A new Friday the 13th: The Game update available Tuesday not only makes a ton of bug fixes, but adds new counselor costumes and a new Jason skin. The new update brings Friday the 13th: The Game up to version 1.04, with major fixes that could speed up matchmaking four to six fold for console players.
The new update also includes a number of bug fixes. The full patch notes are available on Facebook, but there are a couple of highlights.
A persistent annoyance during matches is when players fleeing Jason come across a dead body and their counselor avatar freaks out. Dummy, Jason is right behind you! You have bigger concerns than your dead friend! Now dead bodies will be ignored when Jason is pursuing you, plus they added a 10-second cooldown between fear reactions, so you won’t get halted by multiple corpses.
Developer Illfonic and publisher Gun Media are also boosting randomization options, “shuffling the possible Jason list 3x as much to help randomness” on top of adding a Random option in the lobby.
There are also a skull-load of bug fixes, particularly to correct exploits like glitched areas where Jason can’t reach players. Game balance bugs, like Jason continuing to throw knives despite being stunned, have also been corrected, in addition to visual tweaks like “Jason’s mask floating when knocked off.”
But the update isn’t just a patch, it also serves as a DLC of sorts. After apologizing for server issues in a content update video, the Friday the 13th: The Game team is releasing “cool free shit,” as a “thank you for your patience.”
Free shit includes two new outfits for every camp counselor, 13,000 in CP to spend on kills and perks, and double experience points all weekend, June 23 through 25.
That’s all nice, but the best part is a new Jason, ripped straight from the 1989 NES Friday the 13th game (A.V. Club has an interesting review, with a modern perspective on the much-maligned game).
The new “Retro” Jason, with his purple skin and cerulean blue hockey mask, has his own chiptunes accompaniment, is the real highlight of this update. It’s like getting murdered by a giant smurf.
Earlier this month Friday the 13th: The Game Executive Producer Randy Greenback described to Player One how to be the best Jason you can be and future additions to the game, including new maps and details on the single-player mode. Naturally, the bumpy roll-out came up. “We’re listening, we’re hard at work,” Greenback said. “We haven’t shipped the game and gone on vacation.” This update and its awesome new Jason are just the beginning.
The Friday the 13th: The Game update to version 1.04 is available now for PS4, with the Xbox One patch expected Thursday or Friday. Steam fixes are still in testing.
