“The Shape” (Michael Myers) is already a playable Killer in Dead by Daylight, so when I saw that developer Illfonic was showcasing Halloween: The Game at PAX East 2026, I couldn’t help but wonder—why? They’re both asymmetrical horror games, where one player assumes the role of the slasher-movie villain while the other four struggle to survive against the overpowered threat. Do we really need another participatory gorefest with the same hook?
Watching people play it, however, made me realize that I couldn’t have been more wrong. I was never all that interested in Dead by Daylight — its graphics and animation didn’t look all that impressive, even a decade ago. Halloween: The Game, however, elevates the experience in meaningful ways. It isn’t just another asymmetrical horror game — it’s one that actually understands what makes Michael Myers terrifying, and builds its entire design around that idea.
On Halloween night in 1978, the Boogeyman returns to Haddonfield Heights, a quiet suburban neighborhood in the midwest. Despite all the darkness and horror, the environments are eerily bright and colorful in a way that feels very ‘70s. Character models also have smoothed edges to them that feel just a touch cartoonish — in a good way. Halloween: The Game is also far more complex than a simple 1v4. Those four players each assume the role of a unique “Hero of Haddonfield,” but the town is full of NPC residents who need to be escorted to random escape points. So it’s less “escape the killer” and more of a “manage a town under siege” situation. That alone gives Myers more victims to target — and turns every match into controlled chaos.
Myers can focus on his targets with Murderous Intent to build levels of Stalk, which makes him better able to track targets and unlock more executions. He also has access to Shape Jump that lets him travel through shadows at great speed, even passing through some solid surfaces. That allows him to suddenly appear in front of a victim while they’re running away. This ability is restricted by sources of light, however, so any Myers player ought to spend most of their time early-match knocking out lights.
