---
title: 'Halloween: The Game Review'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=8SVVrmPtL78'
video_id: '8SVVrmPtL78'
date: 2026-09-24
duration_sec: 528
channel: 'IGN'
---

# Halloween: The Game Review

> Source: [Halloween: The Game Review](https://youtube.com/watch?v=8SVVrmPtL78)

## Summary

This video is a critical review of 'Halloween the Game,' an asymmetrical horror title developed by Illphonic. The reviewer highlights the game's initial buggy state, its improvements post-launch, and its persistent issues with shallow gameplay, repetitive maps, and a lack of variety, ultimately concluding that it fails to evolve the genre.

### Key Points

- **Initial Impressions** [00:00] — The game's Michael Myers is slow and unthreatening, and initial impressions remain negative after two playthroughs.
- **Post-Launch Improvements** [00:41] — The game was buggy and broken at launch, but the day one patch smoothed animations, reduced crashes, and improved QTE responsiveness.
- **Core Weaknesses** [01:13] — Limited maps, a cookie-cutter roster, and a repetitive gameplay loop cause enthusiasm to drain within an hour.
- **Gameplay Structure** [01:31] — Players either play as Michael Myers or as civilians trying to escape Haddonfield, with AI companions and loot mechanics.
- **Single-Player Campaign** [02:25] — The single-player mode is shallow and rushed, with levels taking 15-20 minutes and reusing multiplayer maps, feeling like a dull tutorial.
- **Technical Glitches** [03:29] — Characters walk off the ground, death animations are misplaced, and NPC behavior is stupid, with NPCs not reacting to nearby violence.
- **Balanced Gameplay** [04:39] — The game balances killer and civilian odds well, making Michael Myers fun to play despite his slow speed, with abilities like snuffing lights and shadow jumping.
- **Atmosphere and Style** [05:37] — The 70s-inspired maps, fashion, and music are on point, and the death animations are brutal, though sometimes out of sync.
- **Spectator Mode Issues** [06:41] — Spectating after death is tedious with frequent QTEs, and quitting results in lost XP, forcing players to watch long matches.
- **Final Verdict** [07:49] — The game is only recommended for hardcore horror fans or asymmetrical game enthusiasts, as it lacks variety and fails to evolve the genre.

### Conclusion

Halloween the Game has some good ideas but is ultimately a buggy, shallow experience that doesn't justify its price for most players. It fails to evolve the asymmetrical horror genre, despite its strong atmosphere and balanced gameplay.

