Do NOT Buy Friday The 13th: The Game (Hint: Gun Media Is Screwing Everyone Over)

Are you thinking about buying Friday The 13th: The Game?

It should be stated that this isn’t some sort of clickbait title that’s going to get you here and then actually praise the game.

No, I’m seriously advising anyone who’s currently thinking about purchasing this game to reconsider.

Why; you ask?

It’s Plagued By Bugs & Glitches

Glitches: This game has been practically broken since its release. Namely, glitchers were able to get into areas that were unreachable by Jason Voorhees, so you literally have to sit around, waiting for the 20-minute timer to expire, while players run around in glitches and taunt Jason. If you’re playing as Jason, this was extremely annoying. There’s nothing quite like hearing a 10-year-old talking shit to you while you can’t come anywhere near them.

Bugs: There have been COUNTLESS bugs since its release that continue to ruin the game. As of writing this post, users aren’t gaining any exp points, despite how many games they play and complete. There have also been CP glitches, which are points you earn to unlock perks and/or Jason kill abilities.

The Game Servers Are Terrible & Go Down Randomly

The servers in the game are an absolute nightmare. It’s not uncommon to search over-and-over only to sit in a lobby or get a constant “Failed To Host Lobby,” message. This is especially the case if you’re in a party. There are times you won’t be able to get in a game for upwards of 30-minutes. So, if you’re hoping for getting in a quick game before going to work or school, you may want to think twice.

As for downtime, it’s not uncommon for the servers to be down completely, and this is something that affects everyone. Just last night, there was an error that kicked everyone offline and when you tried to sign back online, you would get a message that said “Database login failure! Verify internet connectivity.”

This was something that plagued the entire community, across all platforms. Thousands of tweets were sent to the game’s official Twitter page, but all reports fell on deaf ears. Some users were even saying that they’d just paid $40 for the game, only to start it up to see that the servers are down.

Also, it’s not uncommon at all for you to regularly get disconnected from lobbies and sent back to the main menu with your party. God forbid the host leaves the game, which happens all the time, and literally ends the game for everyone. No, there is not a migrate server option.

A Community Of Cheaters / Exploiters / Children

In addition to all of the people that take advantage of glitches within the game, there’s also a ton of people who simply ruin the experience. These people will team up with Jason, which means they’re either going to tell him where you’re at, so he can kill you, or they’ll attack you, as well — sometimes both. As you can imagine, this is extremely frustrating, and there’s nothing you can do about.

I’m not a dickhead that’s going to say children shouldn’t play this game. I’m not their parent and generally don’t care, but 50% of the player base I’ve encountered on the game is children and kids can be extremely annoying. It’s a rarity when you’re going to find a kid that knows how to conduct themselves properly.

Typically, you’re going to deal with children who just discovered their first cuss word, and use it liberally to talk shit to you the entire time. They’ll also regularly sing in the microphone and just generally be annoying. This is something that’s not uncommon in other games, but it’s especially prevalent on this one because people generally need to use a mic in order to work together effectively.

Terrible Graphics

I’m not a graphic snob or anything of the sort, but this is a game from 2017 with graphics from 2006. It would have been nice had they put a little more effort into making this thing look better. This is especially true for Xbox One users who legitimately got screwed at launch. If you need proof of that, just watch the video above.

There Are Only 3 Maps

If you want something to break up the monotony or at least some different scenery, you’re going to be in trouble. There are only three maps in the game and they are all virtually the same. I know Jason didn’t switch it up much, but he did go to Manhattan and space, so there are a couple of options to mix things up.

Gun Media Is Banning People For Whatever Reason They See Fit

Even Reddit moderators of the official Friday the 13th: The Game subreddit are abandoning ship, due to devs abusing their powers, and banning users unjustifiably. Watch the video below, and you’ll see a case in which someone was banned, purely because someone was a friend of the developers:

Due to the horde of people abusing the game, Gun Media decided to roll out a list of “Bannable Offenses.” Now, this is a bit iffy, as far as I’m concerned. First of all, these exploits shouldn’t exist within the game in the first place. It’s not the community’s place to babysit the game and play moderator for lazy developers and that’s the hard truth.

They are asking people to report others via email and you must provide them with video proof. This is a company whose main focus should be developing a video game, which they couldn’t do correctly. Therefore, you can’t blame me for wondering how they could possibly screw up while policing the community.

For instance, here’s a list of their bannable offenses:

Deliberate Third-Party Hacking Software
Threats of Violence/Rape/Sexual Assault
Racism/Discrimination
Deliberately Helping Jason
Deliberate Abuse of Exploits
Do Not Pretend to be an Employee of Gun Media or IllFonic
Do Not Spam Report Those You Do Not Like

However, they’ve contradicted themselves, and have suggested aiding Jason in the past as a legitimate strategy, as a Twitter user pointed out:

How are you going to enforce rules, if you, yourself, don’t even know what your own rules are?

 

Kickstarter Backers Were Screwed Over… Royally.

As we all know, Friday the 13th: The Game was completely funded via crowdfunding and there were a shit ton of perks people would receive for donating certain amounts of money.

