After a rocky launch, Halloween: The Game is in a much healthier state now. The development team at IllFonic has ironed out many of the kinks; the current version is considerably stabler, and some free autumnal content has just been added to the package.
We now feel more comfortable awarding the title an enthusiastic thumbs up after giving a caveated recommendation in our initial review, yet it’s still far from perfect. Where once it was plagued by technical faults and game-breaking bugs, now it’s got a problem with rotten apples in the community.
Whatever you want to call them — be it trolls, griefers, rage-baiters, or tedious fucking dickheads — these poor sports can ruin the experience for everyone. But they are especially irksome when you’re the one taking on killer duties as Michael Myers.
Undermining the intended slasher-movie experience, they’ll form self-styled “bully squads” to mess you around and completely suck the fun out of the whole experience. You may have already been on the receiving end of such harassment, whether it’s been because trolls have sequestered themselves in awkward parts of the map, prevented you from being able to use Mikey’s vital “Shape Jump” power, or ganged up on you in a way that somehow felt underhanded.
It might not be outright cheating, but we all know unsporting conduct when we see it. So, to help level the playing field a bit and troubleshoot some of the worst behaviors, we’ve pulled together a handy list of top tips.
Here’s how to deal with nuisance players in Halloween: The Game.
Don’t Be Drawn into Pointless Encounters
If you take away nothing else from this guide, then make sure to heed our one golden rule: Do not allow trolls to distract you from the main objective!
Granted, that can be easier said than done, but their tactics only work when you’re entertaining them. Griefers want to get a rise out of you and will try their hardest to goad you into a cat-and-mouse chase because, that way, you’re no longer playing to Michael’s strengths.
Every asymmetrical horror title encourages a subtly different playstyle for its big bads. The hulking Jason in Friday the 13th: The Game, for instance, was an unstoppable tank ill-suited for anything that required an elegant touch. He was built for smashing through locked doors and barreling down on his victims in the face of incoming shotgun blasts, futile axe swings, and ineffectual machete cleaves. Conversely, to thrive as part of the Sawyer clan in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, you would need to strategize with fellow cannibals — laying booby traps and making the most of your home-field advantage — while the colorful E.T.s of Killer Klowns from Outer Space relied on zany powers to carry out successful harvests.
Myers, on the other hand, is supposed to be a methodical, patient hunter. His M.O. is to lurk in the shadows, stalk unsuspecting victims from afar, and stealthily move in for the kill only when the opportunity is ripe. In John Carpenter’s original movie, he spends most of his screen time lingering in the background of the frame, completely undetected by either his quarry or the authorities. If you’re playing smart, then that’s how he should be acting here too.
With his glacial, unhurried stride, he’s not cut out for marathon pursuits, nor is he a blunt instrument like Jason Voorhees, who is capable of brute-forcing his way to targets. So, if those bully squads do try to provoke you into a direct confrontation or a merry chase across the map, don’t give them the satisfaction.
It’s not a contest that you’re likely to win and, while you’re wasting time getting bear-baited, their teammates could be unlocking escape routes and rescuing NPCs. It’s the latter that should really be your priority here. You can secure a very decisive victory without taking out a single human player in Halloween: The Game, as long as you slaughter enough A.I. bots.
Take Your Time and Stalk Everyone
At the risk of sounding like a naïve parent giving insipid advice to their child about how to deal with bullies, we’d urge you to just ignore the troublemakers. They’re not worth it and thrive on you giving them oxygen.
Rather than playing into their hands, you’d be much better off defining the rules of engagement yourself. The proven method for excelling as Michael — whether you’re up against rage-baiters or legit competition — is to take it slow and steady.
Don’t let the opposing team pressure you into an impulsive rush, as that only sets you up for failure. Instead, start off by focusing on A.I. residents and give them the proper Boogeyman experience. Kill the lights, infiltrate households, and fully stalk your prey before taking them unawares!
Not only does this predatory playstyle feel more authentically Michael, but it actually yields gameplay rewards that will pay dividends if you do happen to bump into bad faith agitators later. You see, leveling up through the stalk tiers and performing “surprise” ambushes fills your bloodthirst meter way, way faster than going on some artless killing spree.
Should you take the time to accrue that bloodthirst, Michael will get progressively more powerful. His ability cooldowns will reduce, he’ll be much tougher to knock down, his senses will become heightened (helping you track down elusive survivors), and his attacks will deal increased damage. Remember to prioritize this and, when the moment comes to face off against those griefers, you’ll be in a much stronger position. If, on the other hand, you rashly attempt to take on a party of trolls without any of the available buffs, you’ll be in for an uphill battle.
Make sure, then, to warm up and get Michael’s homicidal motor running. Seize every opportunity to acquire bloodthirst by jump-scaring residents, perving on police, and generally stalking everything in sight. You might not necessarily be racking up kills on the scoreboard while you do it, but this foreplay is important.
Extra tip: as yet another way of topping up the bloodthirst meter, you can also use “Killer Sense” to gawk at dead bodies and “admire” your handiwork after the fact (squeezing every last bit of value out of kills).
Use Evil Presence to Disrupt Looping
Our first two recommendations for handling bully squads revolve around not engaging with them on their terms. Alas, sometimes there isn’t a viable alternative.
When you have no other choice but to give chase, don’t get frustrated. Get tactical! A go-to strategy these trolls like to rely on (and a likely source of PTSD for any Dead by Daylight vets out there) is to repeatedly “loop” you around cars and other objects in the vicinity. If they are proficient at this, they can lead you in circles for minutes on end without you having a snowball’s chance in hell of catching up.
