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If you like your Dead by Daylight-style games and you're in the mood for something new, we've got a big release coming up on September 8th in the form of Halloween: The Game, and it's actually playable from today for some people.
There's a special "Advanced Access" perk for those who pick up the Deluxe Edition, meaning you can start playing today at 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm BST if you're particularly keen.
But what about the reviews? Well, we've got spotted a few of them going live over the past 24 hours, so we thought we'd throw them down below to give you an idea of what to expect from this one. Let's take a look:
GameSpot (8/10) (PC Review)
"Games like Halloween don’t make me think the landscape is oversaturated. It makes me excited to see what teams that love horror the way IllFonic does will do next, because here, with Halloween, they nailed it."
TheGamer (8/10) (PC Review)
"Halloween: The Game may not be the cleanest asymmetrical horror game I've played, but it is one of the more atmospheric. Its Haddonfield is gorgeous, and its multiplayer creates plenty of unpredictable encounters. Stepping into Michael Myers' boots is exactly the kind of absurd fun a Halloween game should offer."
Gamer Social Club (7.5/10) (PC Review)
"Halloween: The Game doesn’t feel like two separate games thankfully. However it does feel like so much more time went into embodying and becoming one with Michael and not the rest of the cast. There is something really great here, but there’s just a little bit more polish to come that will really make this a killer success. As a note, when provided with a copy for review, we were made aware of a few additional fixes and features that would be available by launch day. Some of these will really bring it home and make it a fuller experience."
The Outerhaven (7/10) (PS5 Review)
"Halloween: The Game resurrects the asymmetrical horror gameplay of Friday the 13th, while carving out its own franchise identity. A campaign mode offers a short, sweet Halloween treat. But the multiplayer is a bit of a mixed bag. Still, its bold stab at prioritizing NPC rescue over player survival mostly slices through the competition."
NoisyPixel (7/10) (PC Review)
"Halloween: The Game is a tense and cinematic asymmetrical horror experience that gives Michael Myers and Haddonfield a strong video game adaptation. Its unique focus on protecting NPC residents, enjoyable killer and hero gameplay, and faithful atmosphere help it stand apart, though unreliable AI, lengthy matches, and concerns about long-term variety keep it from fully realizing its potential."
Day One (5/10) (Xbox Review)
"There remains potential for a solid multiplayer horror title here, and the IP and visuals might be enough to convince some, but as of right now, Halloween is not an easy title to recommend to all but die-hard fans of the genre."
As you can see, the initial reviews are pretty decent for this one overall, with the vast majority landing in either the 8/10 or 7/10 category. It's mentioned on a few occasions that the developers were planning "additional fixes and features by launch day" as well, so here's hoping it gets even more polished by the time everyone starts playing.
With that in mind, it's worth noting that Fuzion Xbox Testing's footage of both the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S versions shows a maximum of 30FPS in both Quality and Performance modes on each console. We're assuming this is a bug, and it's weird that some of the reviews mention a 60FPS performance mode (such as the Day One review), so we're not exactly sure what's happened here - in any case, it's definitely worth keeping an eye on.
For what it's worth, here's what Day One said about performance on Xbox pre-release:
"Halloween is often a nice-looking game, and often a very good-looking game within its genre, especially as the market leader is coming up on a decade and showing its age..."
"Whether in 30fps Quality Mode or 60fps Performance Mode on Series X, things get a little less consistent in motion, with common instances of frame rate drops and slowdown. Performance mode also takes enough of a resolution hit that a lot of visual fidelity is lost, and items such as the beer and joint can cause readability issues beyond the intended effects in-game..."
We'll leave you with the new launch trailer below, and you can grab Halloween: The Game for £33.99 / $39.99 on the Xbox Store for a September 8th launch, or pay £49.99 / $59.99 to get the Digital Deluxe Edition today.