Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Jason giving the Counselors a fighting chance for the thrill of the hunt? Depending on the match, it seems contrived that two cars, a boat, and a phone are disabled, but still have parts that could be found.
Players are generally pretty divided on whether Jason is overpowered or underpowered. If Jason really knows what he's doing, he can do things like "Shift" and "Grab" immediately after, scooping up a player without any opportunity to fight back. However, since people generally play Counselors more often, they get good pretty quick, and a good team cooperating efficiently can make it extremely difficult for Jason to get many kills.
The community can't decide which upgradable Perks for the Counselors are the most effective to use in a match. Since you cannot equip more than three per character, some argue 'Thick Skinned', 'Medic' and 'Nerves of Steel' work best, but by themselves are useless if Jason catches you at the match's beginning.
Complacent Gaming Syndrome: In the beta release, it wasn't uncommon to see more than one Vanessa-type character in a campaign, due to how the majority had wanted to take advantage of her top running speed and her generous stamina gauge.
Critical Backlash: While many gamers and fans of the franchise alike were sympathetic Gun Media couldn't add any new content because of a court ruling thanks to the "Miller v Cunningham" case, they were NOT happy Savini Jason was and still is an exclusive-reward for Kickstarter backers only note due to popular demand he did become available on the Backerkit store. To date, he's still not Unlockable Content or available via Steam, even with the game's confirmed end-of-life in 2024.
Critical Dissonance: The game has a So Okay, It's Average response from critics, but also a respectable fanbase. The fans of the game are fully aware of its flaws, but are lenient with them due to the small development team.
Chad Kensington (who was ironically meant to be a Hate Sink and based on another Hate Sink, Trent from the 2009 remake) and AJ Mason have both proven extremely popular among fans for their awesome aesthetic, which perfectly embodies their character tropes. In addition, Chad's amusing comments and the fact that AJ's incredible stealth and high composure and intelligence makes her the one counselor that is close to Vanessa's level (without being nearly as unbalanced) also help a lot, as does the fact that she's based on Violet from the fifth movie, an Ensemble Dark Horse herself and one of the most requested among fans regarding possible counselor archetypes for the game's creators to use.
Tiffany gets a lot of love due to her Ms. Fanservice status and her useful stats (max stealth, along with high stamina and decent speed).
Vanessa is considered to be the best Counselor, much to the ire of even the most skilled Jason players, mainly due to her combination of excellent Speed, high Stamina, and decent Luck. These three statistics makes her the most effective Counselor to 'kite' Jason, which is accomplished by evading Jason for as long as possible by jumping into one cabin to another, and attacking him by surprise to regain lost Stamina used to run away again.
Tommy Jarvis is also this, as he scores 10/10 across his statistic board, although he is only playable for certain players who have either died or escaped once Tommy is contacted beforehand.
Savini Jason is a complete BEAST. Frightful to run from, let alone fight, when controlled by an experienced gamer, Savini Jason can often wreck a team of Counselors before they manage to achieve anything. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he still remains a Kickstarter-exclusive reward.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The game was big in Japan and while the hype in the west was dying off it kept doing decent in Japanese YouTube. It helps that the films are rather popular in Japan in their own right.
In the Part 5 Challenge, Buggsy routinely gets out of his wheelchair and walks around. Given his cause for being crippled changes multiple times in dialogue (surfing, trampoline), many have come to speculate he's just got a sprained ankle and is playing up his injuries to get sympathy sex.
All versions of the game have a bug where the game will randomly forget your chosen counselor/Jason in favor of the default "Random" option. The "Good Bad" part comes in the Switch port, where on rare occasions, this bug will result in the random Jason being very random, as in textures being swapped. Ever wanted to play as Part VII Jason with Retro Jason's textures, complete with a tattered purple outfit and skeletal bits that are still colored regularly? Now you can!
Due to a bug, A.J. is the only maximum Stealth Counselor that can sprint silently if she is equipped with at least a 10% positive 'Lightfoot' perk. Something Tiffany and Tommy are unable to do so in spite of also having a 10/10 in Stealth.
