Halloween is out, and Michael Myers is doing more than chasing four people around a map

Halloween: The Game launched September 8 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC through Steam and Epic Games Store. IllFonic developed and published the game, with Gun Interactive serving as co-publisher.

The multiplayer format is one Michael Myers against four Civilians. The standard launch roster contains ten playable Civilians, with two additional characters included in the Digital Deluxe Edition.

Four maps are available at launch: Haddonfield Town Center, Haddonfield Heights, Orange Grove Estates and East Haddonfield.

Survival begins with the people who are not players

Civilians have more to do than locate a final exit. Haddonfield contains resident NPCs, telephones, loot containers, hiding spots and several possible escape routes.

Players can warn residents about Michael and convince them to hide, travel with the group or support the neighborhood's response.

Phone calls gradually bring local authorities into the situation. The more successfully the town reacts to Michael, the more dangerous Haddonfield becomes for the killer.

NPCs can even be equipped with weapons. Enough organized resistance can overpower Michael temporarily and create a window to escape.

Key items and escape locations are randomized between matches, so knowing the map does not completely solve the route.

Starting an escape also makes enough noise to reveal the group's location. Finding a way out is therefore only half of the problem.

Michael manipulates darkness instead of winning a foot race

IllFonic has designed Michael around stalking and positioning rather than conventional speed.

Killer Sense switches to first person and allows Michael to focus on potential victims. Building Stalk on a target provides additional tracking information and expands execution opportunities.

Shape Jump handles the supernatural part of his movement. Michael can slip through darkness or move while outside a resident's line of sight, then use Shape Dash for a sudden burst toward a victim.

That makes illumination mechanically important. Michael can shut off lights, cut electrical power and trigger temporary Blackouts to create more places from which Shape Jump can begin or end.

Death does not automatically mean spectating

A Civilian killed early in a match can still participate.

Dead players can return as a Sheriff's Deputy or as Dr. Loomis, reinforcing the surviving Civilians and responding officers.

Michael cannot be permanently killed. With enough equipment, manpower and coordination, Haddonfield can still subdue him and send him back to Smith's Grove Sanitarium.

There is a six-chapter Michael Myers campaign too

Halloween does not rely entirely on its online population. IllFonic has included a standalone single-player story played from Michael Myers' perspective.

Six chapters cover his escape from Smith's Grove Sanitarium and the events that follow on Halloween night in 1978.

Dr. Samuel Loomis narrates his findings while the story shows Michael obtaining his familiar coveralls, pale mask and kitchen knife on the path toward Laurie Strode.

Each chapter has fixed objectives but leaves the precise method of killing victims largely to the player. Secondary challenges, collectibles and multiple difficulty settings extend the structure beyond one straightforward run.

Those rewards can unlock additional lore, executions, scenarios and multiplayer cosmetics.

The launch build already has a lot of progression hooks

Civilians use a Perk Card deck system to customize their builds. Michael can unlock skins, color variations, starting weapons, weapon executions and additional abilities.

Halloween supports single-player, offline play against bots and online multiplayer. The PC version uses Easy Anti-Cheat for its online systems.

Halloween: The Game is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.