It’s been just over one week since the official launch of Halloween: The Game. In that time, we’ve welcomed well over 1,000,000 players to Haddonfield and witnessed millions of ruthless Michael Myers kills and harrowing Civilian rescues. Your excitement and passion for our asymmetrical horror sandbox has been incredible, and our team is grateful to everyone who’s jumped in to share scares with friends. While we’ve worked rigorously to roll out a series of patches following our Early Access launch on September 4, our efforts to continue improving Halloween: The Game aren’t slowing down.
Our community has done an outstanding job sharing their gameplay highlights, reporting pesky bugs, and providing ample feedback. We built Halloween: The Game with this passionate, engaged community in mind and greatly appreciate your thoughtful commentary. In an effort to better set expectations with our players, we wanted to spend some time acknowledging some of the issues players have been experiencing since launch, provide status updates on fixes, and briefly discuss what’s next.
Performance / Stability / Crash Fixes
We understand that players on various platforms or using specific PC hardware configurations, have been experiencing performance problems, including frustrating crashes. Our team has been closely monitoring crash reports and collecting information from our community to help further pinpoint and address these issues across all platforms. We’ve also been working with our platform partners to gather the reports necessary to assist our team in these efforts.
In addition to various performance improvements and crash fixes, our team is actively working to address the following community pain points:
Players crashing when the Loomis reinforcement enters the match.
Our team is actively investigating performance hits that occur when Loomis spawns in across multiple platforms.
Players crashing at the end of Singleplayer Chapters
Based on community feedback, these issues most commonly occur when reaching the AAR screen on the Prologue and Ch 3 and our team is actively working to identify the causes of these crashes.
Players crashing on Xbox Series X|S
While we are aware and investigating crashes across all platforms, we have noticed increased crash reports from players on Xbox Series X|S in various gameplay scenarios. We are continuing to investigate improvements for this platform.
If you’re experiencing performance issues or crashes, please send an email to htghelpdesk@illfonic.com with the following information:
• Username
• Platform
• Device Specifications
• Match details, environment, or actions leading up to the issue
• Any other information you think is relevant to the issue
This information is instrumental in helping us identify the specific circumstances that may be impacting performance or causing crashes
Challenges / Achievements / Trophies
With Halloween: The Game, our team aimed to deliver a robust, satisfying progression system with a strong suite of challenges on day one. As fellow players, we understand how important those rewards are to the overall gameplay hook. We’ve made enormous strides since our Early Access launch to address many of the issues impacting Challenges, Achievements, and Trophies, but we are aware of lingering problems causing frustration with our players. Chasing down, correcting, and tuning these remaining challenge-related pain points is a priority for our team.
Story Mode Challenges
While from a technical standpoint, all of the challenges in the singleplayer story mode are now completable, we understand that several continue to give players consistent difficulties. According to your feedback the following challenges are the primary offenders:
Chapter 2 Challenge 6
Complete the chapter without alerting anyone
Chapter 4 Challenge 5
Fully stalk Bob and Lynda while they make out in living room
Chapter 4 Challenge 6
Complete the Chapter matching the films plot
Chapter 5 Challenge 6
Destroy any police car before you escape
Our team is investigating potential adjustments to make those specific challenges easier for players to overcome in future updates.
Progressive Challenges
Much like the singleplayer story mode challenges, our team is happy to report most of the issues impacting Progressive Challenges have also been resolved through post-launch updates. However, we have identified instances of challenges that contain unclear or ambiguous instructions. An example of this is the Weapon Progressive Challenges not stating that the corresponding weapon is required for progression. We are also investigating reports of certain challenges that are not tracking properly under certain conditions.
Our team is currently identifying fixes or adjustments for the following Progressive Challenges:
• Thomas - Linebacker
• Rachel - Superstitious Tools
• Alexis - Craftswoman
• Laurie - Quick Thinking
We have also heard your feedback regarding the quantities required for some of our Progressive Challenges. While our main priority is ensuring that challenge progression is tracked accurately, we will also be evaluating and tuning some of these objectives to provide a more rewarding experience to players.
Achievements / Trophies
For most of our players, Achievements and Trophies are tracking as intended. Unfortunately, we are also investigating instances where the Achievements Purely and Simply Evil, Pumpkin Smasher, and Heavy Handed are not being awarded to players upon achieving these objectives. If you are experiencing issues with Achievements or Trophies, please send an email to htghelpdesk@illfonic.com with your username, platform, and any other relevant details.
Bug Fixes
As our team continues to refine Halloween: The Game, investigating and implementing bug fixes will be an ongoing priority. While we are currently tracking a variety of bug reports, we have honed in on a focused list of some of the most detrimental bugs impacting player enjoyment. We are actively working on fixes for the following issues:
Shape Jump ability stuck on cooldown
We are investigating an issue in which certain gameplay interactions can cause Michael’s Shape Jump ability to be stuck in a cooldown state.
Hero Losing Movement After Grab
We are investigating an issue where Civilian players Grabbed during specific interactions lose movement after released from the Grab.
Civilians Still Executed After Breaking Free
We are investigating solutions to an issue where players could still be executed even after successfully escaping a grab when playing in Public Matches.
Residents Spawning on Roofs
Our team is also investigating reports of death-defying Residents making their way onto rooftops on various maps.
In addition to the list above, players can expect a wide range of bug fixes in upcoming updates.
Balance Adjustments
Since launch, it’s been incredibly exciting watching players uncover the depth of Halloween: The Game. As players have sharpened their skills and learned both sides of the experience, we’ve been carefully monitoring player behavior and game balance. As with any asymmetrical horror title, maintaining the satisfying game of cat and mouse is essential. We want to ensure both Michael and Civilian gameplay remains engaging and we provide players with ample counters to the strategic problems other players throw their way.
Players can expect consistent, carefully considered balance adjustments with future updates, starting with the Bob-shaped elephant in the room. Our team is planning a series of changes designed to reduce the excessive effectiveness of select perks and provide the Boogeyman with horrifying options to combat would-be Bob Squads. We feel that it should be more difficult to stagger Michael, especially after successive downs.
On the topic of staggering, we’ve also heard the feedback about the perceived “Slasher” meta unfolding. Overall, we want melee combat exchanges to feel better for both Michael and Civilian players. In that spirit, we will be making adjustments to melee damage, Civilian stagger states, and combo attack speed for weapons like the wood axe. These changes are focused on providing a more satisfying back and forth when participating in melee combat. We will also be continuing to tune the Grab/Struggle dynamics between Michael and Civilians to keep those encounters feeling tense as well.
Additionally, our team has been closely monitoring the early match pacing and end of match scoring in Halloween: The Game. Special Targets are incredibly valuable to both sides and we are planning various balance adjustments to address the ease in which Civilians and Michael can rush these objectives with future updates. In the shorter term, we will be further tuning the end of match scoring to better reflect team performance.
What’s Next?
At this stage, we know players are eager to hear about what comes next for Halloween: The Game. We are currently targeting an update early next week designed to tackle a host of these known issues, bug fixes, and balance adjustments. Improving the foundational experience is incredibly important for our team as we prepare for larger gameplay updates and future content plans. In addition to next week’s patch, we are planning a Quality of Life update in early October that will provide more fixes and improvements. And with Halloween right around the corner, we have exciting plans to celebrate Michael’s big month with all of you.
Thanks for playing and we’ll catch you in Haddonfield!
For more on Halloween: The Game, Stay Sharp and follow @HalloweenTVG on Reddit, TikTok, Instagram, X, and Facebook, and join the conversation in our official Discord.