Halloween: The Game Review

A promising Michael Myers fantasy undone by repetitive gameplay.

Few horror villains are more iconic than Michael Myers. Since John Carpenter's Halloween first introduced the masked murderer in 1978, it became one of the defining figures of the slasher genre. It should be an easy recipe for success to bring that persona to a computer game. Let you take control of Michael Myers, recreate Haddonfield, pursue unsuspecting victims, and build a multiplayer experience around the scary cat-and-mouse dynamic that made the movies famous.

And that’s what Halloween: The Game tries to do. Developed by IllFonic, a team with extensive experience in multiplayer horror games, the game blends a solo single-player story with an asymmetrical multiplayer mode. IllFonic has made titles such as Friday the 13th: The Game, Predator: Hunting Grounds, Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, and Killer Klowns From Outer Space.

Considering its expertise with games where one powerful murderer chases some opposing characters, Halloween seems like a fitting endeavor for the studio. The trouble is that Halloween: The Game doesn’t always comprehend what made those themes click. In theory, it offers just about everything you could ask for in a great horror sandbox.

Michael has superhuman powers. Civilians are everywhere in Haddonfield. You can use weapons and environmental objects to fight back. The game tries to provide dynamic settings where every match might play out differently. Its official description especially highlights its NPC interactions and scary sandbox systems. Unfortunately, after a couple of hours, the illusion starts to fall apart.

At times, Halloween: The Game truly captures the dream of being Michael Myers.

Other times, it feels like you’re fighting the mechanics of the game and not the people you’re supposed to be hunting. That opposition is a big part of the experience. The single-player campaign is set on the night Michael Myers returns to Haddonfield, capturing the look and feel of the original Halloween. The game doesn’t just put Michael in some random new plot; it tries to recreate the experience of chasing people around neighborhoods you know while slowly introducing the mechanics that make up the game.

The story is organized into six chapters; each chapter is a sandbox where Michael can explore the surroundings, find victims, accomplish tasks, and experiment with different ways of approaching his targets. It’s an interesting take on the franchise, as it lets you experience the night through Michael’s eyes, rather than Laurie Strode’s or another survivor’s.

Michael’s supernatural presentation is particularly interesting. His Shape Jump power allows him to enter a dark condition where he seems visually warped to those around him and becomes practically undetectable to victims. He can easily travel through the environment, reach targets that would otherwise be impossible to access, and essentially become the supernatural monster his victims think he is.

That's one of the best ideas in the game, no question. You take something that’s always been presented as cinematic horror, and you make it a genuine gameplay mechanic.

Unfortunately, the story itself does not have the substance to sustain the concept for long.

If you focus on their objectives, the story wraps up in a reasonable amount of time, and much of the extra replayability comes from completing challenges, discovering innovative kills, and unlocking further customization options. The settings are large enough to explore, but the limited enemy intelligence eventually makes that exploration feel repetitive.

Civilians are meant to give Haddonfield a sense of life, but their actions often do the opposite. Rather than producing unforeseen situations, they often become predictable targets. After a few hours, the surprise wears off as gamers learn how these individuals will react. The main gameplay loop centers on stalking, hunting, and eliminating victims.

As Michael, you explore Haddonfield, identify targets, and use your powers to control the environment to get into position before committing executions. Central to this experience is the Shape Jump. Michael can also shift into a shadow form, letting him traverse the map and ambush victims undetected. He grows much better at finding and reaching targets with Shape Dash and Killer Sense. That combo feels like a fulfilling power fantasy in the early hours.

The game also features a Blood Lust style progression meter that increases when Michael kills victims. Filling it makes the next hunt easier, and a successful Michael becomes increasingly hazardous in a snowball effect. Environmental mechanics also make stalking more exciting. Michael may break phone lines, knock out lights, and change portions of the surroundings to make victims more vulnerable.

Theoretically, these systems should reward you for preparing an area before they make their move. One of the biggest concerns throughout the experience is that Michael may stroll into an area, face an NPC, and murder them without using the sophisticated stealth systems. If the victims aren’t clever enough to respond correctly, there’s not much point in taking the effort to disconnect lights or communications.