If you donated at least $65, you would be given an exclusive in-game playable Jason Voorhees character known as Savini Jason. This character was specifically designed by Tom Savini himself for the game and he comes with a unique weapon. He’s also extremely powerful in comparison to the other Jason characters.

Note that people had to pay at least $65 for this “exclusive character.”

Well, there was a major error and Sony actually released Savini Jason on the Playstation Store for 30-60 minutes before Gun Media caught the error. This allowed users to purchase Savini Jason for only $6.

While this may be an honest mistake, it doesn’t take from the fact that this should have been exclusive to those backers that donated at least $65 — only to find out that it’s not only non-exclusive to them anymore, but that people were able to pick it up for only $6.

Support Is Non-Existent.

Yesterday, Friday the 13th Game‘s official Twitter sent out this message:

Later that day, servers went down across all platforms, and thousands of users were tweeting Friday the 13th for support, asking for an update.

None was given. Instead, the community had to rely on each other. Some users thought they were being wrongfully banned from the game until they were told by other users that they were having issues, as well, so it was most likely a server issue.

Some users had just purchased the game, started it up, and couldn’t connect, so they were understandably confused, thinking that they may have done something wrong. They were never told differently.

Currently, as stated above, there’s an exp bug that’s not allowing users to gain experience points from playing the game. Therefore, no one can level up. There has yet to be an update from anyone at Friday the 13th: The Game on these issues.

When will they be fixed; who knows? Will they ever be fixed; who knows? No one can say for sure, seeing as how the company has left everyone hanging.

Finally; We Deserve Better (If You Don’t Read Anything Else, Read This.)

Wes Keltner, the founder of Gun Media, reached out to us before Friday the 13th: The Game had even been announced publicly. When he told us that it was happening, our minds went all over the place.

I’m a huge fan of Friday The 13th films and I’m a big time fan of video games. Playing the original game for Nintendo as a kid was incredibly frustrating and disappointing, to say the least. We horror fans/gamers deserved better, and an updated Friday the 13th game was a wet dream come true for me.

The game we deserved was finally going to happen and I couldn’t have been more stoked.

Unfortunately, this has been a major letdown from the get-go.

Without a doubt, this is the most broken and disappointing game I’ve ever played.

Now, I do want to make something clear.

Wes Keltner has been nothing but nice to us and he’s answered all of our questions. He also let us in on the groundbreaking news that Summer Camp (originally the project they were working on) was actually going to be Friday the 13th.

That being said, TalkHorror is a site that above all, will have integrity, and that’s something I pride myself on. There are too many sources out there that sold-out to the man or are influenced by money, etc… We’re not like that.

We’re always going to give you our honest opinion; even if it’s not the popular opinion to have. We cannot be bought.

That being said, I do believe that Gun Media is extremely fortunate.

If this were old school Sparta, Friday The 13th: The Game would have been tossed off the cliff like the bastard child that it is.

However, horror fans are some of the most loyal people you’ll ever come across, and without us, this game would be absolutely buried right now.

I would say there would be no other game out there that the type of stuff we’ve had to endure would even be borderline acceptable.

A release like this one would have probably bankrupted anyone else and their company would be blacklisted, but as horror fans, we’re loyal, and we always hold out for hope.

Still, I have to say this:

Gun Media is a company that consists of five people. The Kickstarter goal was set at $700,000. They were able to raise $823,704.

That’s $123,704 over their goal.

  • Did they hire additional staff to help with the development of the game?
  • Why would you allow devs to essentially ruin your company’s image by banning unrightfully banning people and generally showing favoritism?
  • Most companies hire senior-level developers and designers during the development phase and then get rid of them afterward. Did Gun Media even hire any senior developers?
  • A beta was released and the primary purpose of a beta is to find flaws/bugs/exploits within the game. Why was the game released, despite these numerous flaws?
  • Was the game rushed, in order to gain maximum profit?

Now, let me emphasize a little bit on that last one:

A Friday the 13th video game is going to make money just because of the title associated with it. That’s a fact.

Therefore, they could have easily gotten investors for the development of the game, but they still decided to seek out crowdfunding. This means that they don’t have any investors to pay back and all profits get to go in their pockets. It seems like a very risk-free formula, to me.

I’m not saying that this is what happened, but this game has been a truly disappointing experience and it could have been so much better.

Despite the fact that we’re horror fans. Despite the fact that we’re gamers. Despite the fact that we’re loyal as all hell.

There’s a company out there that took our hard-earned money away from us and in return, we received a barebones product that’s broken. This wouldn’t be acceptable with any of our other purchases in life, so why is it acceptable here?

We deserve better.

This game could have been something truly great, but the ball was definitely dropped on this one. I hate to say it, but it looks like I’m going to have to continue to wait for that epic Friday the 13th game that I’ve always dreamed of.

Once again, we, as consumers, deserve better.

About Bojangles

One comment

  1. Zackary Robertson

    I’m glad to read an honest opinion about the game. Too many people seem blinded by the license and not the gameplay.

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