Reviews
‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ Video Game Review – Asymmetrical Horror Evolves to Fit a Terror Classic
Gun Interactive’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a celebration of its namesake’s franchise in more ways than one. For starters, eagle eyed fans will have noticed that its upcoming release date, August 18th, is the 50th anniversary of the events that take place in its inaugural film. You don’t need me to tell you the extent of Texas’ impact on the slasher genre and horror as a whole since then–its slew of sequels, the prominence of Leatherface, the entire population of chainsaw wielding scare actors in haunted attractions–speaks for itself. With that being said, Gun had big shoes to fill. But play one match of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and it’s plain to see: Gun was up to the task of doing the franchise justice in a fresh, unique way.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is Gun’s second asymmetrical horror title based on popular horror IP, after Friday the 13th: The Game, which was not only a hit, but one of the earlier games to capitalize on the trend of asymmetrical horror. For those unfamiliar, asymmetrical horror is a gameplay format that pits two teams up against each other, usually in some type of “victim” against “killer” format. While there’s been experimentation with the genre more recently, the typical dichotomy is that there’s one team that needs to utilize scarce resources to try and escape a match, while the other team tries to hunt them down (through deadly measures) and stop them from escaping.
Rather than just neatly fitting into the typical format of asymmetrical horror, Texas shakes it up dramatically – each match is comprised of seven players, with four taking on the role of “victims” and three taking on the role of the “family.” The cast is made up of both new and familiar faces: the fresh group of victims are a rag-tag group of young adults led by Ana Flores in search of her missing sister, Maria. The family, in addition to a couple new siblings, is where you’ll find familiar characters like The Cook, The Hitchhiker, and of course, Leatherface. The entire roster is equipped with unique stats and abilities, offering players the ability to reconfigure and find their favorite flavor of gameplay.
As I jumped into my initial matches, experimenting with both the victim team and the family team, it immediately became apparent to me not only how faithful that Gun had been to the source material, but how seamless the material seemed to matriculate into an asymmetrical horror setting. For the victims, there’s a clear progression that needs to be undertaken each match: you start out locked up in the basement, you need to find your way upstairs without being slaughtered by the lurking Leatherface, and then there’s a handful of escape options available to you. But that path always seems to be different every match: sometimes, I was able to make it out of the basement in less than a minute, and other times, I was relentlessly chased and mangled by Leatherface before barely making it out alive.
Similarly, on the Family side, the character you select will vastly dictate what your objectives are. If you’re Leatherface (who, naturally, is a required character for each match), expect to take on the role of the chaser, the one who keeps everyone on the map scrambling with the rev of your chainsaw, and typically the executioner. But if you choose someone like the new character, Sissy, you have the ability to maneuver the map in quieter, tactful ways, and even lay down traps as a saboteur that disrupts key objectives from being completed.
The myriad of gameplay options offered by both teams keeps the gameplay fresh, and it’s further augmented by an intricate skill tree and progression system that I viscerally found akin to, of all games, that of Final Fantasy X. Additional skills, stat boosters, and level ups are achieved via experience gained from each match, and you select each from different branching progression paths on a large skill tree. Sometimes you need to be strategic, as selecting one branch of perks will lock you out from any other branches. Perks can be both active and passive – for example, on the victims side, certain perks will highlight escape routes for a duration of time if you find key items, whereas others will allow you to stun members of the Family.
The skill tree and level up system really stoked my excitement for the game as a hardcore asymmetrical horror player: I’m excited to seek out the best perks and refine my style of gameplay. I wasn’t surprised to see that fellow Victims were clamoring to play as Connie, who has a perk that allows her to instantly unlock doors once every couple minutes. I’m already anticipating that players will identify the best characters/perks, the devs will become privy to that, and then implement updates down the line that will refine the system.
On that note, however, I do get the impression that Texas may be more inclined towards hardcore players than casual players. For both teams, there definitely appears to be a learning curve to fully take advantage of what each match has to offer. If you’re playing as a victim against even slightly experienced team of family members, it’s not surprising that you find yourself in corpse mode in less than 5 minutes. And on the flip side, adept victims against a family that’s still trying to find its footing can end up running through the escape gates in 2-3 minutes. For the casual player not very accustomed to asymmetrical horror, it may not be the most forgiving game to get a handle on the genre.
Naturally, with any asymmetrical horror game, Texas will surely need some balance updates in the future. At the moment, I’d say matches seem a bit in favor of the Family. As a victim, even during my most calculated and stealthy moments, if I found myself ganged up on for even just a second, it was typically a wrap for me without much option for escape.
In spite of that, the chases are intense and genuinely frightening. With other asymmetrical horror games, the thrill of the chase becomes a bit diminished over time, but with Texas’ close gritty and dark corners and countless escape options, I find myself always trying to balance strategic and visceral decisions. It’s not as simple as running in circles – you need to crawl, shimmy, sometimes gambit making loud noises that give away your position in exchange for a quick getaway, and all of it feels not only like a success of asymmetrical horror, but an homage to the feeling I get when I watch a Texas film. I can’t say that I’m surprised either – Gun has proven in the past that it has a pulse on how to evolve this niche genre in ways that other games can’t while doing justice to its source material. If you’re interested in the future of asymmetrical horror, picking The Texas Chain Saw Massacre up is a necessity.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre will be available on most modern systems, and include cross-play on day one, on August 18th, 2023.
