Summary
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a new multiplayer asymmetrical survival horror game that pays homage to the classic 1974 film, capitalizing on the success of similar games like Dead by Daylight.
- Publisher Gun Interactive has previous experience in the asymmetric horror genre with its game Friday the 13th, which unfortunately faced legal issues and will be delisted at the end of 2023.
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre differentiates itself from Dead by Daylight by staying true to the source material, allowing players to experience the brutal violence of the film while also offering engaging gameplay mechanics and objectives for both killers and victims. The game's dedicated support and licensing provide promising prospects for its success and potential impact on the slasher franchise.
Set to release just next month, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a new entry in the online asymmetric competitive survival horror genre. A faithful adaptation of the original trailblazing 1974 film of the same name, this uniquely visceral experience has a lot of reverence for its source material. The genre may be relatively recent and niche, but the massive success of Dead by Daylight since its release in 2016 proves that now may be the perfect time for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to strike.
It is a bold move to experiment in such a volatile pocket of the industry that has seen titles like Video Horror Society come and go with little fanfare, but this isn’t publisher Gun Interactive’s first outing. Launching back in 2017, Friday the 13th: The Game was similarly supported as a contender in the asymmetric horror space. Between legal battles and competition from Dead by Daylight, the troubled Friday the 13th would unfortunately end up being canned leading up to its upcoming delisting at the end of 2023.
Friday the 13th: The Game Stayed Closer to the Source Material than Dead by Daylight
Dead by Daylight may have come to offer an array of classic licensed horror characters over the course of its lifetime, but there hasn’t been another experience dedicated to one IP in the vein of Friday the 13th: The Game until now. Dead by Daylight's Trapper killer is actually inspired by Jason Voorhees himself, and the game’s avoidance of the official license makes a lot of sense in retrospect. With legal disputes between creators of the original Friday the 13th film (which didn’t even feature Jason as the killer), it’s no wonder the series’ game adaptation has seen a similar fate to the movie franchise at large.
Friday the 13th: The Game may have had many similarities to Dead by Daylight’s formula, but the inherently licensed title was able to stay truer to its inspiration. Nine playable Jason Voorheeses represented all of his major appearances throughout the franchise, all offering unique ways of hunting down and taking out the counselors as they scramble to escape Camp Crystal Lake. The asymmetric multiplayer genre has a baked-in problem in the form of its intentional imbalance, and Dead by Daylight has had to work around this to thrive, while Texas Chain Saw seems to effectively lean into it.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre's Official Support is Highly Promising
While Jason could straight up murder opponents, Dead by Daylight’s killers are usually forced to hang survivors on mystical meat hooks for a period of time, in line with the contrivances of the game’s scenario. Magical power generators and escape hatches similarly help give survivors objectives under The Entity’s control, but the raw experience of Texas Chain Saw has bucked all of this in favor of staying true to the film. Leatherface and his family alike can all kill victims in a brutally faithful and familiar showing of the movie’s violence thanks to the support from the series’ IP holders. Victims, on the other hand, find engaging gameplay through the most simple and intense objective available: escaping the dilapidated Slaughter family house through one of four means.
Texas Chain Saw’s core formula already has potential to take its niche genre to the next level, and its license’s lack of legal disputes coupled with developer Sumo Digital’s clear dedication to the title paints a promising picture. Featuring crossplay for the 9th generation edition and even a dedicated companion soundtrack album based on carefully constructed background lore, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has the potential to bring both itself and the broader slasher franchise it adapts into the spotlight. With new, original Slaughter family members already carefully crafted for the title, the latest in asymmetric horror could bring variety to the genre for years to come.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre releases August 18, 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.