High-Tier Scrappy: Vanessa is considered to be the best Counselor, bar none. Her excellent Speed and relatively high Stamina allows her to play keep away and waste Jason's time going after her. Even with Jason's Rage Mode buff that stops players from stunning him with melee weapons, Vanessa still proves to be highly difficult to catch when under the control of an experienced player.
Shelly is considered to be the worst Counselor due to his poor stat distribution. He is slow and has terrible Luck, his Repair is not high enough to consisently tackle objectives as quietly as possible, his Stealth is not high enough for him to jog silently, and his high Strength is rendered useless once Jason's mask is removed.
Jenny is considered underwhelming due to her terrible Speed, average Stamina, and low Repair. Her high Luck is rendered irrelevent once Jason reaches Rage, and her excellent Composure also doesn't offer her much in the way of surviving, out of using two maxed out Fear Resistance perks that renders her immune to Fear, a feature only Jenny can achieve.
Eric "J.R." LaChappa landed himself in a bad spot due to being overly reliant on his Repair skill and nothing else. More often than not, if Jason spots LaChappa, he is already doomed: his speed and Stamina are too meager for him to have any real chance of running away from Jason, nor can he put up a good fight either due to lackluster Strength stats.
Moe: Deborah falls under the cute nerd type. The Moe-ness only intensified with her Halloween costume, which is a bunny suit.
Yes, Retro Jason looks ridiculous in his cyan and purple color scheme and sticks out like a sore thumb in an otherwise serious game. But that's exactly the point.
Chad's Jaw Drop during Jason's arrival is just glorious (to the players who don't find it too creepy instead).
The hair physics, especially for Deborah and Tiffany, are known to spaz out in hilarious ways.
While normally pretty terrifying, some versions of Jason don't make him look too frightening and instead make him look like a big old teddy bear.
The numerous glitches and quirks can take you out of the game's horror aspects.
Paranoia Fuel: Like any survival horror, you can expect to feel panicky when you're playing as a Counselor only to get separated from your teammates for any prolonged period, as you hear distant screams when Jason begins indiscriminately mowing them down knowing it's only a matter of time before its your turn.
No Problem with Licensed Games: While the game is decidedly not perfect, it's generally considered a good game and a very faithful video game adaptation of the movies.
Scrappy Mechanic: While fairly decent for a licensed game, a few mechanics can make it hard to enjoy for various reasons:
Jason's ability to grab counselors is considered "unfair" and "overpowered" for a few reasons by players playing as Counselors:
The "break free" mechanic for the Counselor is considered to be virtually pointless by many, as a player controlling Jason is only required to press a single button to initiate an uninterruptible instant kill animation. Unless the Jason player is incompetent or Cherry Tapping by dragging the Counselor to an environmental kill location, the Counselor will never get a chance to break free without a pocket knife.
Jason's ability to "Shift" allows him to disappear and quickly close in the gap between him and a fleeing counselor before reappearing. If Jason is close enough, the Jason player can cancel the "Shift" ability and immediately grab the Counselor from within range, which is almost guaranteed to work if the Jason player is skilled enough to abuse this technique. Shift would be a complete Game-Breaker if not for the fact that it requires a lot of practice to execute, and even then the most experienced gamer can get stuck on obstacles.
Jason can successfully grab a Counselor in the middle of their melee attacking animation regardless of their health, which already makes combat a bigger risk than usual, considering how slow on the draw counselors are when they swing their melee weapons.
Most controversially, the range of Jason's grab doesn't match his animation, as his range seems to allow him to grab any counselor, even if they're around five feet away from him and should logically be far away enough to avoid his grab.
Jason's grab is bad enough on its own, but he is also capable of killing the counselors with repeated melee weapon attacks, leaving them completely unable to use the knives or fend for themselves if caught alone.
Jason's Morph ability allows you to teleport across the map, but it often only puts you in the general vicinity of where you want to be, not the precise area. Nothing's more annoying than chasing down fleeing Counselors in their car, and you morph after them into woodland, a short distance away from the road.
