Texas Chain Saw Massacre team wants to create a ‘new take’ on asymmetrical horror

If you were wondering if The Texas Chain Saw Massacre multiplayer game was going to be a lot like Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th, then, of course it is. Instead of copying elements from Resident Evil 7 and making a game about hiding in a creepy farmhouse from a deranged family, you get to get murdered by players of higher skill than you. It’s certainly asymmetrical horror, but The Texas Chain Saw Massacre isn’t going to be exactly what you think. The team makeup is quite a bit different than what other similar games offer. Namely, you won’t be playing as a sole killer hunting a small group of unlucky survivors.

Instead of doing things the newish old-fashioned way, players will be put on two teams: one with three killers and the other with their four victims. The killer team will be comprised of Leatherface, The Hitch-hiker, and The Cook, while the survivor team will be comprised of four jabronis that are likely squishy and easy to cut up. Since it’s team based on both sides, the killers will have unique team mechanics that the survivors don’t have access to and vice versa. And I’m sure that thing where Leatherface goofily shakes his chainsaw over his head will be an emote or something.

“We never want to make the same game twice,” said Wes Keltner, the CEO and president of developer Gun Interactive. “You either innovate or imitate, and I don’t have to tell you which one makes for a better game. Everyone at Gun prefers to innovate and push the genre forward. How do you do this? Well, when it came to the design of Texas we knew that 3vs4 was different. All the mechanics and features are built around this fundamental rethinking of asymmetrical multiplayer. Additionally when you look at the ‘74 film, you’ll note there’s an entire family to deal with, not just Leatherface. So it felt natural to have three killers chasing victims.”

Get cut up in a different movie

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre game is being released by the same publisher as Friday the 13th, so we know the series is in the hands of people who know asymmetrical horror. I wonder if Gun Interactive is building some kind of horror game universe out of beloved properties. What’s next? Halloween? Actually, I shouldn’t even say that. I don’t want to give anyone any ideas. No, wait, I actually do. Make a new game based on The Thing. It could also play well with the crowd that won’t stop describing things as “sus” all the damn time.