Halloween: The Game

Bugs are the most widespread complaint: 31% of reviews mention bugs, glitches, crashes or broken systems, and 60% of those reviews still recommend the game. The ones named include story challenges that never register (Prologue challenges and Chapter 2 Challenge 6 come up by name), story progress lost after disconnects or crashes, Michael turning permanently invisible after being downed, players executed after they "wiggled free", softlocks in the perk-card menu, fuel-can and phone animations, players stuck in cellars, closets, cars and under the map, vehicles blocking the police wagon exit, prestige and achievements not unlocking, and matches that continue after Michael disconnects. Crashes tied to Loomis spawning appear repeatedly. Challenge bugs come up more often the longer a reviewer has played, which fits with long-term players being the ones grinding challenges.

16% of reviews complain about performance. It shows up early: 30% of reviews written in the first two hours raise it, against 9% of reviews from players past 50 hours. Reported symptoms are frame rates of 20 to 60 on RTX 4080, 4090 and 5090 systems, drops into single digits during executions, Michael's powers and rain in the story mode, stutter, heavy CPU load and heat, and graphics settings that barely change anything. Upscalers (DLSS, FSR and XeSS) that cannot all be disabled, broken or AMD-only frame generation, no true fullscreen resolution option and forced film grain come up repeatedly. A minority report smooth play after lowering shadows, global illumination and reflections. Performance came up in 20% of reviews in the advanced-access week and under 9% by the fourth week, which suggests patches helped, but the complaints never went away.

13% of reviews discuss the NPCs. Both sides' objectives depend on them, so broken AI breaks the core loop: residents told to follow run off, lock doors and windows behind them (trapping players outside or inside), open and close doors in a loop, get stuck on furniture, stand still at an open exit, run straight into Michael, or ignore him while he kills their neighbor. Several reviews describe an NPC shoving them off the phone mid-call to the police, which resets the call. Police NPCs stand idle, pace in circles, miss stationary targets and mostly feed Michael points. Players past 25 hours bring up the NPCs at least as often as newer players do, so this is not just a first-impressions problem.

7% of reviews call the game repetitive, boring or short on content. Four maps that feel alike, one killer, few execution animations and the same objectives every match leave some players feeling they have seen everything within five hours. Players who dislike the NPC focus describe matches as house-to-house looting and escorting with little contact with the other side. Positive reviews also ask for more maps (the hospital, later films), more kills, more modes and a Michael bot for solo civilian play.

Michael gets a whole story mode as a tutorial, and civilians get nothing. 134 reviews say outright that the civilian side has no tutorial or needs one, and others describe being lost in their first matches: not knowing that escaping alone loses, where special targets are, how the car or cellar escapes work, what character stats and perks do, or how scoring decides the winner. Teammates who rush out alone get blamed for losses, and several reviews trace that to the same missing onboarding. Fans who worked it out still ask for a how-to-play screen.

Dead or escaped civilians have to stay until the match ends or lose all their XP, which can mean up to 15 minutes of repetitive skill-check minigames for a random chance at a police respawn card. Matches do not end when every human player is dead or gone, or even when Michael disconnects, so lobbies sit watching Michael hunt the last hidden NPC. The fix reviewers ask for is a "go next" button that keeps XP, plus an AI Michael to replace leavers.

Advanced access opened with login queues of up to 30,000 players (even for single-player), disconnects that wiped story progress, and "bypass failed" or session errors. Crossplay parties between PC and console did not work for days, and some friends who bought the game together refunded it. After launch, reviewers report parties splitting between matches, lobbies that never fill, no option to play Michael while partied, long Michael queues, and sparse matchmaking in Oceania. Most queue complaints come from the first week; crossplay and party problems last longer.

1% of reviews mention cheaters or macros, reporting instant grab-breaks, invisible or teleporting Michaels and cheated cosmetic unlocks, and doubting the anti-cheat. Others cite teammates stealing NPCs or trolling with shoves, players teaming with Michael, AFK or leaving Michaels with no penalty, slurs on proximity chat and no in-match report tool.

Reviewers list limited key rebinding (quick-time events tied to number keys, trouble on AZERTY and other layouts), the map on Tab, no audio input or output device selection, broken push-to-talk, a close camera with no FOV slider, left-click conflicts between skill checks and items, and heavy button-mashing that is hard on players with hand injuries. Some say controller players have an edge on executions.