The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Review
Gun Interactive (formerly Gun Media) the publishers of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, at least in game form, are best known for their Friday the 13th game released back in 2017, for a game that had a lot of controversy surrounding it due to IP rights which lead to the developers Illfonic not being able to add new content to the game the title still did remarkably well and had a cult following, this was mainly due to it being a new take on the survivor vs killer horror genre largely popularised by Dead By Daylight back in 2016, a series which has gone on to become the industry standard for survivor vs killer style gameplay. I really liked Friday The 13th and thought it was a solid entry into the genre, especially when playing with friends.
This time around Gun Interactive via developer Sumo Digital has set their sights on creating a game based around the cult horror movie series ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, hopefully legal troubles won’t stop their plans on this occasion, though it must be mentioned that the legal issues Gin Interactive endured with their Friday the 13th Game wasn’t really their fault. ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ movie was originally released back in 1974 with the plot revolving around ‘Leatherface’ who belongs to a family of cannibals who like to track down and capture unsuspecting victims that dare to travel through their general area and do unspeakable things to them and then have a family dinner with their remains, lovely! The original film was produced on a small budget and was no stranger to controversy and was initially banned in the UK when released, despite all of this the film went on to record huge profits and led to Leatherface becoming one of what I consider the holy trinity of slasher film villains with the other members being Jason Vorhees from Friday The 13th and Michael Myers the Halloween series of films.
The attention to detail that Sumo Digital have displayed with this title is truly to be commended, when you boot the game up you are treated to an opening credits sequence that pays homage to the opening of the original movie even including a VHS filter laid over the top which only further enhances the feelings of dread as the narrator reads out the background story for the game. The attention to detail also continues through to the character models of the killers and victims and also the general level design with everything looking suitably gritty and creepy. When it comes to sound it is used sparingly which only serves to further enhance the creepy atmosphere of the game.
With most horror games that pit a killer against survivors usually being a 1 vs 4 affair (1 killer, 4 survivors) this is where Sumo Digital has tried to switch up things in order to keep them fresh, in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre the game pits 3 killers (one of them must be Leatherface) against 4 survivors, with the objective being to escape if you are a survivor or end the lives of the other players if you are one of the killers, with a side objective being to collect blood and feed it to the grandpa of your family which will enhance your ability to see and apprehend your victims. There are 5 survivors to choose from with each one coming with various special powers that do things from allowing your stamina to last longer through to being able to open doors quicker at the cost of stamina, likewise there are also 5 different killers you can choose from that also have differing powers and playstyles, for instance playing as Leatherface will force you to play a mini-game to start up your chainsaw which you will have to remember to keep revved up as you travel through the level, failure to do this or revving up the chainsaw too much will force you to play the mini-game again in order to start the chainsaw back up.
Survivors (and Leatherface) will start off in the basement of each map with the survivors trying to gather items such as lock picks and medical kits in order to try and survive long enough to open doors that allow them to get to the surface and escape, to have the best chance of escaping you will need to keep noise to a minimum by sneaking everywhere and by playing mini-games when opening doors, try and open doors to fast and you will make a huge racket which will alert the killers to your location which is not a good situation to be in. Level design graphically is very well done and the layout whilst confusing at the start, makes for a fun game of cat and mouse as you start to learn the layouts of the 3 levels included at launch, there are various areas that you can squeeze and crawl through as a survivor if you are being chased, which can be very frustrating and even anger inducing if you are playing as a killer.
Whilst the game does a good job at explaining its mechanics and also each survivor and killers different skills it does an absolutely terrible job of explaining the games skills and perks system. Each survivor and killer has their own skill tree which also contains perks of which you can have 3 equipped at a time, you gain experience from the actions you perform in game and will then level up which will give you access to more areas of your tree, the skill trees branch out in different directions and when you choose one direction your path down the other direction is blocked, this means you need to carefully plan the route you want to take in order to get to the perks you want to use. The perks system does allow for some build diversity and helps you to feel more involved in shaping the character you want to play, but the lack of suitable tutorial makes the system feel needlessly complicated. The most frustrating fault with the skill system at the moment is that it appears to be broken, for instance if you leave a match after being killed (there is no point sticking around, you are dead) you can choose to quit the match, when you do so the game pops up a notification saying that you won’t be penalised for leaving and will keep your full amount of exp, however when you leave the end game screen counts up all your exp and sometimes even shows you levelling up but then when you return to the main menu you will find that none of this exp was added to your character at all meaning you are right back where you started unless of course you sit through the rest of the match watching, but who wants to do that? The fact that this bug made it through testing to release is a travesty.
At its heart The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is not a bad game, but it is certainly not a great game, the level of enjoyment you have with the game will most likely depend on the amount of friends you have that are willing to play with you. Playing as a team and communication are critical when playing as either a survivor or killer, when playing solo and joining public lobbies you will find that teamwork doesn’t exist as nobody communicates with each other, this is not an inherit fault with the game but nonetheless it will affect people enjoyment of it, it’s a phenomenon that effects many team based games and I refuse to believe that in 2023 the majority of gamers don’t own some sort of microphone in order to communicate, it seems like people these days are afraid to talk while playing games, I don’t know why, maybe someone smarter than me can write a thesis on the topic. I had the most fun playing the game with friends or in teams that actually communicated with each other but I still did not feel that drawn to play the game after I had put it down and only really did so in order to write this review.
The lobby system is another problem with the game that needs to be addressed, you can join a lobby specifying if you want to play as a killer or survivor but you will find that people will leave lobbies if they don’t get the character they want to play, on the killers side one player has to be Leatherface which I understand due to the movies the game is based on, however nobody really wants to play as him due to him being slow, plodding and annoying until you learn to use him effectively. At times you will spend upwards of 3 minutes in a lobby only to have it disband when the timer gets down to zero and nobody has picked Leatherface, people have short attention spans these days and this type of lobby system only serves to make people feel like they have just wasted their time trying to play the game, do this to players enough time and you will need more than good luck in order to keep them engaged with your game. I am not even sure that the lobby issue can be fixed as it is explicitly tied to the way the game works as a whole. It also would have been nice to have some sort of single player component to the game so you could play against bots while you come to grips with how the games mechanics work and become comfortable with them at your own pace but unfortunately every single part of the game is online, and this is the main reason why I can’t currently recommend this game.
It’s online only gameplay is intrinsically tied to the success and player base of the overall game, the player base lowers enough and then you will find it even harder to get into lobbies and actually play the game and I just don’t feel that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has enough depth to keep players interested.
The Score
6.5
Review code provided by Gun Interactive
The Pros
+Great graphics and sound effects
+Level design is great, but is also let down by there only being 3 of them
+Character movement feels great and the mini games, whilst repetitive, suitable add tension
The Cons
-Tutorials are lacking when it comes to the progression system
-Lots of bugs, with the experience and progression bug being practically game breaking
-No offline mode or bots
