The 80s was a great time for fans of slasher films and horror in general, but I’d never heard of Killer Klowns from Outer Space before seeing the modern game trailer for the first time. I did know IllFonic, though, as the custodians of the late Friday the 13th: The Game, the more recent Predator: Hunting Grounds and a number of other asymmetrical multiplayer games.
Update: This is now our final scored review.
I was admittedly a little dubious, with some of IllFonic’s licensed games significantly better than others. Friday the 13th was a decent jaunt, sadly passing on with its support ending, but Predator: Hunting Grounds didn’t live up to its expectations. Thankfully for the potential longevity of this game, the film creators, the Chiodo Brothers, seem very on board with making this game a success, talking about how they want to expand the universe of Killer Klowns in a way they were never able to do before with the original movie. Of course, it helps that the game feels like a real winner.
Each match pits three extraterrestrial Klowns against seven humans, with the human players trying to escape the map and the Klowns hunting them down and trying to bring about the Klownpocalypse. It could easily have fit exactly into the formula of all the other asymmetrical multiplayer horrors, but the humans here can fight back, making this very much a battle of attrition compared to the oppressive nature of Killers vs Survivors in Dead by Daylight.
Case in point, I was able to get very tooled up very early as a human in one match – I found a shotgun, some bullets and a handgun – and managed to take down two out of three Klowns in a fight before being killed myself. I like this because it means you don’t have to fear for your life in each game as a human, and alongside various rescue and resurrection options, gives your team a fighting chance even with some early set backs.
On both sides, communication is key and the game is as authentic as possible with in-game proximity chat for
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