Halloween the Game single-player review: Is there enough here for solo players?

Being a horror fan can sometimes be a rather solitary affair.

It’s sometimes difficult for enthusiasts of the genre to find like-minded fans, especially because it can be a bit awkward initially declaring that you enjoy something with such a dark subject matter.

It’s something I can personally attest to – I’ve been a big fan of horror films since I was a teenager, and now I’m in my 40s I have a wife who can’t really tolerate anything other than slashers, and an eight-year-old daughter who’s probably still a long way off before I start letting her watch my Dario Argento collection.

There’s a very real subset of horror fans, then, who also love video games but have struggled to get into many licensed titles they would kill to play, because they aren’t necessarily fans of playing online multiplayer with strangers.

Dead by Daylight has passed me by, even though its numerous crossovers are a horror fan’s dream (or indeed nightmare), and I can’t get excited for the upcoming Saw: Genesis because it’s a strictly 3v1 affair.

The studio and publisher that have made this particularly agonising for me over the years have been Illfonic and Gun Interactive. The pair released Friday the 13th: The Game in 2017, and while it later bolted on a single-player mode, the main event was clearly its asymmetrical multiplayer.

Since then, Illfonic has released Predator: Hunting Grounds, Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed and Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game, while Gun Interactive has published The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. All four are horror IPs I adore, but all four had little in the way of single-player gameplay.

That’s why, when Illfonic and Gun reunited for a game based on the legendary Halloween, and announced that it would have a single-player mode at launch for the first time, I was cautiously optimistic that I could finally enjoy Illfonic’s clear attention to detail for myself.