It sort of makes sense, because if it was based on the film, that would explain why there's no Friday the 13th part one. Obviously the game would be based on the second movie. Possibly because the first movie doesn't feature all that much Jason.
I will determine whether this game is based on the film franchise by whether or not there is a character with a hockey mask in it.
The first thing you see is a loading screen made up of chunky orange jagged shapes. This is more or less what I was expecting.
On starting up, the game immediately puts you into the action. The action is a sort of sandy area where you play a little brown lump of a person among a bunch of little green guys.
It seems I can't take screenshots in this game. It just won't work. You'll have to take my word on the graphics.
Moving is clumsy. When you press an arrow key to move, your character twitches in the appropriate direction, then pauses for a second before beginning to actually advance. A player who doesn't experiment may even be led to believe that the only way to move is to rapidly tap the direction you want to go, and just twitch your way around the screen.
One of the notable features of this game is that there is actually some animation. The character actually looks in the direction he's moving, even if it's up or down, and his arms and legs sort of twitch as he moves. When he comes to rest, though, he always looks to the left. When he moves, even though he does look in the proper direction, there's always at least one animation frame of him looking to the left.
I tried different stuff on the keyboard to see if I had any abilities that I didn't know about, and I believe it was the D key that brought up the game's premise and controls. Here's the rundown from Kubus himself:
"The goal of the game is to kill Jason before he finds the van and drives out. He will also kill the kids before this escape. You shoot him with Control (Ctrl). Good Luck!!!"
So it must be that Friday the 13th, because there is a Jason in it, and he kills kids.
I experimented with shooting a little. Unusually, you can only shoot about one bullet per second as opposed to the usual tons of bullets per second. The bullets are pretty small, and you can only fire them laterally and you can only fire them while standing still.
Walking down past the bottom of the first screen, I find myself in a new screen with something that looks like it might be a vehicle in it. This is probably the van. Bumping into the van does nothing. Bumping into the green guys does nothing. Shooting the green guys or the van does nothing.
Venturing further to the south, I found a larger concentration of green guys. Perhaps these are the kids that Jason kills?
I've now come in from the south of another screen, even though I've been moving south. There is a red building in the upper right corner. I saw a dash of something moving, but it went offscreen before I could get a good look.
Entering the building I find sort of a rug with a sun on it. Moving off to the right, I find myself back outdoors surrounded by green guys.
Moving to the south, I see a dancing black silhouette outlined in flashing colors. Is this Jason? I'll try shooting it.
It must have been Jason, because shooting it showed me a screen of my character standing in a graveyard, and then the words "YOU WIN" scrolled across the screen over and over endlessly.
A second playthrough uncovers more fun stuff. Walking off to the West from the initial screen reveals Jason pretty much immediately. This time Jason actually fired a huge bullet. He fired it away from me though, so I was pretty safe. I walked past him to the south to see if I had missed anything else, and found an immobile spider that I could shoot. The spider died, and dropped a red circle that I cannot collect.
Further exploration reveals that the thing I saw going running off the corner of the screen earlier was a humanoid. Probably one of the kids that Jason can kill. There was another, different one elsewhere. I am a bit impressed that they weren't just duplicates.
Running around the map doesn't seem to have much rhyme or reason. Areas don't seem to be connected to each other in a way that creates a consistent, unified layout. I can't find the bar from the screenshot on the website, so I may be missing some stuff. I got stuck in a collision with an immobile green guy, so I quit.
The rundown: This game is definitely a minor work, but it's kind of a gem. The main character feels like a precursor to Johnny, having the same dumb smile. There was animation, and the character model for Jason, while bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the film character that he was supposed to represent, was actually pretty effectively creepy. The game was easy, and I can't imagine dying. Jason doesn't seem to be much for targeting.
This game may even actually have some replay value. The thing I saw moving before I encountered Jason was definitely not Jason, and I would have liked to have taken a look at it.
All in all, I'd rate it a 5/5. The graphics throw some fun surprises at you, and there are no frustrating parts, which is great. It's kind of a good gateway Kubus game for new players who want the surreal atmosphere without the endless frustration.
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