## Transcript

Plenty of things are terrifying about a man in a boiler suit creeping up behind you. But it's hard to be scared of Halloween the Game's Michael Myers when he strolls around the neighborhood with all the urgency of a retiree on a golf course.
Two full playthroughs of the solo campaign later, and many an hour spent watching a rando Michael Myers intentionally delay killing everyone in the lobby just to torture his spectators, those first impressions have shifted very little.
One of horror's most iconic villains deserves so much better than this.
Ahead of its public release and day one patch, the asymmetrical horror of Halloween the game, buggy, broken, and hilariously unpolished, initially fell well short of expectations. In its defense though, it's improved by almost every available measure since the day one patch.
Some, if not all, animations have been smoothed out, there's been a significant decrease in game-breaking bugs and crashes, the minigame QTEs are much more responsive, even if it's still possible to watch a weapon occasionally phase through an enemy for absolutely no discernible reason.
The limited maps, the cookie-cutter roster with very little difference between civilian characters, and the repetitive gameplay loop, however, are just too rough and restrictive, and enthusiasm drains away fast, usually within an hour or so.
Developer Illphonic is, of course, almost synonymous with asymmetrical horror at this point. It's not quite able to break the stranglehold behavior Interactive has with Dead by Daylight. In keeping with the traditions of the genre, you either play on your own as the killer,
Michael the Shaped Myers, and rampage through the town, or work with up to three other players and a handful of AI companions, loot items and keep yourself alive long enough to find an open route to escape the streets of Haddonfield on Halloween night in 1978. Because of Illphonic's bad catalog, expectations
were high going in and knowing Halloween creator John Carpenter was also involved sent them soaring even further You think with the best part of a decade learning and all that Ace Him experience behind it Halloween the Game would be the most polished of all of the Ophonic games But that just doesn seem to be the case I shot him six times Spend just ten
minutes with the fellow campaign for instance and you'll immediately see why. It's a great idea to drop a brief single-player mode into an Ace Him game, offering not only a chance to explore Michael Myers' abilities and skill set outside of a populated map, but also something to
do while you wait for your squad to get online. The problem is, like much of the rest of Halloween the Game, it feels shallow, rushed, and at times unfinished. The six levels take 15 to 20 minutes each if you're thorough, under 10 if you're not,
but offer a little context into who Michael is as a person, how he became what he is, and what the town of Haddonfield endured that Halloween night in 1978. It's clumsy, tedious, and doesn't even offer much in the way of the change of scenery.
In fact, you're exploring the same homes and maps you do in the multiplayer mode for most of these missions, making this more of a dull tutorial rather than a true single player component. In both modes you encounter the same issues too.
It's never clear what exactly triggers it, but sometimes characters walk three feet off to ground, death animations can occur two feet away from where a body actually is, and one time we were stuck for three whole minutes trying to open a box, only to escape from
the glitch the moment Michael found us. The NPC behavior is hysterically stupid too. Once playing as Myers before the day one patch, we busted through a front door to find all three remaining NPCs in the same room, standing at the same window.
time playing the solo campaign, Michael walked into a barroom kitchen and cut the throat of a biker while a woman stood in the kitchen, three feet away, staring at herself. She didn't even notice this approach. It is galling because there are some excellent
ideas here The Texas Chainsaw Massacre spin on asymmetrical horror developed by Sumo Digital not Elphonic was a great time back in 2023 But within days it was clear that no one wanted to play as Leatherface because it was so much easier and considerably more fun to clock up XP and escape as a survivor
In Halloween the Game, however, Elphonic seems to have really taken the time to balance the odds between killer and civilian, and Michael Myers is a blast to play. even though he, quite rightly, never ever runs,
making it next to impossible to take someone out if they've seen you. His special abilities help mitigate that deeply unsatisfactory walking speed, especially if you nail the timing and use the shadows in your favor. Actions like snuffing out all the lights in the immediate area,
jumping from shadow to shadow, and detecting nearby civilians work really well. Plus, the execution mechanic is a neat shortcut if you manage to get close enough to, well, execute it.
The death animations, if sometimes out of sync, are brilliantly brutal, particularly if you manage to catch a civilian by a window, next to a toilet, or, we're delighted to confirm, beside a boulder or a wall.
Best of all, this isn't just for humans against one killer. As miners, your job is to wipe out the map clean of all survivors, human and NPC alike. As a civilian, you need to creep around the deliciously 70s-inspired maps
with the familiar piano keys thudding in time alongside you, quietly warning NPCs and instructing them to either hide, follow you, or escape. Everything from the cars, to the decor, to the rotary phones is on point here,
not to mention the fashion, from platform heels, bell-bottom jeans, tank tops, and huge wing bangs. Plenty of things aren't quite right in Halloween the Game, but the style is not one of them. There's a good selection of items to gather as you creep through residential homes, including
weapons, defensive tools, and a host of goodies to bolster the odds of you getting out unscathed, such as keys, bolt cutters, and intoxicants. For reasons. You never be able to take out Myers completely Just like in the movie this is a dude who does not know how to take a hint and die but you can temporarily immobilize him with the right timing and the right equipment
But why do we have to sit and watch Myers torture idiot NPCs if all the human characters are actually dead? You're given QTEs every few seconds as spectators, and they're tedious, too boring, and they happen far too frequently.
However, hanging around and waiting for someone else to either complete the mission or run out the clock is particularly irritating if you're one of the first civilians to fall. Quit and you're losing the scant XP urge. You're forced to stay in and spectate a match for the next 15 or so minutes.
And most of the mics out there clearly know this, dragging it out almost until the dying seconds just to make everyone watch. Elphonic has tried to mitigate this by allowing fallen civilians to return as police officers,
which adds a lovely wrinkle that's admittedly better than spectating. But given Myers is unkillable and his shape jump is overpowered and essentially limitless, at times it feels like all the odds are stacked against the poor townsfolk of Haddonfield.
It is difficult to recommend Halloween the Game to anyone other than a horror fan with a Michael Myers shrine in their home. Now, that's a scary thought. Or those with deep, deep affection for asymmetrical games.
It has some good ideas, some of which aren't fully realized, leaving you with a buggy experience that lacks the variety needed to carry ace in games, despite the very welcome addition of a single-player campaign. It is not worth remaining in the lobby long after your death,
even though you lose XP by quitting before the game ends. And if that's not indicative of how Halloween the game just hasn't evolved the genre, we don't know what is as a matter of fact
it was but what are your thoughts let us know in the comments and for everything else gaming stick with IGN