'Friday the 13th' Game Updates Will Fix the Game, But Maybe That's a Bummer

Survival horror game Friday the 13th: The Game will be receiving a big patch on May 24, and it’s a doozy. The infamously buggy game will be receiving much requested updates, a new playable character, and more, coinciding with an event celebrating the game’s one year anniversary.

Friday the 13th: The Game, based of course on the eponymous slasher film series, was released on May 26 of last year to mixed reviews. The game puts up to eight players on a map somewhere around Crystal Lake, and one player in the session is randomly selected to play Jason Voorhees. The remaining seven players are camp counselors with different abilities who must band together to stay alive. Counselors can win by completing objectives that lead to escape, outlasting the map timer, or attempting the herculean task of actually killing Jason. Jason wins when he kills everyone.

It was a novel idea. Though there have been asymmetrical multiplayer games in the past, few have had the pop culture recognition of being attached to a major film franchise. Unfortunately, the game has been plagued with bugs since release. Players have complained about sluggish framerates, lag, disconnects, clipping, and ongoing server issues.

Developer IllFonic also made the shrewd decision of making voice communication in the game completely open. Everyone can hear everybody talk, including Jason. This made the game extremely attractive to streamers, who propelled Friday the 13th: The Game into the top 10 most popular games on Twitch at one point and produced some hilarious emergent moments. Hentai Jason from DisbeArex and Hot In Here from Sheriff Eli are some of my favorites.

IllFonic has been faithfully patching the game since then to ensure stable gameplay, and this latest update in line with that. In particular, the single-player portion of the game is getting a massive overhaul: new playable counselor Victoria Sterling, an upgrade of Jason’s grab move, new skins for Roy, key bindings for PC players, and more. All these updates are completely free.

It’s also anniversary week. From May 24 at 4 p.m. to May 29 at 4 p.m. Eastern, players will receive 130 percent more experience points and double the normal amount of tape drops.

The glitches in this game were truly frustrating and terrible, but like the bugs in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, it was also part of the charm.

You will always live on in our memory, flying Jason.