Jason's ability to Block is also controversial, as it virtually makes Jason immune against nearly every attack in the game. A skilled Jason player can use the ability to walk over Counselors' bear traps and set them off without actually getting trapped in them, walk over firecrackers and avoid getting stunned by them, and most annoyingly, guard against all melee/flare gun attacks regardless of which direction Jason faces. The only weapon that bypasses Jason's Block ability is the shotgun, which is guaranteed to knock Jason to the ground.
Jason's ability to stack his own bear traps on top of each other is also poorly received, as it means that it is virtually impossible for a Counselor to fix a phone box or repair a car without risking the trap being set off and alerting the Jason player. Considering how uncommon pocket knives are, and since it's the only guaranteed method to break out of Jason's grab command, it makes disarming Jason's traps not worth the risk to sacrifice a get-out-of-jail-free card to disarm one trap sitting next to, or on top of another.
Counselors cannot carry vehicle parts and weapons at the same time. This leaves whoever decides to work on vehicles extremely vulnerable.
Due to shotgun no longer harming teammates upon firing in public matches, it has become much easier for the counselors to swarm Jason and repeatedly stun him with melee attacks, knocking his mask off and potentially leaving him vulnerable for Jarvis to finish off.
Scrappy Weapon: The Fire Poker was originally this until it got buffed following a patch; now it's the Tree Branch which got nerfed. With a low rate of damaging or stunning Jason, you have to be desperate to use it.
Spiritual Successor: The single player missions can be considered this for Manhunt. They both allow you to play as a serial killer who has to kill his targets in spectacular ways and both prioritize stealth.
That One Achievement: Getting Gold Badges on escaping by boat and boat repairs. Leaving the camp by boat is deceptively simpler than by car, as it only requires the fuel and propeller. But the parts are never anywhere near the boat, and Jason moves much faster than you in the water (and some Jasons have an even higher underwater movement speed), so trying to escape at all via this method is luck-based at best and suicide at worst.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Pamela Voorhees. Alas, the stretch goal for her wasn't reached. She could have been a terrifying Part 1 villain, only killable by Alice if they steal her machete. With high Stalk, high Morph, able to open doors, windows and use hiding places silently to pick off the counselors one by one, all while disturbingly Talking to Themself after each kill.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Hacked lobbies showcases the untapped potential for massive "free-for-all" deathmatches where three Jasons from across space and time appear at once to hunt down fifty plus Counselors, victims past and present. If you die straight away? No problem, you can simply rejoin and the fun (or pain) continues.
NES "Retro" Jason as a skin was a surprise, considering the infamy of the game he comes from.
Part I Jason in the Virtual Cabin 2.0, as many doubted his child self could appear in any capacity.
Uber Jason who was also confirmed via the Virtual Cabin along with a new map set on the Grendel instead of an official announcement. A lot of this is due to this version of Jason coming from Jason X, which was set in the future.
Part 9 Jason was an unusual choice to appear, due to Jason in his physical form having very little screen time in Jason Goes To Hell.
Part 5 Jason came as a surprise, both due to the general dislike his movie got and not being Jason at all.
Fox and Shelly from Part 3. One is a memorial to the actress but the other is just Fanservice.
Unlike the Counselors, Jason's incarnations have no Perks to customize them with save for choosing what grab kills you want. There could've been something for everyone, from an expert tinkering with the duration and cooldowns of Jason's abilities to a novice player who finds bear traps too cumbersome and would rather have many throwing knives instead.
Jason has no medium to long-range attack except for knives. You don't even have that many at your disposal unless you want to waste time looking. Whether aiming or using a quick throw, hitting your moving targets is finicky as you try to align the camera over Jason's right shoulder (Jason is left-handed). This could've been easily mitigated if Jason could lock-on to the nearest Counselor in combat stance or at the expense of using his Sense ability.
An inexperienced Jason player can quickly get ridiculously overpowered by all the Counselors if they're coordinated and stick together (especially if three players are picked as Vanessa taking kiting and attacking in turns). Jason can't block from all angles. His rage ability would best counter this sort of nonsense, except the meter doesn't fill up by being shot by the cops, breaking doors, windows, hiding places, walls, etc.; it only fills up by taking damage - risking you losing your mask and being killed. If Jason's Rage would automatically unlock if, say, five or more Counselors surrounded him, it would make the challenge much more balanced.
