You know something is iconic when you know a lot about it without ever having experienced it for yourself. Sumo Digital has tried to bring some of this feeling from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre film to their game, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Rather than making it a horror game set in the film’s universe, it’s instead a competitive multiplayer that leads hard on the slasher aspect of the film. With a 3D over-the-shoulder third-person perspective, you can decide whether you want to see if you could escape the family of killers. Alternatively, you can show that you could do a better job at making sure the victims don’t escape.
What is The Texas Chain Saw Massacre?
Whether or not you’ve seen the film, you could probably get a sense of what The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is all about. Simply put, the events that occurred in the film were supposedly based on true events that occurred in the early 1970s. They seemed to provide enough prompt to create a horrifying situation located in a dilapidated series of properties out in the middle of nowhere. It was here that the Sawyer (or Slaughter) Family captured and killed any people unfortunate enough to wander onto their land or come across any of them. It’s up to you which side of the story you’ll be on and whether you’ll succeed or survive.
Cutting it up in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
The slasher genre is not for everyone, but as Dead By Daylight has shown, it’s possible to turn it into fun and exciting games. It looks like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has managed to pull off the same feat. Part of its flair is its faithfulness to the source material. While this game has added elements that weren’t in the original film, none of them feel out of place. The visuals in the characters and the environments are smooth yet gritty enough to capture the atmosphere of a horror film that is almost 50 years old. Each character looks like they could’ve been inserted into it and we wouldn’t have looked twice.
That being said, the characters are the main focus of the story. The Victims deserve some special attention since they all are unconnected to the film. This makes sense considering the fates of those characters, but these game-only characters fit the profiles perfectly of victims in a slasher film. They’re young, diverse, and balanced with all of their skills and stats tailored toward highlighting what you would want in order to survive a slasher film, especially this one. Each one is designed in a way that they can work together or on their own in order to survive. There’s a very tense and satisfying feeling that comes from sneaking around, outsmarting the Family, and managing to escape.
On the other end of things, you have the stars that are Family Slaughter. You have the recognizable characters in The Hitchhiker, the Cook, and, of course, Leatherface. They’re supported by the less familiar but still thematically appropriate Johnny and Sissy. Like the Victims, the Family members are diverse and balanced, having abilities and stats to compensate for their smaller team size and Leatherface’s tenure. Once again, their skills are made to actively or passively support each other. This along with the interesting inclusion of the decrepit Grandpa Slaughter as a mechanic, makes for intensity and excitement every time you spot a Victim and decide to give chase.
The dull blades of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Sometimes it’s hard to admit when we’re blinded by nostalgia, and just like with the film, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has some issues that are hard to ignore. The biggest appears to be the imbalance between Victims and Family, with the former having a disadvantage.
While this may be true-to-form in a slasher film, it can be frustrating in a game. The Victims have very little to work with considering just how many threats they have to avoid. With very limited inventory space, most items don’t actually help with dealing with the Family, and those that do require you to put yourself at risk. If a Family member spots you, it can be very difficult to get away considering your injuries, sound sources everywhere, and Grandpa sporadically using his scream detection.
Despite that, the weird thing is that the Victims also have an easy out. Each map offers several Exits to escape that all have their own unlocking mechanics. However, the Rear Exit will always be the preferred choice. This is because there’s only one disarming sequence and regular unlocking sequence standing in the way between you and victory. The other Exits require additional items to be found and sometimes more complex mini-games.
On top of that, the Exits are commonly not near their unlock device. As a result, the Family can focus their attention on the Exits that are easiest to open and catch the Victims as they try to unlock the harder ones considering how often paths cross.
Survive The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a 3D third-person online multiplayer game involving victims and killers based on the movie of the same name. The game captures the aesthetics of the classic while creating an enjoyable game with diverse character gameplay on both sides and intense situations. Some balancing needs to be worked on to give the Victims a bit more of a chance and put the Exits all on the same level. Despite all that, there is fun and excitement to be had in running around a classic slasher movie.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was played on Steam with a code provided by the publisher. The game is available now for download on PlayStation and Xbox.
