th: The Game is an asymmetrical survival horror game developed by IllFonic and published by Gun Media. It is a semi-open world third-person game, set throughout the 1980s across locations drawn from the first five Friday the 13th films.
Five primary maps ship with the game. Camp Crystal Lake, from the first film, is set in 1979. Packanack Lodge, from the second film, is set in 1984. Higgins Haven, from the third film, is set in 1984. The Jarvis House, from the fourth film, is set in 1984. Pinehurst, from the fifth film, is set in 1989. Camp Crystal Lake, Higgins Haven and Packanack Lodge were available at launch. The Jarvis House arrived in October 2017. Pinehurst followed in January 2018.
That structure is the smartest thing the game does. Each map is pinned to the year its film came out, so the whole thing plays like a tour through the franchise’s own timeline rather than a generic slasher set.
A physical release followed on October 13, 2017, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A Nintendo Switch version landed on August 13, 2019.
Nine Jasons and a Sweater
The roster is where Friday the 13th: The Game earns its keep. Nine versions of Jason are playable, drawn from the second, third, fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth films. Make-up artist Tom Savini’s own Jason, created exclusively for backers, is in there too. Roy Burns, the copycat killer from the fifth film, is playable as “Part V Jason.” The third film’s Jason even has an alternate model based on his NES appearance.
Each Jason has his own strengths and weaknesses and, often, his own weapon. Playing as Jason grants time-restricted abilities, including sensing nearby counselors and teleporting anywhere on the map.
Counselors are playable too, each with distinct strengths and weaknesses. Twelve are original to the game: A.J. Mason, Adam Palomino, Brandon “Buggzy” Wilson, Chad Kensington, Deborah Kim, Eric “J.R.” LaChappa, Jenny Myers, Kenny Riedell, Mitch Floyd, Tiffany Cox, Vanessa Jones and Victoria Sterling. Two come from the films — Shelly Finkelstein and Fox from Part III.
Tommy Jarvis is the wild card. A randomly selected counselor whose previous character was killed or escaped takes control of him when he is contacted by CB radio. He has perfect statistics, starts with a shotgun, a pocket knife and first aid spray, and is the only character who can kill Jason.
That kill is the game’s best idea. It requires a female character to find Jason’s shack, put on Pamela Voorhees’s sweater, and claim to be his mother while his mask is off. Tommy attacks during the distraction. It is the kind of mechanic that turns a group of strangers into a plan.
Kane Hodder Returns
The casting gives the game a legitimacy most licensed horror titles never bother with. Kane Hodder provided motion capture for Jason and Roy Burns. Hodder played Jason in The New Blood, Jason Takes Manhattan, Jason Goes to Hell and Jason X, and is the only actor to play the character more than once.
Thom Mathews, who played Tommy in Jason Lives, voices Tommy Jarvis, and the character is modeled on his appearance in that film. Larry Zerner reprised Shelly when the character was added in December 2017. Gloria Charles and Dick Wieand appear as their Part III and A New Beginning characters, Fox and Roy Burns. Jennifer Ann Burton voices Pamela Voorhees, heard encouraging Jason’s player and in a collection of unlockable tapes.
The counselor voice cast is deep for a multiplayer game: Zeno Robinson, Benjamin Diskin, Cristina Vee, Kristina Klebe, Marisha Ray, Cherami Leigh, Robbie Daymond and Noveen Crumbie. Ryan Staats and Tarah Paige handled motion capture for the male and female counselors.
What Holds It Back
The core loop is thin. Counselors complete side objectives to escape faster, or stall until time expires. Jason kills. The semi-open maps give players room to run, but the objectives repeat, and repetition is the enemy of a game built on dread.
The single-player mode was announced for a Summer 2017 release after originally being planned as multiplayer only. The stretch goal to unlock it, US$1.625 million, was not met. That is a telling detail about how the game was funded and what it could promise.
The bigger problem is what came later. As of January 1, 2025, the game is no longer playable online. For an asymmetrical multiplayer game, that is not a flaw — it is an ending. Friday the 13th: The Game was built on eight people in one session, and that version of it no longer exists.
What the Game Gets Right
Friday the 13th: The Game is a faithful, well-cast, mechanically clever take on a franchise that had been badly served by games before it. The Jason kill condition is genuinely inventive. The map-to-film timeline is a nice piece of design. The roster respects the source material in a way that licensed games rarely do.
But it is a multiplayer game with a thin loop, and it has been offline since January 1, 2025. What remains is a document of a good idea that could not survive its own dependence on servers.
KEY FACTS
– Release: May 26, 2017 (digital), October 13, 2017 (physical), August 13, 2019 (Switch)
– Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch
– Developer: IllFonic
– Publisher: Gun Media
– Genre: Asymmetrical survival horror
– Players: Up to 8 per session
– Maps: 5 primary
– Playable Jasons: 9
– Offline as of: January 1, 2025
– Score: 6.1/10
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