The game really shines when you have to think about where Michael is heading and how he can reach his victims. 

Unfortunately, the AI can make potentially stressful situations feel routine. There's no typical puzzle system; instead, the game bakes environmental problem-solving into its stealth elements. You can change lighting, telephone wires, buildings, and other ambient features before assaulting. Michael's superhuman talents are the system's most powerful feature. His Killer Sense helps him discover victims, and his Shape Jump makes him extremely mobile. 

The notion is that you track your targets from the shadows before you enter the physical world to do the kill. Once he leaves Shape Jump, his mobility can sometimes feel surprisingly clunky and uncomfortable. The grab mechanic for victims feels awkward, fighting doesn't feel responsive, and the dodge/attack mechanics don't give you the fluidity you'd expect in a modern action game.

It makes for a curious contrast: Michael appears nearly superhuman as he stalks through the darkness, yet feels unwieldy when he gets close. Executions are also a big part of the experience. Some demand button combos, others let Michael work the surroundings. The violence is undoubtedly in keeping with the tone of the franchise, and the first few executions can be both scary and satisfying.

The novelty wears off rather soon when you see numerous of the same animations over and over. The lack of battle variation really shows up in longer sessions. Combat might start to feel less like a dynamic system, and more like you’re just doing the same interaction over and over. Multiplayer fighting has a much bigger problem: balance and counterplay.

Michael can pass through the shadows, meaning he may teleport and materialize right next to you in a snap, grabbing you before you can even react. 

There are ways for survivors to fight back, but there are multiple encounters that can feel severely tilted to Michael’s side. The net effect is that the game may struggle to generate the kind of tension asymmetrical horror relies on. Multiplayer revolves around Michael seeking out human survivors and interacting with NPC civilians.

The official concept notes the game would be a 1v4 asymmetrical experience, with survivors able to interact with villagers, use weapons, and even manipulate NPCs as they try to live. It’s an ambitious notion, but the implementation produces a bizarre situation where NPCs can dominate the real action. Michael can spend most of a match following computer-controlled citizens instead of always chasing NPCs. 

After several hours, this can make the multiplayer feel less like PvP and more like PvE. The NPCs aren't that bright either, which makes the problem even worse. They can fail to escape properly, get stuck in situations, behave unpredictably for the wrong reasons, or just make themselves easy targets. Meaning Michael doesn’t always have to outwit survivors.

That takes a lot of the tension from the murderer role. If Michael can just keep killing AI-controlled civilians with little to no resistance, the battle becomes less about hunting ncps and more about checking a box. The survivor experience suffers just as much. This means human players are expected to protect or escort NPCs, and their own survival can sometimes depend on computer-controlled characters making intelligent judgments. 

If an NPC refuses to move, gets stuck, or behaves erratically, Michael or another player does not cause the irritation you feel. This is also why the difficulty seems bigger than a standard balancing problem. Bugs can be fixed. Damage values are configurable. You can alter cooldowns. But if the core of the multiplayer experience is so reliant on NPCs, fixing the game might require much more radical measures.

One of the more annoying design choices comes at the end of matches.

Even after the human survivors are taken out, you might have to wait as Michael looks for the other NPCs. That can lead to long periods where eliminated players are just spectating with little happening. Halloween: The Game also struggles to keep you invested through progression. The game has experience and unlocks that entice you to keep playing, such as abilities, customization options, and other incentives. 

The issue is that the progression doesn't always feel meaningful enough to warrant the grind. One example is unlocking an ability that sounds thrilling at a reasonably high level, only to have a minimal gameplay effect. If the player spends a lot of time working toward a reward and the prize doesn't affect how the game is played, there's no motivation to keep going. This is all the more detrimental because the core gameplay is repetitive.

When individual matches start getting repetitive, a well-designed progression system can keep you engaged. It offers them something to aim at. Halloween has this premise but doesn't reward it meaningfully enough to sustain it. Weapons don’t feel especially worthwhile as unlocks either, when you can find comparable ones in battles. That makes it feel even less like progression.

