Asymmetrical multiplayer games are titles I have always thought I’d deeply despise, but ended up captivating me with some unique premises over the years. The thing that has always made me wonder if the genre would be indeed fun to experience was how well the developers would balance roles out; we all want to play as the Predator, but they needed to ensure that playing as the stranded marines would be equally enjoyed, or else we’d just get an unbalanced game like Dead By Daylight. The game adaptation of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, published by the same folks behind the Friday the 13th game, is a title I ended up moderately liking at first, but waited for some extra content to drop before giving an actual final verdict. And yes, this one is still a pretty good time, despite what the premise might have suggested otherwise.

Of course, playing as Leatherface is The Texas Chain Saw Massacre at its best. Playing as the victims is still fun, but it’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre at its weakest.

The simple fact it’s not just Leatherface against four helpless imbeciles already puts The Texas Chain Saw Massacre above most of its peers. It’s a 3 vs. 4 game, with three members of the cannibal family against four victims who need to escape the premises of the Slaughter homestead. Of course, playing as the cannibals is the highlight of the game: not only is Leatherface an enjoyable tank of a character, but other cannibals such as the Hitchhiker or the Cook have their own neat abilities which help them track and hunt down the victims.

Those victims do not have offensive capabilities (well, aside from one of them who owns a stun gun), unlike the Predator game, but also have their own skills to help them escape from restraints, and then from the map itself. They aren’t as fun to play as the cannibals, granted, but that’s to be expected. The sole fact I wasn’t 100% bored while being a victim is already a feat, to be honest.

Enjoy, it’s just Southern hospitality for y’all.

What impressed me right from the getgo was how polished The Texas Chain Saw Massacre looked and felt, and that was already back in August, when I first tackled it. The main issue with Gun Interactive’s Friday the 13th game was how cheap and janky it looked, not to mention its connection errors. Ever since its release, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has managed to sustain a sizeable player base (being a Gamepass title sure helps), whilst being mostly glitch-free, with decent graphics and sound queues and tracks taken straight from the original movie. Even if it doesn’t stand out graphically, it gets the job done.

Shove down some blood down the old man’s throat and he’ll occasionally highlight where your victims are. Logic not needed.

I wouldn’t consider The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to be the best asymmetrical multiplayer game I have ever played, but the sheer fact it has managed to carve a somewhat entertaining gameplay loop, whilst maintaining a steady playerbase for nearly a third of a year, is already very impressive. Playing as the cannibals is obviously more fun than being a victim, and the progression system is a bit unnecessary, but it could have been a lot worse. As far as multiplayer horror titles go, this is no Predator, but it certainly is much more entertaining than Dead by Daylight or the latest Ghostbusters multiplayer outing.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X and PC

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was provided by the publisher.