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Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game review – popcorn gaming-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro
Another horror classic is turned into a Dead by Daylight style multiplayer game, as after 36 years Killer Klowns gets its first adaptation.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game – it was odd in the 80s and it’s odd now (IllFonic)
Another horror classic is turned into a Dead by Daylight style multiplayer game, as after 36 years Killer Klowns gets its first adaptation.
Since it’s been one of the biggest video games in the world for over seven years, it’s not exactly surprising that many companies have tried to copy the success of Fortnite. Some, such as Call Of Duty: Warzone and Apex Legends, have managed to become almost as popular, while also offering a subtly different experience. Dead By Daylight has been around even longer (it may surprise you to learn) and its list of copycats has also been legion… although curiously they all take exactly the same form.
For those not familiar with Dead By Daylight, it’s an asymmetrical survival horror game in which one person plays a monster or slasher villain and the other four horror movie victims trying to survive them. At least in the beginning, it wasn’t particularly good, but it is free-to-play and that has earned it a loyal audience and a never-ending stream of crossovers with famous movies and games.
What’s odd about the copycats though is that rather than starting with their own original characters, as Dead By Daylight did, they’re almost always based on old school horror franchises, starting with Friday The 13th and now including everything from Evil Dead to Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Predator. There’s even a Puppet Master one, which we had no idea about until now, so we’re not even sure if Killer Klowns From Outer Space counts as the most obscure so far.
Judging by the properties used, the primary audience for Dead By Daylight must be middle-aged gamers with a deep nostalgia for Blockbuster Video, except we’re pretty sure that’s not true. Killer Klowns From Outer Space wasn’t even well known when it came out in 1988, so we’re not sure it’s on the radar of the average Gen Z gamer, but we’re assuming the logic is that it features spooky clowns and so that’s something anyone can appreciate.
It is a very odd film though. Nominally it’s a homage to old 1950s sci-fi films, since the clowns are actually aliens, but they have surreal powers and abilities that allow them to create living shadow puppets and sentient balloon animals. It’s often described as a horror comedy, except it’s never really funny, just fascinatingly weird.
What you can say for the game is that it’s definitely an authentic representation of the film, in video game form – even if the underlying formula of the gameplay is very familiar. There are minor variations though and while it’s still an asymmetric game, instead of just 1 vs. 4 you play with 10 people in matches of seven human players versus three Klowns.
A match lasts 15 minutes and the only goal for the humans in that time is to escape, while the Klowns have to trigger a * Klownpocalypse*. This involves a lot of complicated item collection, as the humans need to activate an escape route and Klowns have to cocoon humans in cotton candy and use them to power generators to start their apocalypse early (it happens automatically if the time runs out).
It’s all standard stuff for the genre but there are a few minor twists, such as the inability to use any exit more than three times and the way the Terenzi brothers create a fifth exit with their ice cream van in the last 30 seconds of the game (a reference to the finale of the film).
The combat is also familiar but with a few unique twists, as the Klowns get to use all their weird weapons, like a popcorn bazooka and a mallet, some of which the humans can also commandeer. Klowns are vulnerable in the nose and can be stunned by loud noises, but unlike the humans they never actually die and just respawn a few seconds later.
There’s lots of attention to detail in the five maps, each based on different areas from the movie, but predictably it all gets very repetitive very quickly. This has always been the problem with these games and while Killer Klowns has some pretty odd subject matter, that it’s trying to adapt, it’s still only an hour and a half long movie, which feels clever and inventive when you watch it as such but not when turned into a multiplayer video game you’re expected to play again and again.
The combat is fine but the attempt to add depth through five different classes, for both the Klowns and humans, doesn’t make enough difference. It also doesn’t help that while the humans get hints as to where the exits are the Klowns don’t and it’s quite possible to go almost a whole match without seeing a human, when you’re playing as the bad guys.
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Before long you’ll start to learn where the exits are but by that point you’ll inevitably start to lose interest, because you’ve already seen almost everything the game has to offer and there’s very little of substance to unlock. You can level up but there are no perks or other customisation options, just Klowntalities – animations that can’t be interrupted and you’ll quickly turn off the first chance you get.
Unlike Death By Daylight, this isn’t a free game and it’s very hard to see how anyone is going to get their money’s worth out of it. Even if you’re a hardcore fan of the movie there’s only one game mode and very little story, so as soon as you’ve played each map and class type you’ve seen almost all it has to offer. Killer Klowns from Outer Space is a weird and memorable horror experience as movie but sadly the same cannot be said of its video game incarnation.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game review review summary
In Short: A highly authentic movie adaptation but a sadly predictable, and repetitive, video game, that does far too little to justify the continued trend of turning 80s horror film into asymmetric multiplayer games.
Pros: All involved clearly love the movie and the first few hours are a lot of fun, thanks to the clown’s weird weapons and range of abilities. Well-designed maps.
Cons: The whole concept is very overfamiliar and with only one game mode it all gets highly repetitive within just a few hours. Playing as the Klowns can be very confusing if you can’t find any humans.
Score: 5/10
Formats: PC (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5
Price: £34.99
Publisher: IllFonic
Developer: IllFonic and Teravision Games
Release Date: 4th June 2024
Age Rating: 18
Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game – shoot him in the nose! (IllFonic)
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