This creates a cycle where the game makes you repeat a gameplay loop that already lacks diversity to earn prizes that don’t always deliver enough variety in return. Some of the atmosphere is actually quite good, especially when it reproduces the look and lighting of the original movie. Haddonfield feels sufficiently creepy, and the lighting supports the stalking concept.

Michael is identifiable and adequately threatening, while the surroundings give the asymmetrical gameplay enough room to work.

The presentation nonetheless is often let down by the quality of the animation. Some of the characters' movements feel a bit uncomfortable, especially when running and fighting. Some animations feel a bit cartoonish and not very scary, and environmental bugs can be jarring and pull you out of the experience. Technical performance also varies by platform and situation.

There were some crashes, frame-rate issues, characters teleporting, clipping, and Michael getting stuck in the environment. These problems can be patched, but they make for a harsh first impression. This is especially true on PC, where a high-end machine doesn’t always deliver the performance you may fairly expect.

The game is also built in Unreal Engine 5 and officially targets modern platforms, including PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. This makes the shoddy presentation and technical problems more visible. The audio effectively helps establish the classic Halloween atmosphere, with environmental sounds, music, and Michael’s presence creating the impression of being hunted or being the hunter.

At times, the sound design does its job perfectly. Walking around a dark suburban landscape looking for victims can provide the proper type of anxiety, especially when the music and environmental audio come together. Unfortunately, periodic technical glitches interfere with the experience. Apparently, the sound cutting out or acting weird can ruin the atmosphere, especially in a horror game where sound is supposed to convey danger.

Still, the audio-visual environment is one of the areas where the game comes closest to realizing its potential, unlike the fighting and artificial intelligence systems. Halloween: The Game is an interesting example of a game with a few actually brilliant ideas buried beneath a problematic base. I think it’s a great idea to play as Michael Myers. Shape Jump is an inspired take on his otherworldly reputation, the Haddonfield setting nails the essence of the series, and the ability to follow victims before emerging from the shadows may provide for some spectacular moments.

The single-player campaign, split into six chapters, also does a great job introducing the basics, and fans who want to explore the settings and solve challenges can wring some extra replayability out of it.

Sadly, the longer you play, the harder it is to overlook the faults.

The major problem is the NPC AI. A lot of the game’s multiplayer structure is built around computer-controlled civilians, so their bad behavior impacts both sides of the experience. Michael can feel bored because his targets are too predictable, while survivors can get frustrated because they have to protect characters that don't act wisely.

The battle doesn’t do much to help with that problem either. Michael’s powers are exciting, but the physical battle is awkward, and the executions grow repetitive. In multiplayer, it may also lack effective counterplay when Michael can quickly close the gap and start attacking. And then there is progress. The game doesn’t really offer enough substantial rewards to justify the monotonous gaming loop. It’s hard to invest in the long run.

Technical troubles just aggravate it all. Bugs, clipping, animation flaws, crashes, and performance problems are irritating enough in their own right, but they are especially destructive here because the game already fails to sustain tension. The pricing structure can also provide a bad initial impression. The basic edition launched at $39.99.

The Digital Deluxe Edition is $59.99 and contains early access and additional content. Paying extra for early access likely won’t benefit a title that needs time and refinement to grow its user base. All in all, Halloween: The Game has its good points. Somewhere in this premise there’s a nice Michael Myers game. Unfortunately, the current version doesn't always measure up to that fantasy.

The biggest disappointment is not that the game is buggy. Mistakes can be corrected. The problem is that many of its biggest issues are baked into the experience's core architecture. Better animations and performance updates will definitely help, but changing NPC behavior, match structure, progression, and overall multiplayer balance would take far more effort.

For hardcore Halloween fans, there’s still some fun to be had in ultimately taking control of Michael Myers and seeing Haddonfield through his eyes. But after hours and hours, everyone else might be thinking the same question: where did the tension go? Halloween: The Game wants you to feel like the Boogeyman, but too frequently the scariest menace isn't Michael Myers. It's the game design itself.