The Texas Chainsaw Massacre from Gun Interactive and Sumo Digital is a new asymmetrical multiplayer experience based on the classic horror movie. Check our The Texas Chainsaw Massacre review!
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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre from Gun Interactive and Sumo Digital is a new asymmetrical multiplayer experience based on the classic horror movie. It follows up on what Gun Interactive did with asymmetrical game Friday the 13th, which is currently on its farewell tour since that particular license will expire on December 31, 2023. At least the servers will continue to be live for online play for a year after that if any of you want to check it out. Do know that due to a recent update, the Platinum trophy can no longer be obtained since the update unlocked a ton of perks for all players, and there’s no longer any XP doled out for your efforts. And now, back to our The Texas Chainsaw Massacre review.
If you’re not familiar with the movie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a horror film released way back in 1974. It was partially inspired by the murders of Ed Gein, also known as the Butcher of Plainfield. As for this video game take on the whole thing, here’s how the story goes: Tragedy struck central Texas after college student Maria Flores vanished without a trace. She was last seen in the town of Newt, but investigations ended up leading nowhere.
Ana Flores, Maria’s sister, was not going to stand still and do nothing. Because of this, she and a group of youngsters – Julie Crawford, Leland McKinney, Connie Taylor, and Sonny Williams – decide to go and search for Maria before it’s too late. Unfortunately, they end up being trapped by the Slaughter family due to the mysterious Hitchhiker’s involvement. They, thus, end up in a lot of trouble since the Hitchhiker, the Cook, Leatherface, Sissy, and Johnny have some sick plans for them.
Because of this, you’ll be playing in teams either as victims or members of the Slaughter family. As expected, those of you playing as a member of the Slaughter family must seek out and track down the victims to keep them from escaping. If you’re part of the victims, you must sneak around and make as few noises as possible so as to not give away your location so that you can have a chance of escaping before it’s too late. But before you dive into the game proper, you should definitely go and check out the tutorials so that you can learn all of the basics and better understand what is going on.
Things will play off a bit differently depending on if you’re a victim, a member of the Slaughter family, or if you’re playing as the legendary killer known as Leatherface. When playing as a victim, you’ll move around each area with the left analog stick, using the right one to move the camera around as needed. You can press and hold down the L1 button to run if needed. Press the R2 button for a sneak attack.
You can check your left and right pockets by pressing left or right on the D-Pad. Use an item by pressing the Triangle button. The Square button will be for interacting. Pressing the Circle button will allow you to crouch so that you make less noise when moving around. Unfortunately, you’ll sometimes need to sprint in short bursts to get somewhere safe, which can be done by pressing the X button, even if you’ll end up making a lot of noise.
When playing as a member of the Slaughter family, you’ll move, run, crouch, interact, and control the camera in the same way, but you will also be able to interact with the X button. The R2 button will be used to attack. Pressing up on the D-Pad will activate the Family Focus skill, which allows players on the Slaughter family side to highlight all points of interest on the map for a few seconds. These include the stuff that victims will interact with to try and escape, buckets collecting blood, herbs stations, and more.
Players who join as Leatherface will need to start the chainsaw with the R1 button, then yank the pull cord using the Square button at the right time. Once the chainsaw is up and running, you’ll need to keep it reeved up by pressing the L2 button, or else it might stall and quit on you at the worst of times, right when a victim is within your reach! Leatherface can use his mighty chainsaw to destroy barricades, doors, and obstacles that might keep other family members from reaching a victim. The longer you rev up the chainsaw, the more powerful your attacks!
The R1 button will activate each character’s ability. These include Johnny’s hunt ability, which can allow him to track down a victim’s footprints; Sissy’s bane ability which blows poison clouds on a victim’s path; the Cook’s ‘seek ability makes it a lot easier to hear any victims that are being just a bit too noisy; as for the Hitchhiker, it can set traps that will alert him when a victim is stuck. And then, there’s Leatherface. As expected, his ability is maim since, you know, he’s the one carrying around the huge chainsaw that can make short work of any victim foolish enough to stand on his path.
But wait, does that mean that victims also have special abilities that are unique to them? That would be correct! Julie Crawford can activate ultimate escape, which allows her to remain untracked by the family members while also lowering her stamina drain when sprinting for a short period of time. Leland McKinney can use life saver, which will allow him to bump charge a family member to temporarily stun them, which can literally end up saving his life if he uses it at the right time!
Connie Taylor has the focused ability, which allows her to pick a lock much faster than any of the other victims in the game. Sonny Williams has the heightened sense ability that will allow him to detect any noise nearby, pinpointing their location and tracking their movement. As for Ana Ramos, she can activate the pain is nothing ability, which significantly reduces the damage she can take from attacks while also making her immune to the effects of poisons for a short period of time, thus making her a tank character.
Oh, mmm…. I forgot to mention one more family member that, while not playable, will also prove to be crucial for the family’s goals: Grandpa! Grandpa is quite literally the most bloodthirsty member of the Slaughter family since he craves being fed as much blood as possible. Family members will be able to carry a set amount of blood for each trip, with Sissy being the one that can carry around the most blood for Grandpa.
At first, Grandpa will be sound asleep, but once he gets a little taste of blood, he’ll be ready to help you. Grandpa will also wake up if a victim comes too close to him. By feeding him the blood you collect from the drainage buckets scattered around the map or by attacking victims, you’ll be able to have him track victims, thus aiding you in keeping them from escaping. Just be sure to visit Grandpa often to keep him fed and make sure that none of the victims try to incapacitate him! The more blood you feed Grandpa, the more abilities the family members will receive for the rest of the match.
The more you play as this or that family member or as each of the victims, the more experience points you’ll be able to accumulate with them based on their efforts. Once a character levels up, you’ll be able to earn skill points that can be spent at each of their corresponding skill trees to unlock bonuses. Different nodes in each skill tree will have different costs to consider. The more powerful the bonus, the more expensive it will be to unlock.
Something else to consider is that there are special nodes known as branched paths that will allow you to progress through one path while completely locking you out of the other one, so be sure to check out what the nodes on each path can offer so that you can tailor your experience to better fit your playing style. Perks or abilities equipped by a character will also level up, making them stronger for subsequent matches.
There’s a lot to do in this game for trophy hunters. As was the case for the Friday the 13th trophy list, this won’t be a short Platinum run to work on. The list is split into 41 Bronze trophies, 9 Silver trophies, and a single Gold trophy. What will you need to do to try and add a new shiny Platinum trophy to your collection?
If you’re a fan of asymmetrical survival horror games like Gun Interactive’s Friday the 13th or Dead by Deadlight, then you’re going to enjoy The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It offers a new spin on the asymmetrical experience by having teams of three family members fight against teams of four victims instead of the usual 4vs1 gameplay you might have previously experienced. The game does a great job of bringing to life the world of the original 1974 film, and it even includes more than 150 unlockables that feature behind the scenes photographs from the filming of the movie from way back when, as well as concept art used for the creation of this game.
As is, the game offers five victims and five family members to play as on three different maps. Going from how Gun expanded Friday the 13th with additional maps and characters, there will probably be lots of DLC packs available for purchase in the near future – no word on if there will be any crossovers with other horror film universes. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is available as a Cross-Buy title, so your $39.99 purchase will allow you to download the game for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 at no extra cost.
Disclaimer
This The Texas Chainsaw Massacre review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Gun Interactive.
