The Halloween Game Phase Mechanic Was Exactly What I Wanted From The Myers Rework
When the Shape rework was announced, the thing I wanted most was more focus on his unnatural ability to disappear and appear out of every corner and blind spot, as it would be great and tension inducing.
I had always envisioned something like "whenever you are out of line of sight from a survivor, you can toggle between stalker mode and shadow mode, either being very fast and invisible, but not being able to do actions, or something like what current pursuer is, but with stalking".
This would end up with a very unpredictable Myers that could spring out of corners mid chase, disappear and go after someone else, and overall just keep everybody on their toes. As for the stalking mechanic? The idea would be for it to mark individual survivors, not for a time period, but until they are downed. This marked wouldn't do anything to the survivors, but Myers would not be able to reapear within 12 meters of any unmarked survivors, putting a stalk requirement on the more agressive maneuvering possibilities for the killer.
If the Halloween game flops(seems likely atm) and Behavior get the rights to Myers back, I would love for them to take the character back to this direction, as it feels much more iconic and in line with him.
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yeah im surprised they didnt it seems like jasons power is very close to the halloween myers power wonder if there was a plan there but never worked out
For a game like Halloween, the shape jump ability makes sense to have due to the game's other mechanics involved, however to me, it thematically cheapens out Myers' character immensely.
The ability however, have no place in DBD and never will, on account of the fact that the game is balanced entirely different from Halloween: The Game, with entirely different mechanics and gameplay loop. There's a reason why any Killer with the ability to become invisible to Survivors, have to do an interaction or an animation first, before being able to attack again. While Killers who can go undetectable, does not need do that and can attack again immediately.
Also i frankly find Myers ability to switch back and forth between stealth at will like he does now, to be much more thematically fitting for the whole ''disappear without a trace'' aspect of his, than shape jump.
So I played Halloween for a good 5 hours or so last night, and despite the usual launch issues, I think it has a future. It's sort of what F13 might have become, if licensing issues(and the ability to kill Jason)hadn't destroyed it.
Is it going to kill Dead By Daylight? Nope..it's an entirely different type of game.
But it doesn't have to kill DBD, because BHVR is doing a good enough job already of destroying its own product. They've managed to almost completely remove fun from the model. The main problems we have like camping, tunneling, 'Meta', and gameplay abuse are baked into the core mechanics and are not fixable in any meaningful way. They know that, so they go with band-aid fixes and 'Roadmap' promises, while cranking out new Killers, Survivors, foofy outfits, rifts(ever feel like you're stuck in a hamster wheel? News flash: you are!) and game modes to keep people playing and spending money… for as long as that will work.
So all that a new asymmetrical horror game really needs to do is be fun. For my own part, I had more actual fun playing Halloween last night, even with mixed match results, than I've had playing DBD for a very long time.
I dont think halloween has a future unless they make some major major changes to how the game works. I expect its going to drop off quite quick. when you take away the gimmick of people screaming at each other in prox chat and blaring their music over the mic, as people are figuring out the game and how it works are are already starting to optimise what to do, if there arent major balance and mechanical changes, the game will be dead, as right now while people dont know what theya re doing yet it gives it more life, this game has some extreme holes already showing by people who start to understand the game.
Considering its been out for less than a week, it doesnt surprise me that its not perfectly balanced. I expect they're gonna be tweeking things once they can see how players are playing. Hopefully we'll also get updates later on to include more maps and such too. My wife has actually been avoiding videos on it so we can play it this weekend completely blind. Looks to be a fun time from what IVE seen though.
it does look fun, i almost bought it but i have watched gameplay and analysis of it and it has some really major issues that will have to be resolved for this to be a game someone will want to load up after a week or 2 of playing.
I have a feeling though some of the issues are too baked in to how the game was designed to be fixed properly, like how the win conditions work.
that being said, the game has sold over 500k copies so presumably is a massive financial success for the devs so may give them the rescources to not just abandon it like they did with tcm.
and also, perhaps people will like it enough to have staying power but im very skeptical of that for now.
the prox chat alone personally removes all my interest in the game when immediately its just teens and edgy people all peaking their mic while screaming at each other.
Yeah, the proximity chat thing could definitely be an issue. I mute my own mic, mostly because I have zero interest in chat in-game. I didn't look through the settings…is there an option to mute VoIP outright?
