![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/body_default\/public\/2022\/09\/21\/787ea20f\/img_0283.jpg\")
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\n Platform:<\/b>
\n PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X\/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
\n
\n Publisher:<\/b>
\n Gun Interactive
\n
\n Developer:<\/b>
\n Sumo Digital
\n
\n Release:<\/b>
\n \t2023
\n \n <\/p>\n
When Gun Interactive revealed The Texas Chain Saw Massacre last year, I was underwhelmed by its short teaser but excited about its potential. It\u2019s one of my favorite horror movie franchises, partly because of how much it still scares me \u2013 every good haunted house has a Leatherface at the end that chases you out to the exit, right? \u2013 but also because of its backdrop: Texas. Horror, be it movies or games, typically draws attention to dreary atmospheres, spooky ambiance, perhaps some bad weather, and nighttime. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre bucked that trend in the 1970s. After going hands-on with Gun Interactive\u2019s upcoming asymmetrical 3v4 multiplayer game with the same name, I\u2019m most impressed by how much the otherwise serene Texan farm works as a playground for escape attempts and murder.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gun Interactive, formerly Gun Media, is perhaps best known for Friday the 13th: The Game, which it published for developer Illfonic. I loved Friday the 13th; it became the nightly hangout game for my friends and me. It\u2019s home to some of my favorite gaming memories, like turning on a Tiny Tim song so campers would hear it through proximity chat as my Jason went in for the kill. However, some intellectual property rights issues held that game back from reaching its full potential, effectively ending its development save for regular maintenance. The rights holder of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre were big fans of Friday the 13th: The Game and were aware of the issues it encountered because they approached Gun Interactive with this game idea and the desire to let the studio lead the charge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey contacted us, which was a very humbling experience,\u201d Gun CEO Wes Keltner tells me. \u201cWe were still with Friday the 13th, and I received an email from the rights holders of [The Texas Chain Saw Massacre], and they had played that game and loved it and loved our approach. They loved that it was sort of a white glove treatment to Friday the 13th, and they thought, \u2018These are the guys. These are the ones we trust that we want to bring our game to market.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Keltner tells me that he speaks with the rights holders of this franchise daily and that they\u2019ve been easy to work with in development. He says rights holders sometimes get a bad rap, but that\u2019s not the case here. They\u2019ve been open to ideas, progressive in pursuing them, and open to letting the team play with this world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNinety-nine percent of the time, it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh my gosh, that\u2019s a great idea, let\u2019s go do it,\u2019 so that\u2019s been really, really cool to work with,\u201d Keltner says, teasing that there might even be some kind of relationship between this game and past and future movies, stopping short of telling me anything more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/body_default\/public\/2022\/09\/21\/cbc6a51d\/img_0285.jpg\")
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Keltner says the team met with them and decided the game should hone in on the original 1974 film. It was always going to be an asymmetrical game from the jump \u2013 that\u2019s what the team does best, after all \u2013 but in what way and to what extent they could play with the franchise was a question. The team eventually landed on a 3v4 format that tasked four victims with escaping the house of horrors that is this Texan farm and three murderers, one being Leatherface, with killing them before that happens.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a unique setup in the already niche realm of asymmetrical horrors currently dominated by the likes of Dead by Daylight, but playing it felt great in a familiar way. Each victim has a unique ability, and Gun designer Robert Fox II\u00a0says that players can customize each with cosmetics and things that directly affect how they play. This includes unlockable skills, perks, and more. He and Keltner say that players will be able to figure out different builds that work best for them, and this, coupled with the game\u2019s customization options and unique 3v4 dynamic, is what they\u2019re hoping keeps players around for 1,000 hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In my hour with the game, I played as Connie, who has a rechargeable ability to break through locked doors, which allows her to bypass the simple but effective door unlock minigame. Smashing through a locked door was incredibly useful, especially when Leatherface, the Cook killer, or the Hitchhiker murderer were in tow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
When the match began, all four victims were in the basement. Leatherface was too, which I loved because it meant that the round immediately started with chaos. You can\u2019t mosey around, deciding how best to escape with your team. There\u2019s likely a chainsaw roaring in your ears, and you need to get out of the basement as soon as possible. Connie\u2019s ability to quickly bust through locked doors made doing that easy, but the house\u2019s first and second floors presented their own set of challenges. That\u2019s where the grandfather NPC resides, and the three playable killers can feed him blood to improve his ability to see and hear where victims might be in the house. It\u2019s also where the Cook and Hitchhiker prowl.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t get to play with the Cook, but I did go hands-on with the Hitchhiker. This lanky character slashes at victims with a small knife, and killing them takes significantly longer than Leatherface and his chainsaw. Killing is only half of his kit, though. He can place bone traps around the map, which alert everyone in the house when stepped on by a victim. Hearing and seeing a victim step on my trap brought an exciting adrenaline rush to my fellow killers and me as we all rushed to its location, hoping to find a victim to kill.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the third match I participated in, I controlled the show\u2019s star, Leatherface. He\u2019s a massive, bouldering figure that\u2019s loud and the exact opposite of agile. That\u2019s okay, though, because where victims can crawl through cracks in a wall or tight gaps, Leatherface can cut right through specific barriers. I liked that I couldn\u2019t spam the chainsaw; it\u2019s loud, and every victim will know where you are when it\u2019s on. Plus, turning it on requires you to play a quick and easy minigame. It was fun using this crank and subsequent chainsaw roar to let victims know I was onto them, and pressing the left trigger to throttle it for a louder effect had me laughing out loud maniacally to myself. The most satisfying part of this character, though, was the kills. His chainsaw takes victims out quickly, with plenty of blood spurting from my weapon\u2019s incision point.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All these killings and escapes happened to the backdrop of a gorgeous Texas sunset on a lusciously green farm filled with sunflowers, old barns and sheds, overgrown grass, and a terrifyingly macabre house. Fans of the original 1974 film will recognize how much love and detail was put into the home, complete with hanging bodies, buckets of blood, knick-knacks, and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/body_default\/public\/2022\/09\/21\/6d25f0ae\/img_0273.jpg\")
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\u201cIf you watch that film, the majority of it [is] bright, sunshine-y, happy, beautiful vistas, right?\u201d Keltner says. \u201c[That] allowed us to kind of play around more with beauty and find that balance between the macabre and certain things that were serene. There are moments where that, yeah, you\u2019re running for your life, but you may stop by like, \u2018Dang, it\u2019s beautiful here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
And he\u2019s right! The game looks great. It\u2019s a big step up from Friday the 13th\u2019s visuals, but The Texas Chain Saw Massacre still retains some of the jank that fans of the former, if they\u2019re anything like me, came to love about the game. It\u2019s not a massive triple-A game, but the team has crafted it lovingly. And it\u2019s also not quite out yet. I could tell what I played was a preview build. I hope the team can massage the game more to make movement feel smoother, gore more realistic, and animations more fluid.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m excited to see what the team is able to polish more between now and its 2023 release, and I can\u2019t wait to learn more about skins, how Gun will incorporate other Texas Chain Saw Massacre movies into the game, the other maps, and more. If what I\u2019ve seen so far is any indication, though, I think my friends and I will have a new hangout game next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n Purchase<\/a>\n <\/p>\n\n …<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1789,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Preview - Everything\u2019s Bloodier In Texas - ITTeacherITFreelance.hk","description":"..."},"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316779"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1789"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316783,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316779\/revisions\/316783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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