From the creators of Friday the 13th The Game, Gun Interactive brings you their next installment with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Similar to other asymmetrical horror titles such as Dead by Daylight, Friday the 13th, or Evil Dead, this game offers a very similar playstyle in which a group of survivors must outsmart a what is now group of killers to escape and achieve victory. It is no longer a team of survivors vs one killer. Here is our full The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Review.
Unlike other titles, this game puts 4 survivors (victims) up against 3 killers. (Family) Both the Killers and Survivors must work together like never before in order to win the match. After over 20 hours played on the PS5 version, I was able to put the game down and start this review.
Let’s talk about Texas Chainsaw Massacre:
This game is a lot more balanced than others when it comes to games of this nature, simply because no matter which team you are on, it will require teamwork for you to either escape with everyone alive or kill all of the victims. Both the victims and family members have their own set of skills and abilities that make each of them unique in their own ways.
With the family members having abilities making it easier to spot you, track your footprints, setting bear traps, you will want to heavily rely on stealth to escape. Not to mention waking up “Grandpa” who will wake when the victims create too much noise, and comes with his own abilities allowing the victims to be easily spotted. Grandpa also becomes stronger as the family members continue to feed him blood.
Victims will have to heavily rely on not only teamwork to escape but to avoid making noise by any means. Just about anything you do in the game will make noise and immediately share your location with the family. Anything from opening sealed doors, looting, walking through bones, or even chickens that spot you. If you make any noise, it is best to get out of that area immediately as the family members are likely on their way. Just like the family members, victims also each come with their own unique abilities to help you escape. These abilities range from being able to spot and mark family members, easily being able to lockpick doors, charging at family members which will leave them stunned, or making you immune to certain attacks. There are also several other perks/abilities that are unlockable in all of the victim’s skill trees. Essentially, the more you play and level up, the more you will be able to upgrade both the Family members and the Victims.
When First Starting:
While the game does certain things well, there are also many things the game lacks. There are only 3 maps in this game in which the layout never changes. You can very easily escape a map in under 3 minutes if the family members are new/clueless or playing against a victim who is experienced. It offers a tutorial mode which at first glance seemed great, but to then quickly realize the tutorial is just a video on how to play the game rather than actually doing it yourself. It made it very overwhelming at first as you are having to play without knowing how to do anything yet. Some of which don’t even offer videos, and just offer texts for you to read over in hopes the information provided is enough for you to understand the mechanics of the game. You will either get paired with teammates who have no idea what they are doing against a strong enemy team, or the other way around as there is no skill-based matchmaking in this game. This makes it even harder for someone potentially playing for the first time to even learn the basics.
With most maps having minimal ways to exit, this makes it very easy for the killers to just run around them waiting for you to arrive to easily defeat you. The map layout for all 3 of them maps in the game seem to be very copy and pasted. Teamwork can help you win matches just as easily as no teamwork can make you instantly lose. I played games where the other family members were simply opening all of the doors not realizing they are helping the victims escape, as well as played matches where all of the victims were running around and causing noise which made us all die almost immediately.
You are unable to use the same family member / victim as one of your teammates, which makes things difficult. When going for certain trophies/achievements, or simply just wanting to use your favorite character, it becomes almost impossible as your character is likely taken by the time you enter the lobby. A feature that can be easily implemented is a “preferred character” option so that it only puts you in lobbies in which you can be who you want. There were so many games in which a user asked someone to switch their character to which the other user declined. This made the other person back out, which caused the entire lobby to close due to the match timer.
While in early access it was extremely hard to even play consistent matches because of this timer. I do not see this being a huge issue once the game releases, however there were several matches where you sit there for 5-10 minutes waiting for it to start, just to be taken back to the main menu because not enough people joined, or someone didn’t ready up in time.
Let’s Talk Pros:
Playing as the victim, you truly feel that immense heart race when a family member is nearby. It truly makes you feel like you are part of the horror series, in hopes that you do not get caught. The chases are much more intense than other games along this nature, especially when trying to shimmy through walls or crawl through tunnels at the last minute.
The game has a very unique way of making the victims work together in order to escape. Such as finding tools, weapons, and other key items to help you escape through one of the exits on the map. It also does a great job with giving the family members other objectives other than to simply hunt down the victims.
The game does a great job of taking these maps straight from the iconic movies. Such as the Gas Station, Family House, and Slaughterhouse. Each map comes with a day/night variation as well which gives things a nice change of scene for variety.
The character progression in this game is great, and it does not take long to level them up as well as earn skill points that you can dump into both family members and victims. It allows you to mix and match different abilities to create a gameplay experience specific to your play style. The game does a great job of giving players on both sides a fair shot on winning their match. Whether it is the victims escaping, or the family members defeating all of the victims, it will come down to which team is working together the most. It is not a game in which it is easy for any one person on either side of the game to win on their own.
Let’s Talk Cons:
The lobby timer made it difficult to find matches. This likely will not be an issue when the game releases, but possibly could be down the road if the game does not maintain a player base. Sitting in a lobby for 5+ minutes just to be booted to the main menu seemed unnecessary and happens more often than not. When you do finally find a match, I was usually met with people who left anyways because they were upset they did not get the member they wanted to play as.
The game can get very unbalanced VERY quickly. The first few matches were great as everyone was learning the game for the first time. But as my team began to learn the maps, it got very one-sided and made it almost impossible to lose on either team. Skill-based matchmaking or a ranking system can solve this and is necessary to not scare away new players.
With no gameplay tutorials or bots to practice against, it gives the game a very sink-or-swim system. You will either jump in and quickly understand the mechanics, or take several games learning them if you haven’t already given up.
This game is at its absolute best when you are playing against a team that is equal to yours. Otherwise, there will be matches where you will either escape or die in literal minutes.
With only 3 maps to choose from that, all have a very similar copy-and-paste layout to them, I look forward to seeing what they do in the future to add more variety to the game and make it a better experience for all players, but especially new players. I expect new players to try this game out on opening day just to be greeted by users who got the game early and give them a not so inviting welcome to what could be a fantastic game.
Should You Play?:
If you are a fan of these types of games, then you will have no problem investing multiple hours into this one. If you are new to these types of games, then it will definitely take some getting used to until you learn all of the mechanics. If I would have purchased the game, I would have found myself a little upset with the final product and what it had to offer. This is unfortunate as I typically love these games, and am a huge fan of Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13h.
You could very well have a different experience, but the game will need to make some changes sooner than later in order to maintain a healthy player base. It is definitely a better experience when playing with a group of people. Win or lose, you can’t help sharing some laughs while either chasing down victims or running away from family members.
This game will be free to play through game pass as well as has a price tag of $39.99 which is great as it is definitely a justifiable price. If you pick this one up, then good luck on your endeavors to either hunt down the victims or escape the crazy family.
Looking for more reviews to read besides our The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Review? Be sure to visit this page and discover a wide range of informative and insightful reviews. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to gain valuable insights and make informed decisions.