One effective counterplay that we’ve identified for this cheese is “Evil Presence”. The primary function of said ability is to give Michael extra damage resistance for when he’s being ganged up on. However, it also has the added benefit of staggering nearby survivors.
If timed just right during looping situations, this temporary stun can grant you a helpful window to close the distance for a slash attack or even knock trolls back into your grab range. It’s saved us a lot of aggravation in matches and can make the difference between a chase that resembles a farcical Keystone Cops routine and a genuine horror movie set-piece.
Enter “Killer Sense” Mode To Strengthen Grabs
On that note, once you’ve deployed “Evil Presence” to get your hands on a nuisance player, you’re going to want to make sure that you can maintain that grasp long enough to trigger an execution. Recent patches have made this increasingly difficult, and you may have noticed that opponents now seem capable of escaping Michael’s chokehold near instantaneously.
That’s because the duration of your grab attack has become far more explicitly tied to how much you’ve stalked the target in question. If they haven’t been subjected to any voyeurism whatsoever, then the button-mashing QTE they’ll need to pass to break free will be quite trivial. Conversely, if you’ve kept obsessive tabs on them and reached the third (and highest) level of surveillance, then they’ll find it much more challenging to wiggle out of your clutches.
With that said, if you’re dealing with a nuisance player who just keeps on taunting you, don’t give them the chance to prolong your torment by neglecting to do the necessary prep work. Always enter into the first-person “Killer Sense” mode at first contact and stalk the hell out of them, even if it means temporarily letting them get away with some bullshit.
Whether they’re trying to loop you, bully you with melee weapons, or run you down with a bike, chances are they won’t be expecting you to abruptly stop dead in your tracks and stare them down. Often, we find that they’re a tad perplexed by this behavior (you know, someone playing the game as intended) and misread it as you going into the pause menu to rage quit. They’re just so used to people taking the bait and hounding them no matter what.
But let them think that. Let them drop their guard. Bide your time, do all the peeping you can, and get delayed gratification when that level 3 stalk grab is within reach. The griefers almost never anticipate it.
Put Cyclists In Their Place
Bicycles are destined to remain a point of contention for future updates in Halloween: The Game, as their implementation has, to put it mildly, been completely and utterly fucked. In a downright absurd scenario, Michael was nearly powerless at launch to stop meddling kids on bikes from thwarting his schemes, almost like he’d been reduced to the villain of a Saturday morning cartoon show.
Cyclists could mow him down in the middle of the street, propel themselves through doorways and into homes to interrupt grabs, and then leisurely pedal away without so much as breaking a sweat. It felt less like the conduct of desperate survivors and more like that of juvenile delinquents abusing their elderly neighbors.
While there’s still some work to be done in the balancing department here, there are a few things you can do as a player to counter the bike exploit. For a start, make sure to destroy any unattended wheels you see while exploring the map by hitting them a few times with your melee weapon. That way you can take them off the board before they ever become a problem.
Even when they’re being ridden, you can still take bikes out of commission, although there is a trick to it. Michael’s “Blackout” power will emit an EMP pulse that knocks cyclists off balance, but if you’ve got decent aim, we’d recommend equipping the ranged “Shadow Strike” ability and needling them with that instead. It’s got a bit more versatility and can be used to counter several other forms of trolling you might be confronted with (we’d advise not having both “Blackout” and “Shadow Strike” in your anti-bully loadout, as you’ll definitely need to keep at least one slot free for “Evil Presence”).
Regardless of which method you use to dismount cyclists, don’t go after them immediately. It’s better to prioritize disabling their rides. Because if they manage to evade your grab, they — or, indeed, somebody else — could end up on that pesky saddle again and then you’re right back to square one.
Mute the Nonsense Trash Talk
This last pointer may not seem especially tactical, but it’s one that we’d urge you to follow unless you’re really amused by the sounds of inane shrieking, belabored memes, and confusing racism, with more frequent usage of the N-word than Twelve Years a Slave.
Frankly, you’ll never get any valuable information from the in-game proximity chat when playing as Michael. It can be fun to hear good-natured opponents freak out whenever you exit “Shape Jump” to startle them, but those interactions are outweighed and overshadowed by the rampant toxicity elsewhere.
There’s a pretty direct correlation between those trolls who engage in underhanded bully-squad behavior and those who are determined to make your ears bleed. In fact, we’d go so far as to say that the Venn diagram depicting those two insufferable cohorts is just a regular circle.
We’re slightly embarrassed to admit how often we found ourselves pushed to the precipice of quitting a match, simply because we couldn’t stand to hear any more witless dickheads yelling “Miiiiiiiiiccccaaaaaellll” over and over again. There’s never going to be a time when you engage with them and don’t instantly regret it.
When we finally decided to cut off that entire channel of noxious audio, we were overcome with the most profound sense of tranquillity, like a Buddhist monk who has achieved Nirvana. It is a shame to have to do this, of course, yet we’ve hardly noticed the absence of quality chat, to be honest. It’s not like you’re depriving yourself of any scintillating conversation, after all, and whenever you do need to communicate with fellow players, there are plenty of options for doing so non-verbally.
On a more serious gameplay note, the trolls deliberately use voice chat to antagonize, muffle sounds you need to hear, and generally distract you. If you’re hearing them speak, it’s because it somehow furthers the head game they’re playing and benefits their attempts to enrage. So, silencing them just takes away another weapon in their deeply annoying arsenal and leaves them wasting their breath. Do yourself a favor and turn it off.
Halloween: The Game, is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.