Movies
‘Recluse’ Review – Harrowing Haunted House Horror With Lots Of Skeletons In Its Closet [Tribeca 2026]
A haunted house story is tense, terrifying storytelling when it’s properly executed. There’s been a growing tendency in horror to blend together harrowing haunted house stories with traumatic homecomings. A family member’s illness or death triggers a return to something dark that was intentionally left behind. Recluse hits all the tropes that one expects to find in this type of horror film, yet it manages to push this story in a daring, disturbing new direction that uses sound as a superpower.
It’s a unique lens to experience a familiar story about family secrets, generational trauma, unresolved grief, and the importance of not just legacy, but preservation. It’s a hell of a directorial debut from Henry Chaisson that’s guaranteed to get under the audience’s skin as they’re dragged through this painful, toxic tale.
Recluse is a gothic haunted house story where an isolated audio engineer, Joan (Sasha Frolova), returns to her family’s estate to check in on her father after he suffers a terrible accident. Joan suddenly discovers something much more sinister that paints her family’s tragedies in a very different light. Chaisson’s debut functions as a fascinating companion piece to this year’s undertone, which does a lot of the same things.
These two films make for a fascinating case of parallel thinking that tackles comparable subject matter through a similar lens, albeit in a bigger, less claustrophobic story in Recluse’s case. In fact, it’s the perfect horror film for anyone who was let down by undertone and didn’t feel like it brought enough to the table. It’s a considerably more conventional horror film, but this isn’t meant to denigrate its high quality. Recluse may hit some familiar notes, but it’s a scary, well-crafted haunted house horror story that goes for the jugular.
A gripping mystery that involves the tragic, unresolved circumstances that surround Joan’s mother teases a chilling connection to the recent horrors that have afflicted her father. Joan desperately tries to put these pieces together and give her family some sense of grander peace before she’s pulled under and becomes another victim of this festering curse that’s systematically worked its way through the Wyatt family. By doing so, Recluse digs into some deeper commentary on collective trauma, a very literal look at the “sins of the father” adage, and how one selfish decision can ripple through generations and fracture off into different dilemmas. By the end, Recluse has brilliantly flipped the powerful concept of legacy on its head by illustrating the horrors and sense of entitlement that can be born out of this idea.
A legacy is just another name for a curse under the right context.
”Listen” is a simple but powerful command from Joan’s father that she briefly obsesses over. In a way, it becomes Recluse’s grander mission statement, whether it’s in response to Joan listening to the people in her life, the signals that her body and mind are telling her, or the world’s greater whims. It’s important to reconnect with these grounding pillars, especially when it feels like control is slipping away.
Recluse excels with how audio and soundscapes can create entire universes that are full of rich details that transport individuals to these environments. There’s also a level of objectivity when it comes to audio recordings and the evergreen permanence that they’re able to provide. Joan’s career as an audio engineer makes sense for someone who wants to cling to hard evidence and proof of existence. It provides great insight into Joan without ever getting lost in contrived exposition.
Joan’s entire life is built around audio engineering, and so it makes sense that Recluse features excellent sound design that really goes above and beyond with its production elements. All of the sound design is expertly handled and turns the film into something special. These auditory elements intuitively keep the audience on edge so that they’re more susceptible to the actual scares that eventually strike. The smallest sound effect gets turned into a crushing, cacophonous assault. It’s a really effective way to build terror. Writer/Director Chaisson also handles the film’s music, which achieves a sublime, unnerving dissonance that further heightens the free-floating anxiety.
The story at the center of Recluse is slightly generic in some respects, but the film’s visual language and tone make it feel distinctly memorable. It also doesn’t hurt that the home that Joan returns to is basically an eerie art studio that’s full of contorted paintings. Recluse never struggles to generate mounting dread and terror that pump through every scene. Powerful, thoughtful cinematography consistently reinforces the film’s themes. Joan is constantly reflected in different surfaces or viewed through mirrors. She’s also often confined to tight, constricting framing that all speaks to her refracted identity during this moment of loss and her attempts to regain agency and control by making sense of something that’s seemingly unexplainable.
Recluse is full of truly disturbing visuals that make it seem like Joan is lost in a dream that turns out to be an extended nightmare. It’s a surreal journey reminiscent of invasive psychological horror like Silent Hill, with a touch of Sinister and Hereditary thrown in for good measure. There are so many individual frames that could endlessly fuel urban legends and creepypastas.
It does a great job with how it presents Joan’s fragile state of mind, where chilling flashes of the past sneak up on her and unresolved trauma manifests into unsettling imagery. There are endless shots that are obscured in darkness, or shadow is creeping in from the corners of frames like a suffocating force of nature. It’s very rare that a scene is fully lit. It leads to a very lonely, isolating atmosphere that’s easy to get lost in.
Chaisson’s debut stands out from the many other high-minded haunted house horror films without succumbing to the same pretensions that often drag down these stories. It’s a grief-stricken character study that’s full of upsetting visuals that scratch at something visceral and raw. The horror elements connect, and the answers to its grander mystery provide an appropriate and believable sense of closure. Those who are looking for an atmospheric horror film that isn’t afraid to be different while still channeling something real will appreciate Recluse.
Recluse made its world premiere at Tribeca; release info TBD.
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