Say what you will about Zen Studios’ decision to split their pinball games into two separate products, but there’s absolutely no denying that Pinball M in particular has been a runaway hit. Packed with a handful of licensed tables based on some classic horror franchises in both games and the silver screen, it’s now time to dive into a completely original table fresh for the Halloween season.
Camp Blood Brook takes obvious inspiration from Friday the 13th, so let’s get that out of the way before talking about the DLC. The setting is the titular camp where a masked killer is stalking a group of counselors and campers, as they try their best to escape all the while going through all the motions of an 1980s slasher flick, such as trying to make a break by canoeing, throwing parties, hiding in the woods, you know the ones.
The best part about this new table has got to be how easy it is to play. Some Zen tables tend to stick to a more hardcore sense of design, where newcomers and more casual players have a rough time understanding how to play them and reach good scores. This one, however, is anything but difficult, offering quick to get to missions where the objective is displayed clearly and is quite possible to hit and finish.
In fact, the entire playfield is incredibly well put together, not just in terms of gameplay, but presentationally too. As with the other ones in Pinball FX, Camp Blood Brook is aptly dark, dimly lit, and drenched in blood. Even when all the lights are flashing and everything is going bananas, there’s still a mysterious vibe to the whole thing that makes it very atmospheric and incredibly cool to behold.
Like with previous releases for the game, this table makes excellent use of HDR if your setup supports it, but be mindful of the hit in performance it might bring in case your computer is a bit below the recommended specs. During my playtime, I had good fps all throughout, but once I activated HDR, few and far between moments of slowdown. Still, activating this feature is thoroughly recommended!
If you have already partaken into Pinball M, I wholeheartedly support you getting this DLC. Even though it’s an original table and not tied to a franchise, everything about it is of high quality making it a great companion to the other ones in the game’s rich catalog. With this release, I’m excited to see what else Zen can come up with when their hands aren’t tied by IP holders and can get their feet into horror. They sure hit it off with this one.
