The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Video Game

[YellowKing]

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (TCM) launched today and is available on Xbox Game Pass (console and PC), so I gave it a whirl.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the Friday the 13th game that came out many years ago, but this one shares some DNA with it. It's asymmetrical 4v3 multiplayer, with the smaller side playing The Family and the larger side playing the victims. As in Friday, the victims are simply trying to escape (I believe one victim surviving constitutes a win for the victims), and The Family is trying to kill everyone.

Initial impressions - this game is a (terrifying) blast.

From the victim standpoint, you have to try to escape the house/basement depending on the map, and make your way through one of four exit points on the map. There are only 3 maps in the game, but they're large, confusing, and have day/night versions that can significantly affect gameplay. Victim gameplay is very stealth-based. Everything you do in this game has the potential to make noise which can be detected by The Family, so crouching, hiding in shadows and tall bushes, etc. is key.

As a Victim you'll have the opportunity to find lockpicks to open doors, bone scraps to use as weapons, and medicine. Obtaining any of these items has the potential to make noise, so you're having to perform a bit of a minigame to stay quiet, balancing speed and noise level. All of the exits require performing some task above and beyond picking a lock, ranging from disabling an electrical trap to releasing pressure on a valve or rewiring a fuse box.

From The Family standpoint, you're of course trying to hunt down victims while also securing the property with traps and padlocks. There is also an interesting mechanic in which you can find blood (either lying around in buckets or from victims you execute) that you can use to feed Grandpa. Grandpa is essentially an NPC that serves as a victim detector, and the more blood you feed him the more he's able to temporarily reveal the locations of Victims.

The biggest complaint I had about the Friday the 13th game was that it got a bit repetitive, and TCM mitigates this a bit by offering a fairly deep progression system. Every match earns you both XP for your overall level (which unlocks cool behind-the-scenes photos from the movie and concept art), as well as skill points which can be used to buy attribute upgrades and new perks for any of the characters. There's a lot of freedom in building your character loadouts depending on your playstyle.

The game feels really polished and extremely faithful to the original movie (there are a couple of Family members who were created just for the game, but they fit the style well). Sound is huge in the game, and I honestly recommend playing with headphones because it's so important to gameplay. Stealth is huge, and unlike a lot of stealth games hiding in this game feels very real. It is completely possible to duck down in a patch of sunflowers and have a Family member walk right past you, oblivious to your presence. And while the Victims are obviously the side at the biggest disadvantage, you don't feel completely outmatched - it is entirely possible to escape the clutches of Leatherface through quick thinking and the use of the maps' many crawlspaces and alternate routes.

While most people are naturally going to want to play the bad guys (because let's face it - chasing people with a chainsaw is freaking FUN), I think the game really shines when playing a Victim. It's downright *terrifying* at times, and after my first match my heart was beating out of my chest. The developers generate a tremendous amount of tension with the need to both move fast and stay quiet, and as a Victim you're constantly trying to balance speed and stealth while looking over your shoulder.

I honestly don't know what kind of legs this game has; I find myself growing bored of aysymmetrical multi games pretty quickly - but from the initial impressions they did a damn fine job of making this game everything it could be. There were multiple moments in just the handful of matches I played that felt like they could have come straight out of an actual Texas Chainsaw film, and this is just with a bunch of random strangers. I can't imagine how much fun it would be to get some friends together for a team. I'm hoping they really commit to adding content from other films in the series to give it some longevity - new maps and characters would be amazing, and they have plenty of source material to choose from.

[GreenGoo]

Thanks for the heads up YK.

I tried desperately to like Friday the 13th, but it wasn't long before the jankiness and meta gaming changed the tone of the game and all the horror left it (for me).

I've never played Dead by Daylight, although I've watched a lot of videos. It has basically zero atmosphere and looks/feels like just another multiplayer game to me. As I said, I've never played it, I could be wrong.

At this point I've given up on the idea of multiplayer horror, but I still enjoy single player experiences.

The first thing I did when I got my PS5 (very first playstation for me/my family) was download Until Dawn, which I had always wanted to play. While not perfect, I really enjoyed it the first time through. Did a great job of keeping the clues coming but keeping you unsure of which way the game was going to go.

Anyway, I'll be sure to check out videos of Texas Chainsaw, but I am unlikely to play it. I didn't even know it was a thing, so again, thanks for the heads up. I hope you have a great time with it. The idea is terrific.