The main thing I noticed last night is that players—-both Michael and Civilians—seem to be playing it as if it was DBD, i.e. Michael is looking to kill all 4 players while ignoring NPC Civilians, and PC Civilians are just avoiding Michael at the cost of NPC Civilians. They'll actually just hang out under a streetlight or in the middle of the road once the cops show up, and then use the cops for protection. I even had one match last night where the PC's ignored NPC's for so long that I had both Laurie Strode and the other 2 'Special NPCs' killed and hung up on telephone poles within the first 5 minutes. Got most of the rest of the NPC's, and then left town while the players hung out with the cops. :)
Right after sending that I spotted a YouTube video showing they just released a balance patch. Im not expecting a masterpiece that'll hold my attention for YEARS, just something to play with the Mrs.
Sounds like the same kind of people that'll camp main building and forget their objective is gens.
RIGHT? LOL
I'm hoping that soon enough, people will understand that this game is meant to be the opposite of a hurry-up 'sweaty' DBD match.
The game has very different objectives than DBD which I feel is throwing them off. In DBD, the killer is focused on YOU. Even if they're left alone with a gen, they cant hack it to peices or anything. With Halloween though, you cant just let the killer have all the time they want with the NPC objectives because... they WILL be hacked to pieces.
I do see what you mean, and to clarify(i did give a bit of an explanation of what i had in mind but i wasnt really super clear on it, my bad) i don't want something like Jason's ability.
What i had in mind was a mode change that shares some similarities to wraith, but with significant advantages AND disadvantages compared to it. Example:
- Myers stance swap is instant and without sound
- Myers cannot break anything in this mode
- Myers cannot swap stances unless there is physical full cover between them and all survivors
- Myers cannot swap stances within 4 meters of stalked survivors, or 12 meters of non stalked survivors(still need to take into account having visual cover)
- Instead of a super crazy lunge or instadown, stalking serves as a way of allowing you to more aggressively use your phasing to cut survivors off, and would last until the survivor is downed
- Any posibility of something akin to an instadown could come in the ability to grab a stalked survivor within 3 seconds of becoming corporeal
Admitedly it would end up quite different from the way the halloween game handles it's own mechanic, and very different from what jason does as well.
Compare it to Wraiths ability for instance, where wraith gets a lot of map mobility and can pretty much become corporeal right in front of you, but does so at the cost of a loud audio cue and long transition time. Myers' "teleport" would be much more restrictive, in needing a minimum distance, some stalk requirement, and visual cover to position before appearing, but it's instantaneousness and lack of distinct cues would allow for much stealthier approaches and an overall more disorienting and chaotic playstyle in the hands of a skilled player.
I’m not certain how true this is, but isn’t this the company that lives by quantity, not quality? I can’t remember which owned what, F13 owners or Texas Chainsaw? One of them basically said no to live service and they moved on from their projects about a year after release because they want to make horror games for every horror icon possible. Something like that?
IF it’s the same company, the game WILL die very quickly after release. While DbD has an infinite gameplay loop, it at least has changes to keep the game fresh enough to want to keep playing. If a game is only expected some minor changes or tweaks post-release before that exact experience NEVER changes again, the game will be dropped quickly. That’s why none of the other games survive. They’re all similar games, just different icons. They all played nearly identically.
If you showed me F13 and Halloween side-by-side, I would think they’re the same game. Same graphics, same design, same EVERYTHING, different horror icon. It’ll burn out fast if they don’t keep it updated.
I disagree Halloween has no future. Halloween is the asymmetrical horror game for people who don’t wanna deal with all the stressful and frustrating things DBD brings. No slugging, no tunneling, no camping, no bully squads. Of course a lot of DBD fans were gonna hate it because Myers isn’t a power house who can fight entire groups of survivors. It ain’t that type of game. People should stick to DBD if they wanna live out a power fantasy.
Same with Ghostface he had an to invis ability in his scrapped game too
I think what goes beyond a gimmick is that they actually did great justice to a horror Icon. Playing Myers feels like it should overall, and playing against myers often provides similar encounters to the common ones from the movies.
DBDs style prevents them from making any one character truly themselves because there are too many boundaries to the core game to allow it. nevermind how atrocious the myers rework was even within the games boundaries…
Because DBD is competitively focused it forgoes the possibility of some of the coolest types of experiences in Halloween like fleeing a house as Michael kills someone and locking the door to the house across the street only for you to turn around and find that he's already there.
there will never be an audience for the game as large as DBD of course, because ultimately even if he is one of the pinnacle horror Icons, Myers is one playable character, but I think Halloween can definitely live with its current gameplay loop (so long as the various major bugs and gameplay issues are resolved)
Wait your "ideal" Myers is just dbd jason with Ghostface stalking instead of the spears?
I thought people hate jasons "nobrain no skill" teleport/ghost mode.