Asymmetrical horror games have been gaining popularity in the gaming community, and for good reason. Developers Sumo Nottingham and publisher GUN Interactive wanted to bring to life an asymmetrical horror with the killers you know as the Sawyer Family, or how you may know better, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Let’s see how this game stacks up!

Gameplay

Asymmetrical horror games generally all have the same goal. Killers need to kill all of the survivors and the survivors need to, well survive. There’s no discrepancies here, same goal on both sides with a few additives. The main difference with this game is that there are three killers and four survivors compared to other games where its one killer versus all the survivors. I thought this would take some balancing but from release they do a pretty good job at giving the survivors a fair chance without making it impossible for the killers.

Playing as the family you get the option to play as one of five killers. Bubba or Leatherface, is the big brute that has high endurance and can deal heavy damage. The Cook is best for harvesting blood to feed grandpa (we’ll come back to this). The Hitchhiker can set traps to catch the victims off guard and get that last kill before they escape. Johnny can tap into his instincts as a predator and track footprints and Sissy can craft a poison powder to contaminate the air around survivors.

All the killers throughout the match, whether it be from buckets or slashing victims, will gather blood so that they can feed grandpa. The more you feed grandpa the higher level he will be. Grandpa will release a scream every so often in the game and if a survivor is moving during the scream their location will be shown to all killers. The benefit to feeding him to a higher level is that he will do this more often disrupting the victims chance at survival.

As a victim you have one goal, get the heck out of there. You have multiple options for getting out but first things first, you have to find your way out of the basement. Bubba will start in the basement with you so you will need to stay quiet as you gather supplies and look for an unlock tool to get out of there. After escaping the basement you can get out one of three ways. The road exit, first you’ll have to turn off a generator that powers an electrical cattle grid along the gate, after turning that off you’re free to walk straight off the property! The same goes for the rear gate exit except it’s a car battery you’re looking to disconnect. Then there’s the valve exit, a little more luck based, first you need to find the valve handle which is located at a random location on the map. Then attach the valve handle to the pressure valve pipe and this will open the pressure gate for a short period of time. Then the fuse box exit where you can find a fuse and place it in a fuse box to escape through the basement.

Same as the killers, the victims also have unique abilities. Leland for example has a stun ability where he can either throw the killer off balance or even straight up knock some of them to the floor. Connie can pick locks without an unlock tool at the cost of some extra stamina. Ana is extra resilient so she can take some extra damage. Sonny can really hone in on the sounds around him and he can sense when a killer is nearby. Then Julie has some natural athleticism that allows her to have a final escape where she makes a quick dash that killers can not track.

Audio and Visual

I’ll be the first to admit the graphics aren’t perfect, but they’re better than some other asymmetrical horror games, at least in my experience. But the character models are done well if you compare them to their movie counterparts. The design of the family specifically is instantly recognizable.

Where this game shines is in the sound capture. I know early on in development they released a video of the behind the scenes where they showed the sound capture for the game. The practical use of a chainsaw is exactly what this game needed. Being locked in the basement with Bubba and hearing the chainsaw rev is actually a horrifying experience. The sound alone for this game makes playing a victim feel scary, it gives you a sense of fear and dread that most other asymmetrical horror games lack in.

Replayability

It’s online multiplayer only, play until you’re bored! Meaning that you can pick this game up and put it down and pick it back up again months later. The replayability is endless, it’s really up to you what you get out of it. If they keep up with adding new content and don’t just let it fizzle out, I could see myself playing this game pretty often.

What It Could Have Done Better

No real complaints for what it could have done, but for what it can do! I will say that if the game doesn’t get extra content that it will get boring fast, which is the biggest problem with the genre. Now I do think this game is unique enough that it doesn’t need monthly content additions or even quarterly. Maybe one or two additions a year would keep this game at least semi-relevant. But it does need new killers, victims, and maps as it goes on or it will quickly flatline.

Verdict

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a well done and refreshing asymmetrical horror game. With some very impressive sound work making playing a victim truly scary, I am happy with it. Being the huge horror fan I like to call myself, I love to be scared. So being chased by Leatherface and actually getting my heart racing during the chase is a big win in my book. Where in other asymmetrical games when the killer finds me, I feel no real sense of urgency. This game is well made and feels like the best that they could have done with this extremely iconic franchise. I would say if you like horror then this game is a must have.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is available now for PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S, along with Game Pass for PC and Xbox.