When comparing Friday the 13th: The Game vs Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, the Slant community recommends Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes for most people. In the question“What are the best PC multiplayer games with asymmetric gameplay?” Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is ranked 6th while Friday the 13th: The Game is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is:
Both sides in the game can not see what the other does, creating a situation of confusion that needs a good bit of team work. A ticking bomb adds the tension needed for players to spit out the first things that come to mind when describing strange symbols or patterns.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Communication between players is encouraged and enhances the gameplay
Communication between the teenagers (players who are playing as Jason's victims) is key to surviving and outsmarting Jason. For example, if a player has found the fuel for the car and two other players have found the keys and car engine, they can all communicate and decide to meet at the car in order to escape.
Pro Perfectly captures the feel of what it must be like to be Jason
Friday the 13th perfectly captures the feeling of playing as an extremely menacing character. You methodically hunt other players and gain more and more supernatural powers as time goes by. Some of these powers include Sense (similar to Eagle Vision in Assassin's Creed) or Morph, which lets you teleport immediately across the map.
Pro Six different Jasons are playable, each one of them with advantages and disadvantages
There are six types of Jasons to choose from, each one of them based on a type of Jason that appeared in one of the movies. There's even the original Jason from the second movie with a paper bag on his head.
The differences are not only cosmetic, each Jason has his own advantages and disadvantages. Part 3 Jason for example can run but has very weak stun resistance. This also changes the way all players approach the game, whether you are playing as Jason or the teenagers, you have to adapt your strategy to the type of Jason you are playing as or playing against.
Pro Hilarious situations arise as tension increases
Both sides in the game can not see what the other does, creating a situation of confusion that needs a good bit of team work. A ticking bomb adds the tension needed for players to spit out the first things that come to mind when describing strange symbols or patterns.
Pro Great for parties with friends and strangers alike
One person has the bomb on screen, and 1-5 "experts" need to consult the manual (either online or printed out). Thing is: the bomb defuser can't see the manual, and the experts don't see the bomb with its various modules.
The person who sees the bomb will have to precisely say what they see, and then the experts will frantically flip through the manual to find the instructions for that particular module. To succeed, you will all have to work together.
Pro Bomb defusal manual is easily accessible
The manual can be viewed as a PDF download as well as a static webpage, which gives easy access to any mobile device as well as PC. On top of this the manual can be printed out for those that would rather navigate tactically, which is often the easier way to go due to touch and ease of flipping pages (over a tablet or phone). Basically you are able to pull up the manual in any way you prefer, which requires little preparation, even on short notice.
Pro Great for quick games
Not a lot of setup is necessary, and a round lasts just a few minutes, so you don't need to commit to a lot of time before starting.
Pro VR minimizes cheating
The point of the game is that those with the manual are not able to actually see the bomb, this can be difficult to achieve when using a regular monitor to play the game, as someone could sneak a peak. Using a VR headset guarantees that no one with the manual will be able to see the bomb as it is only visible to the one wearing the VR headset.
Cons
Con Playing as one of the victims may get boring quickly
Playing as one of the teenagers who are being hunted by Jason is not as fun as playing Jason himself. There are roughly four ways you can win the match: escape, survive the night, call the cops or kill Jason.
The last one is the hardest to achieve since it requires a great degree of communication between players. The one you will probably choose more often is escaping which consists of finding different objects that help you make your escape (things like keys, fuel, ropes, etc.). The things you need are randomly scattered each match across the map and you have to look in every drawer, cupboard, or box to find what you need. Unfortunately that's what you will be doing 90% of the time when playing as one of the victims.
Con Quite glitchy
The game is plagued by glitches. Especially collision detection has a lot of problems. It's not uncommon to see players walk through walls or hover in the air.
Con You can't choose whether you can play as Jason or one of the victims
At the start of the game, each player's role is chosen at random. This means that you can't get to choose whether to play as Jason or a victim and there's roughly a 12.5% chance to play as Jason before a game starts.
Con Puzzles may become stale after repetitive play
Particular modules in the game may be seen after playing repeatedly, which will make for easier play and quicker puzzle solving. This will have a tendency to make the gameplay feel stale due to ones familiarity with the puzzles.
One example, is the Keypads module where the defuser will need to describe strange symbols. Part of the fun is struggling to describe something, or figure out what is being described and calling the other person an idiot for not getting it.
Con Morse code section difficult for those with dry or bad eyes
There is a morse code module section of the game that relays morse code through visual cues, in order to understand the code the player will need to not blink for 3 seconds straight. While for most players this is not an issue, those that have chronic dry eyes or any other condition that requires blinking a lot, the code will be difficult if not impossible to understand. An optimal solution would be a setting to change this to audio cues, but sadly that is not an option.
Con Number of players can determine whether you succeed or fail
Most modules can be worked on one at a time - you start describing one to an expert, and he replies right away telling you what to do. Some modules however require some time for the expert to decipher. For example, if there is just one expert and you get the Morse code module you are pretty much screwed as deciphering the Morse code takes a lot of precious time. If you had an extra expert, you could work on deciphering it while they worked on another module.