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  • Writer's pictureGreg Ezell

A Slash Above The Rest - Texas Chainsaw Massacre Review



An absolute classic when it comes to slasher films, Texas Chainsaw Massacre has jumped from the big screen to the small screen with a brand new PvP game that pits victims against the family. With the surge of PvP Killer vs Survivor games like Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th, it makes sense that Gun Interactive, makers of the Friday the 13th game, would look at the Texas Chainsaw franchise for their next game.


Unlike games like Dead by Deadlight or Friday the 13th, the survivors aren’t running away form one killer, but multiple killers. That’s right friends, the Texas Chainsaw family is running around the compound trying to eviscerate you from this existence.


Unlike games like Dead by Deadlight or Friday the 13th, the survivors aren’t running away form one killer, but multiple killers.

Let’s start with the exterior stuff before we really dig into the gameplay. First, the graphical settings. This is what they have available on PC. Everything is pretty standard here and the game looks pretty good. If you care about rig specs, I’m playing on an RTX 3070 with a Ryzen 7 5800x. The game itself runs very well at a stable 60 frames per second for me on high settings and I haven’t noticed any real hitches as I run around. There also hasn’t been any noticeable screen tearing.


The audio is also very good in this game. Noise is a big part of how a family member can find a survivor, either by lifting things too quickly or making too much noise when searching, so that audio needs to come across to the player. I feel like it does that well in this game. As a victim, hearing the footsteps of the family above you or the revving of Leatherface’s chainsaw in the next room really set the mood. This also works for the screams that’ll randomly emanate from the hallways and depths of the basement. Gates creek, chickens bawk and bone traps will rattle as you walk past them. Everything, audio wise, makes sense for the package that Gun Interactive is giving you.


One thing I really like about this game is that everyone, whether you’re a family member or a survivor, has a skill tree and it isn’t a linear one. You can build your survivor/family member the way you want and can re-spec those trees at any point to try out different builds. In conjunction with those skill trees are abilities. These abilities basically add different modifiers to your character that will allow them to interact with the environment differently. A loadout system was added so you don’t have to go through a process of trying to change your character's abilities during the selection screen.


One thing I really like about this game is that everyone, whether you’re a family member or a survivor, has a skill tree and it isn’t a linear one.

This system works really well because it adds variety to the game. You don’t know what type of Leatherface or Ana or whomever you’re running into. They’ll all be tuned differently which gives the game a fresh feeling. It was a great decision from Gun to include this.

The gameplay is where this game shines. Let’s break it down the two sides.


Survivors


Your objective is to get out of the compound. You’ll start in the basement on a large hook and after wiggling yourself off of it, need to do some searching. Searching through boxes and bone piles will give you things like lock picks and bone scraps. The lock picks are pretty obvious while bone scraps can be used to create weapons which can slow down your attacker.


Once you leave the basement, it’ll be your job to figure out where the exits are and how you access them. There are multiple exits in each map. These could be figuring out how to open gates, turn off electricity, etc.


Earlier, I mentioned audio being a huge part of this game and that’s because the traps are designed to alert the family members where you are. Chickens will go off in their cages if you move quickly past them. Searching too hard will make noise. Opening doors and lifting hatches make noise. Everything makes noise and your killers will see that on their end.


Family


Your objective is to kill the survivors.


To do this, you’re going to want to feed Grandpa blood. Yes, you heard me correctly, you will want to feed your grandfather some blood. Doing this will raise grandpa’s meter which will give the family members passive abilities. Blood pits can be found around the map and, I believe, refill after a certain amount of time.


You will want to be keenly aware of where the noise cues are coming from because that is where your survivors are. You’ll see large red circles on the map showing you the location of the noise.


Here at Three Dads and a Console, we don’t rate games because ratings don’t mean anything. We try to answer two questions:


  1. Can you play this with your child

  2. Can your child watch you play

I would advise not doing either of those. It’s quite gory, quite violent and the jump scares are legit. I would say teen and above is fine, but anything under that and you’re running the risk of having to deal with 2am nightmares!


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