Remember that great Friday the 13th game that got shuttered? The same studio is doing it all again, except this time it's Halloween

Developer Illfonic last month announced a game based on 1978 horror classic Halloween, and now we've got a look at it. The game looks a lot like the studio's own (excellent) Friday the 13th adaptation and is set in the small town of Haddonfield, recreated with real period style. It's primarily an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game, where the masked killer Michael Myers hunts down four residents, though this time around there will also be a singleplayer component recreating scenes from the film.

This seems to be very much the OG Halloween, with no nods to the many sequels in the first trailer (though I could've well missed some), and is I believe the first game based on the film since a curious Atari version from 1983. There's stiff competition in the horror genre, most obviously from Dead By Daylight (which has Halloween DLC), but Halloween really is a hell of a license: it's the quintessential slasher film, and everything from the killer's look to the stabbing synths has become iconic.

In multiplayer, this definitely seems to work in the same way as Friday the 13th. One player is cast as Myers, who has various special abilities, is unkillable, and can execute players in horrible fashion. The other four are town residents, who run around trying to raise the alarm, find weapons and tools that can be used to delay Myers, and survive until Halloween night is over.

The notable similarities between the two games include Myers' "shape jump" ability, which is nicked straight from Jason, and allows the killer to move around unseen: Illfonic says this allows the game to have those moments where Myers inexplicably appears out of nowhere. One of the differences, however, is the presence of non-player NPCs. Illfonic didn't go into enormous detail on how these will factor into the matches, but clearly there's going to be a lot of stabbing going on.

"In an effort to properly embody the personification of evil, players have the freedom to leverage the terrifying power of Michael Myers to creatively murder anyone unfortunate enough to cross Michael’s path<" says Illfonic. "We’re offering a shocking amount of gruesome executions that are guaranteed to put huge smiles on the faces of horror enthusiasts like ourselves."

For their part, survivors can try to rescue the neighbours by warning them of Myers' presence, getting them to phone the police, and even (with the right gear) lead groups to escape points on the map. Actually getting the police to come to town seems to be a bit of a challenge, but also one of the potential win conditions for survivors: Myers can't be killed but, oddly enough, the cops can detain him.

There's little detail on the singleplayer side of the game, though a blog post suggests this will be a series of vignettes based on key movie scenes: "We’re also thrilled to offer a standalone single-player component to this package that allows players to witness key narrative events of 'The Night He Came Home' through the eyes of Michael Myers."

The only downside, and it's a big one, is that for whatever reason this has been announced a full year out from release: September 8, 2026. Not sure it needed that much of a hype cycle. And some fans of Illfonic's earlier work will point out another downside: how is this game going to be built-out and have the legs to survive for a while?

That's mainly coming from what happened with Friday the 13th, though it should be said that wasn't down to Illfonic so much as a dispute over who owned the rights that blew up after release. The studio did keep the game running for a good while despite that, but it always felt like a great horror experience that had a lot more potential than it was ever allowed to realise. Halloween looks like it's built on those same foundations, but with a few extra elements like the NPCs that could add a lot. I just wish I'd found out about it next year, rather than now.