Asymmetrical multiplayer games have hit a growth spurt of late. Helped no doubt by finding a perfect niche within the horror genre. From Dead by Daylight, Friday The 13th: The Game and Evil Dead: The Game, these classic Friday night horror flicks have been a hit with gamers. It’s a no-brainer the next IP to be given the treatment would be The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
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The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is published by Kentucky-based Gun Interactive who know a thing or two about asymmetrical multiplayer games. In fact, the crew have genre heavyweight Friday The 13th: The Game already under their belt.
New Massacre in Town
On paper, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre plays how you would expect. A group of college friends attempt to escape a family of cannibals before they catch, kill and eat them.
However, there are a few twists to the asymmetrical formula here. The biggest one is that you are not just facing one killer but rather hunted by three at once. This turns the usual 1v4 seen in the genre thus far into a fairly novel 3v4.
This puts an interesting spin on things. And while you may think having three killers would be overpowered, your hungry hopefuls are just slightly stronger than you. They do have a number of skills to help the hunt, but on the whole it’s a fairly balanced face-off.
Would-be killers can pick from series staple chainsaw-wielding maniac Leatherface as well as The Cook, The Hitchhiker, Johnny, Sissy and Grandpa.
The Cook can see victims making noise across the map. The Hitchhiker can set traps and has high stamina. Johnny is a tracker who can see foot prints. Sissy can set poison traps similar to The Hitchhiker. And finally, Grandpa is a sort of UAV who has a few other handy abilities that can be activated by feeding him the blood of the fallen victims.
Additionally, each killer has a stamina bar that will dictate what you can and can’t do at a given moment so you can’t wield your chainsaw willy-nilly.
Complex Victims
The five victims however are no push overs. Each has their own set of skills; like taking less damage from attacks, quicker lockpicking, faster running or the ability to stun the members family. Completing matches banks you XP that you can use to level up skills or even nab a new outfits for your character.
Each killer also has a skill tree that you’ll unlock through play. These little level bumps will make them overall stronger. Interestingly you can cut off paths on the killers’ skill trees, but you can always re-spec at no extra cost.
Asymmetric Match Play
Matches are simple really, victims start off being hung up and have to break free, find a way out of the basement and unlock a few doors to get to the surface, then make a break for freedom. Then you do it all over again, sometimes on a different map.
There are a few ways to achieve your goals across the map and working with your team. Though, it must be said that using stealth seems by far the best tactics right now. But beware that you can bleed out over time; being too cautious will see you expire before you’ve found the means to heal or escape.
The family’s job is simple. Stop the victims at all costs and by any means, be it using Grandpa or electrifying the main gates. There is a healthy selection of tactics with which the family can foil those pesky youths in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
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When the action kicks off and players are being chased or doing the chasing, the tension flies through the roof. The game comes to life during these family/victim interactions. Players will be flailing around to survive, or frantically working with their killer mates to box in their victims.
However, when things get very close-up The Texas Chain Saw Massacre can be a bit rough. Hit detection is patchy at best. General performance is also far from perfect – there have been occasional frame drops that occasionally saved our bacon.
Dead Man’s Learning Curve
A lot of the game’s early charm is its suck-it-and-see experience. You’re given light pointers on what to do and then the game asks you to figure it all out through trial and error. For example, you might be surprised to realise your family teammates can (and will) trigger the electric fence and end up stunned for a bit.
And this learning curve is only made more bewildering as you’ll be trial-and-erroring during live play. There are no offline modes. There aren’t even bots. Some will love this extreme anxiety coupled with the joy of experiencing each of the game’s many novel mechanics and set-piece for the first time.
The Tiny Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre launched with only three maps. And if you’re running things as a team, you’ll quickly learn the layout of each. Ultimately, you’ll discover the fastest path to escape, or the most likely door that will be opened, ready for you to strike down your prey.
When you’ve locked down the strategy, you might get bored or you might want the intrinsic reward to ‘gitting gud’. It slashes both ways.
That Texas Chainsaw Look
Visually, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is as dark, moody and horrifying as you’d expect. The game’s characters have a nice level of detail with obvious passion for horror on show. Sound design is top-tier and plays a key part in gameplay.
Better still, the audio has been crafted to really terrify the victim team. That chainsaw ticking over in the distance, the sudden creaks, the screams – it’s spine-tingling.
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At present, you can only play a match with all four victims present. This isn’t an issue just now, but, in time, may have an impact as the player base dwindles. Additionally, Leatherface is a mandatory character. This is understandable, but having an open family roster could make for extra fun or a more challenging posse to face.
Also, playing with a group of mates almost locks you in as playing as a victim for the session as it seems to favour lone wolves to be the killers.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a fun stab at evolving the asymmetrical multiplayer
formula as it adds a few new ideas to the mix. However, it may run out of petrol after a few weeks and months unless new maps and the like are added. And this content mill needs to start rolling soon as this slasher will ultimately live or die based on the community it creates.