Computer Gamer
1st January 1986Friday The 13th
Amidst a blaze of adverse publicity, Friday The 13th, the game based on the spine-chilling horror film has been released by Domark. No doubt you have noticed the nice jolly little picture advertising the game of a dagger stuck through a bloodstained ice hockey mask and it comes as no great surprise that certain people have taken exception to it.
You are one of a party of teenagers enjoying a holiday in a summer camp. Unbeknownst to you, the party contains a mad killer, Jason. All you have to do is to work out which of the campers is the disguised Jason and kill him. If you can stop him from hacking your friends to bits, so much the better.
Jason can be detected either by you seeing him attack someone else or by you challenging him with one of the many weapons - such as a pitchfork and chainsaw that you find lying about. If you find him, he changes to a subtle shade of black. You should also look out for a cross which you can move to a safe area.
You can then tell your friends to go there although they tend to wander off and of course you have problems if you inadvertantly tell Jason where sanctuary is!
The playing area consists of a number of interlinked screens which wrap around top and bottom, left and right. There is no scrolling from screen to screen. If you move off the top of a screen into a building, you don't enter the next screen at the bottom but at the top which is somewhat annoying.
The graphics are poor and don't add to the atmosphere at all. There is no feeling of perspective. The sound is good and adds a musical accompaniment to the mayhem as well as walking round (which sounds like a machine gun) and screams as Jason carves up yet another victim.
The whole thing is nicely packaged, complete with fake blood capsules and a sound effects competition to win a colour monitor. The game itself though is tedious and I can't see it having a lasting appeal. Sorry Domark, Friday The 13th is almost as much of a horror story as the film.