Posted by Happy Friday, everyone!
So it’s been a fairly exciting week! I actually want to start with a trailer I saw for the upcoming Friday the 13th game, shown at PAX West. Now, I’m not a fan of the movie series to begin with, and will definitely not be playing this game, but what interested me was the actual gameplay itself. It reminded me very much of Hatred, released on Steam last year and causing outrage until people actually started playing the game. Hatred was panned by the critics for, among other things, being boring to play and lacking variation. GameSpot went as far as to say that the game “fails… at being dangerous,” which is quite the blow to a game that puts the player in the shoes of a mass-murdering sociopath.
But why does Friday the 13th remind me of this? After all, the movie franchise is incredibly successful and Jason Voorhees’s mask is iconic. I’ve never watched the movies and even I recognize the “ch-ch-ch ah-ah-ah” of Jason’s approach.
Well, I watched around 40 minutes of gameplay, along with the three-minute long murderfest that was the PAX trailer. It seems like the player can switch between camper and Jason, which seems cool, and I imagine it would be fun to play as a camper and try to outsmart the neighborhood murderer, but what struck me was playing as Jason. He can see through walls, seemed to be able to fast-travel to cabins (although that might have just been the video editing, not the game), and his victims don’t really run away once you stop them, much like the main character in Hatred (with the exception of fast-travel). One thing that I will give Jason is that he has some spectacularly graphic kills, but they depend on the environment and then tend to repeat. Smash head against wall. Now smash head against rock. Chop with pickax, now chop with machete.
Maybe since I’m not a fan I’m missing something, but I hope for the fans’ sakes that this game is a little more varied than Hatred, because time has already shown that a game built on repetitive murder was not fun to play. What do you guys think? What have I missed?
Back in the mundane world of Athena, I’ve finally knocked off all the warchiefs in Shadow of Mordor (once I broke down and searched for what the different symbols mean for their strengths and weaknesses.At this point I’m torn between saving up for a new console or a new television, seriously…)
I’m pretty stoked about the stage I’m in right now, and am pleased with the direction the story is going. As such, I’ve started reading The Silmarillian to try and get the backstory that Shadow of Mordor alludes to at times. My head immediately exploded and I switched to the section marked “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age.” I’m not sure if that made it better or worse, but it was an interesting read and the information will definitely make an appearance once I’m done with the game.
Side note for anyone who is interested: The Silmarillion is not a book to read when you are reading three other books at the same time. It requires your full attention.
Monday we have part two of our three-part choice series, concentrating on how (and if) video games make our choices matter. I know next Wednesday I promised more Thedosian theology, but I’ve had I had to change some things around so I’ll be talking about relating to NPCs next Wednesday instead. I still plan on posting about the Dalish gods, so keep an eye out for that (probably the following week)!
I also want to give you fair warning for the onslaught of Dragon Age posts that are about to happen. Like I mentioned a number of posts ago, I just finished Inquisition not too long ago and have a bunch of things I’d like to talk about.
Hope you all have a fabulous weekend! Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you soon.
–Athena Tseta
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