Friday the 13th: The Game may have an, ahem, killer premise, but its execution has been a bloody mess. The game was essentially unplayable at launch, gutted by server issues and a myriad of bugs, and it stayed that way for weeks. Problems with the game persist to this day, with players still waiting impatiently for a crucial Xbox One patch. Oh, and let’s not forget that the game’s promised single-player mode has yet to be delivered.
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With Friday the 13th: The Game still needing so much work, fans were understandably upset when it came to light that developer Illfonic was developing a new game called Dead Alliance. Here’s a description of Dead Alliance, which is a co-production of Illfonic, Psyop Games, and Maximum Games:
“Zombies in Dead Alliance are not just the enemy; they are weapons that can be strategically used to distract and destroy unsuspecting human foes in combat. Seize the dead – or find yourself counted among them.
Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where military bases are humanity’s last city-states, Dead Alliance pits warring teams of players against each other for survival in a world ravaged by the zombie plague. It features a variety of single-player and 4v4 multiplayer modes, including Team Deathmatch, Free for All, King of the Hill, and Capture and Hold, as well as the MOBA-inspired Attrition mode and Solo Survival mode.”
Regardless of Dead Alliance‘s quality, which looks solid enough, fans were not pleased to discover Illfonic was dividing its time between Friday the 13th and another game. Friday the 13th forum member Heartbreaker brought the competing project to light…
“This kinda flew under everyone’s radar. I understand that it’s Illfonic working on it, but aren’t they the backbone for this game? Is this going to stall production on F13 at all?”
…and other posters quickly piled on.
“Well…there’s probably gonna be a s**t storm coming Illfonic’s way once enough people realize this, and they don’t release the patch, or at least some info about it aside from the usual ‘soon’, ‘we’re sorry’, and ‘we’re working on it’ bulls**t.”
Thankfully, Illfonic’s CEO stepped in to calm the fires, claiming the number of staff working on Friday the 13th has actually increased:
“I wanted to address the concerns that IllFonic has abandoned Friday the 13th: The Game for Dead Alliance. This is 100% not true. Most major and independent studios have multiple teams working on multiple projects at the same time. We’ve had a team who is working on Dead Alliance for consoles that has always been separate from the Friday the 13th: The Game team. IllFonic still remains a small studio to this day but we are growing.
With the recent success of Friday the 13th: The Game we have been increasing our staff on the title. We originally had about 20 internal team members working on Friday the 13th: The Game and are now up to about 30 internal team members. We also have opened a second office that sole purpose is to support development of Friday the 13th: The Game. In addition, we are continuing to staff up more team members for continued support of the game. So, we assure you, continued support for Friday the 13th: The Game has not been abandoned, in fact, it’s quite the opposite.”
So, much ado about nothing then. Of course, all Illfonic’s reassurances won’t mean much if the game remains a mess. In our review, we found Friday the 13th‘s issues ran deeper than surface-level bugs – making this game all it could be will be no easy, short-term task.
Friday the 13th: The Game currently stalks the PC, Xbox One, and PS4. You can check out WWG’s latest coverage of the game, right here.
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