The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – Everything You Need to Know

Given the success that the horror genre has enjoyed in the games industry in recent years, it’s no surprise that the list of developers and publishers look to grab a piece of that pie is continuing to expand. And while the majority of them do tend to go with single player experiences, there are also quite a few who, encouraged by the success of Dead by Daylight, have tried their hand at multiplayer experiences. Gun Interactive has had some experience with that in the past with Friday the 13th: The Game, and though that did not exactly go the way it would have hoped, the publisher will be hoping that its upcoming Sumo Digital-developed multiplayer horror game The Texas Chain Saw Massacre will fare much better. Due out on August 18, the game is not far away from launch now, and ahead of its release, here, we’re going to talk about a few key details that you should know about it.

STORY AND SETUP

As a multiplayer-centric experience, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is obviously not going to be too bothered with the narrative side of things, but what exactly is its basic story premise? The game will feature a number of killer characters as well as many of their victims, with Ana Flores being one of a handful in the latter group. The central premise revolves around the victim characters searching for Maria Flores, Ana’s missing sister.

GAMEPLAY PREMISE

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is promising an assymetrical multiplayer experience, something that Dead by Daylight fans will be more than familiar with, and there’s plenty of other familiar stuff that’ll go hand-in-had with that core premise. Victim characters will be tasked with sneaking their way through maps, avoiding traps, and ultimately escaping alive, while killer characters will conversely have to ensure that they can find and kill all the victims before they can escape. Interestingly, however, one thing that does promise to set the game apart from its competition (at least on paper) is that it’s going to be a 4v3 game, with three killers working together to hunt down the victims, rather than the 4v1 affair Dead by Daylight players will be used to. Killer characters will also be tasked with collecting blood for an all-seeing NPC character named Grandpa, who will continuously become more useful to you as you bring him more blood. Blood can not only be found scattered across the map, but will also be gained through interactions with victims.

KILLER CHARACTERS

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre will let players play as one of a handful of killer characters, all members of the Slaughter Family. At launch, the game will feature five options in this area. Three of these will be plenty familiar to fans of the property (or even the genre), those being Leatherface, the Cook, and the Hitchhiker, with Kane Hodder and Edwin Neal reprising their roles as Leatherface and the Hitchhiker respectively. In addition, the game will also feature two Family characters who will be completely new introductions for the franchise.

VICTIM CHARACTERS

On the other hand, the victim characters that players will be playing as in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre will all be completely new characters created just for the game. The five options available to players will be Ana, Leland, Sonny, Connie, and Julie. As you’d expect, not only will all five have their own unique personalities and backstories, they will also offer different things when it comes to gameplay.

FAMILY ABILITIES

Coming to the actual moment-to-moment gameplay aspects, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre will, of course, offering varying abilities and other attributes depending on who you’re playing as. For instance, each killer in the Family will have a unique ability. The Cook’s Seek ability will allow you to focus your hearing to listen for particularly noise victim characters and pinpoint their location; the Hitchhiker’s Trap ability will let you place traps made of bones anywhere on the map, alerting you as soon as someone steps into one; Leatherface’s Maim ability will let you whip out your chainsaw and use it however you wish; Johnny’s Hunt ability will allow you to see and track fresh footprints made by victims; and finally, Sissy’s Bane ability will let you craft poisons that can not only be used against victims, but can also contaminate various items and objects scattered throughout the map.

FAMILY ATTRIBUTES

In addition to abilities, each Family member will also have their own unique Attributes that will change the gameplay experience in a variety of ways. Attributes will fall in one of three categories- Endurance, which covers stamina drain and recharge rate; Savagery, which will determine how much damage you do with your melee attacks; and Harvesting, which determines how much blood you collect for Grandpa from victim interactions. Players will be able to tailor their play style how they see fit by gaining Attribute Points and using them in a persistent skill tree to upgrade whichever of the three categories they wish. In addition to Attributes, skill trees will also cover a number of perks.

FAMILY CHARACTERISTICS

Finally, all Family characters will also have unique characteristics that, in addition to abilities and attributes, will further change up your experience depending on which killer you’re playing as. The Cook will be able to close crawl spaces and add additional locks to doors; Leatherface will be able to destroy crawl spaces, barricades, and doors using his chainsaw; the Hitchhiker is a fast-moving character and, in addition to having high Endurance, can easily slip through gaps and crawl spaces; Sissy can do that as well, and can also utilize hiding spots to get the jump on victims; while Johnny can instantly barge doors and close crawl spaces.

VICTIM ABILITIES

Similar to Family characters, victims will all also have their own unique abilities and attributes. Where abilities are concerned, each character will offer different advantages. Connie can use her Focused ability to quickly pick locks without using a lock pick tool, at the cost of stamina and close proximity warnings for killers; Julie can activate her Ultimate Escape ability to prevent killers from tracking her while she sprints with reduced stamina drain for a short window; Ana’s Pain is Nothing ability significantly reduces any damage taken from attacks and falls; Sonny’s Heightened Sense ability can be activated to detect nearby sounds, track movements, and pinpoint locations; and finally, Leland’s Life Saver ability can be used to bump charge a Family member to temporarily stun them.

VICTIM ATTRIBUTES

Victims will have a wider range of attributes than Family characters will, with five categories in total. These will include Stealth, which, as the name suggests, will cover your ability to do things without making too much noise; Strength, which will cover stun durations for sneak attacks and close-quarter grapples; Toughness, which will determine how much damage you can take before being incapacitated and what your recovery time will be; Proficiency, which will determine how effective you are at completing skilled tasks, such as lockpicking; and Endurance, which will cover your stamina and stamina regeneration. Like with Family characters, you’ll also be able to upgrade victims’ Attributes by investing points in the skill tree.

CROSS-PLAY

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre will feature support for cross-play and cross-platform progression, but being a cross-gen game, that will come with some caveats. While full cross-progress is supported across PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, that will not be the case for those playing on PS4 or Xbox One.

GAME PASS

Publisher Gun Interactive has also announced that when The Texas Chain Saw Massacre launches on August 18 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, it will also be available via Game Pass on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.