Reviewed on Xbox Series X
In the world of asymmetrical horror games most come and go with only Dead By Daylight having the major longevity in the genre. Something I could never predict though is a Killer Klowns From Outer Space game based off the niche low budget 80s horror film which has grown a cult following especially over the last few years.
Similar to every other game of its type, we are set with killers vs survivors, in a giant game of cat and mouse. For Killer Klowns we see 3 klowns face off against 7 humans in a 15 minute match. Survivors are faced with finding items to unlock exits to escape and the klowns have to either kill all humans or make it to the time limit / hook up enough cocoons to start the klownpocalypse.
The game does do some things to set itself apart though. For the killers, doing the cocoon option nets more XP and also grants small NPC clowns that come out to alert you when they find a survivor as they can latch onto them. Doing x amount of cocoons also triggers your klownpocalpse early on. For humans it is focused much more on aggression here with melee and guns laying around the map with a focus on attacking the klowns. Do enough damage to kill a klown and they have a 45 second respawn which could be the difference in escaping or not.
As a human though you don’t get a respawn timer but can also be brought back once via the Respawn Machine if another player is able to activate it. In the meantime though as you watch your fellow survivors camera you are able to play mini games which grant items you can either insta gift a player in game or hold on to in case you respawn. While the mini games are a nuance to play and after 1 or 2 times I just avoided, it is a nice little feature.
The game features an XP system which unlocks different classes and new klowns to play as with different weapons before becoming a tool to unlock various cosmetics. Starting off we only have 5 maps as well, which are all fine, but nothing overly impressive. They all feel rather basic and lack much identity of their own to hold the ground. Sometimes they almost feel too open at times as well.
Sadly though as with any game of this type it does come with some issues. For one major thing, I’m not sure who thought it was a good idea even, the game allows to join a match in progress. I joined countless games as a survivor to a game almost 5-7 minutes in progress where everyone already had weapons, klowns had their powers, and I just dropped into the middle of the street. A few times even it spawned me directly in front of a klown which lead to an instant death where I had to sit and wait for the match to finish to collect my XP (as leaving before the entire match is over awards you nothing).
The other major factor is though is the game is almost incredibly unwelcoming to newer players. Klowns get better weapons and such as they level up so you can face someone who is able to kill you rather quickly which I found happened often. As a survivor I’d die with ease once in the vision of a klown. As a klown as well it is easy to get stun locked almost by a survivor or more which leads to death (also a major problem as a survivor getting stun locked by 2 klowns).
As theres no tutorials either outside of menu and loading screen texts the game just throws you into things. Exits as a survivor work only once really once activated unlike other games of this type. So there are 4 exits a map that all require different combo of items to do. The game introduces these new mechanics but never makes sure players can know what to do with them.
I will say though having private offline games with bots that count towards XP is great. It can help players mess around as the klowns and learn some things. The human AI though is beyond dumb 90% of the time though with the other 10% making them violent killing machines hell bent on hunting you down. They also never to escape. Wish we were able to play against AI klowns though to learn the mechanics as a human more.
The game does have charm though. Killer animations are humorous the first few times, the game looks solid for a lower budget game, and it wasn’t really buggy that I experienced. It just feels like we are only getting the shell it currently and hopefully with DLC and some updates it can be fleshed out more. For a game based on a niche horror film though, through my frustrations, I still had some fun.
Score :
2.75 / 5
Code provided thanks to Stride PR
