Early June brought the sad news that the excellent Friday the 13th: The Game would be removed from sale at the end of the year and eventually become unplayable, due to the expiry of its license for the horror property. Despite its quality the game is now relatively old, and it unfortunately existed alongside the similar and hugely popular Dead by Daylight, but it had retained a solid player count: which is probably why publisher Gun Media has committed to keeping the servers online until the end of 2024.
Gun Media's now announced that, as of tomorrow, Friday the 13th: The Game is going to boost all players to max level, give them all available Legendary Perks, unlock all the kill animations (barring DLC) and strip out all the XP nonsense. It's even removing any negative effects from perks and giving them the best roll possible, so basically giving everyone everything in its best possible form outside of the paid-for DLC Jason kills (which like the base game remain available with a hefty discount, though I wouldn't be too surprised if they end up giving those away at a later date too).
"This was the best way we knew how to give you, the players, the best experience and a heartfelt thank you, as we move towards an inevitable goodbye," said game director Wes Keltner.
Later the director would go on to address a player who said the best thing to do would have been to make the game playable offline. "It was a multiplayer game from the start," said Keltner. "Every line of code was written for MP. 'Making the game playable offline' would be starting over. It’s like buying a truck and saying 'just make it a sedan.'
"Also there’s an offline bots mode."
So it sucks that Friday the 13th is off to the great horror mausoleum in the sky but, at least, we can all go out stabbing each other as our best possible selves. The main reason I loved this game was the proximity voice chat when you're Jason, overhearing the survivors whisper to each other and formulate their plans on-the-fly as they get the audio cues for your approach. There's a magic to hearing someone declare "maybe he doesn't know we're here" as you metaphorically lick your lips and sharpen the blade, before unleashing chaos and panic: for whatever reason, for me the competition never quite had that same thrill of the chase.
The real horror story? As one Friday the 13th game dies, another implacably rises to take its place.
