The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Review

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game developed by Sumo Digital. While it draws many similarities to games like Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th: The Game, it manages to do more than enough to stand out and outshines its predecessors in many ways.

The gameplay is broken up into two different sections: the Family or the Victims. As the Family, you are tasked with stopping the Victims from escaping, and vice versa, however, the ways in which this can be done are incredibly varied. Unlike other asymmetrical multiplayer games, it is a 3v4 formula, as opposed to the typical 1v4, which opens up even more options for the family. Each different member of the Family, alongside each different Victim, all have a unique set of perks and stats, dictating particular playstyles; Leatherface is much slower than any of his other counterparts, yet deals an incredible amount of damage, and is able to destroy obstacles and certain escape routes. They also each have unique active abilities such as Leatherface being able to rev his chainsaw, increasing the damage, but risking it overheating and having to be restarted, while The Cook can add additional locks to doors. To combat the strengths of the Family, the Victims each have perks and abilities to aid in their escape, such as Leland being able to stun a family member and Connie being able to pick locks faster and without consuming the unlock tools. The Family has one additional tool at their disposal: Grandpa. Grandpa can be fed the blood collected from damaging victims, and from certain points around the map, which will slowly level him up. As he levels up, he begins to more regularly activate his Sonar ability, marking any moving Victim for the whole family to see, along with activating other abilities that can be unlocked and equipped by the Family through the skill tree.

As you play matches, you’ll collect XP and level up, which gives you SP. This is a universal currency that can be spent within the skill trees of any character to unlock new perks and attribute points. Up to three perks can be equipped by each character at any one time, while attribute points can be spent to increase any of a character's attributes by one per point. For example, increasing a Family member's Savagery increases the damage they deal, while the Victim's stealth attribute reduces the sound they make when interacting with the environment. The Family also has one additional node, Grandpa perks, which add additional features as Grandpa is fed and levels up. This system of metagaming is incredibly satisfying yet can be slightly underwhelming. Skill points not being tied to individual characters allows you to level a character without having to play them first, which can help minimise the growing pains of having to level a new character, while the attribute points can help really pinpoint a play style. My only issue with this system is due to balancing problems; to keep the game relatively balanced, perks and attributes are relatively minimal to avoid higher-level players winning purely due to a statistical advantage, which is a good decision in the long run but does make levelling feel very lacking.

The game itself does take some time to get used to, as maps are incredibly large and multilayered. They are also very labyrinthian, which can lead to both Victims and Family members running around relatively aimlessly to get to grips with the maps. This isn’t a huge problem in the long run, yet it does lead to some minor irritation within the early game. Once this has passed, however, the variety in options for both the Family and the Victims lead to some much more unique games than its competitors. The Victims have multiple different escape routes, which all rely on completing different objectives, from turning off generators to turn off traps to completing fuse box puzzles to open gates. This minimises the ability for the Family to camp around the objectives, as there's no guarantee anyone will use the ones you’re waiting at. It also opens up the ability for them to leave traps. This does admittedly open up the problem with solo players, as the lack of any communication can make it hard to plan a specific escape with your teammates. I feel some sort of ping / quick chat system would do wonders.

Graphically, it doesn’t stand out all that much, which normally I wouldn’t mind, however, I think it is detrimental in one specific area. The movies this title is based on are essentially the birth of the Slasher genre of horror movies, yet the gore is incredibly minimal, and I personally hoped it would have been a little more over the top, however, this is more of a minor nitpick than anything else. The sound design, however, is utterly immaculate, from the ambient sounds to the horrific revving of Leatherface’s chainsaw, the game manages to instil dread with every noise. The voice acting is also superb, the Family members all sound just as unhinged as you would expect, which helps carry this fear even further. Despite some people having issues with servers and ping, I had an utterly perfect experience from start to finish. The frame rate was perfectly consistent, and I had no issues connecting to and finding matches.

In its earliest state, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre shows an incredible amount of promise. It isn’t perfect, however, it most definitely has space to become one of the greats and potentially the king of the asymmetrical horror genre if it receives the post-launch care it deserves.