The Texas Chain Saw Massacre game is a violent love letter to the classic movie

Texas Chain Saw MassacreThis horror film tells of a group of cannibals that hunt unlucky people who come near them. In the original film, there’s only one survivor, who escapes by a hair. In the upcoming video game adaptation, it’s possible for every victim to triumph and escape together… or they might all die a horrible, grisly death at the hands of the Sawyer family. Polygon was invited for a preview. Texas Chain Saw Massacre were we able to experience both ends of the game.

Sumo Digital developed the site and Gun Interactive published it. Texas Chain Saw MassacreIt is an asymmetrical game of horror where four people take on the Victims role and three others oppose them as Family. It takes place in the famous house featured in the movie, full of bloody bodies, bones, and meat hooks. They have one goal. To survive, they must escape. Their Family must prevent them from escaping by all means.

The match begins with Victims freeing themselves from the confines of the basement. This claustrophobic space is home to crawl spaces, tunnels and slaughter rooms. Escape from the basement and you will find the remainder of the house full of useful resources like lock picks, bone shards, and health tonics. The Victims must navigate the farm, which is wide open and brightly lit once they are out of their house. It’s all been lovingly reconstructed from the original film, and it’s genuinely unnerving to navigate.

You have to get out of the basement It feels goodIt may appear like it is a great relief initially, but you soon realize how much more there is to navigate through and see clearly with. You can hide briefly among sunflowers or bushes, but if you want your freedom, you’ll have to run past one or more of the Family. And the entire time, you’re haunted by the thrum rum rum rum of Leatherface’s chainsaw.

The Victims vary in some ways; Connie, for instance, can instantly crack a lock without passing a skill test — perfect for escaping the basement early on or making a last dash for freedom — while Ana is much more durable and can get away from the Family while tanking hits. Upgrade trees are available that will allow you further personalize the Victims, increasing their chances of survival. Matches will differ from one match to the next due to these systems, as well your interactions and relationships with three other Victims. We worked together in one match to find a way. I won the next match and made everyone die. Sorry! Whoops!

Image: Sumo Digital/Gun Interactive

The Family, on the opposite side of the fence is another fun variation to the asymmetrical terror formula. Leatherface is the star of the show, of course — he’s a brute with a chainsaw, and if he catches a Victim, he’s gonna carve them up. He’s joined by two other players — the Cook, who is slow and unwieldy but great at tracking Victims and finding their locations, and the Hitchhiker, a wiry guy who makes up for his small knife with his improvised bear traps. Then, there’s Grandpa, an NPC who hangs out in his rocking chair. Grandpa is able to send out sonar signals when he receives blood from unfortunate Victims.

The two halves of the story combine to make a great cat-and-mouse routine. A Victim may find their way out to an outside yard, only to encounter Leatherface. At that point, they are able to sprint back down to the basement and tumble into a well. To escape, players will throw themselves through windows and find another family member outside.

As a Victim, there’s a constant, heavy tension to the proceedings, even when none of the cannibals are on screen. As a Family member, it’s a little bit like a match of Don’t Overcook — you and your comrades are trying to stop these terrible, ungrateful kids from escaping the meat hooks, and it’s a frantic scramble to make sure all the gates are locked, the generator’s running, and Grandpa’s fed. It’s great fun, and I’m interested to see if the charm sticks around after a dozen — or a hundred — rounds.

Texas Chain Saw MassacreIt will release on 2023 and be available for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5 and Xbox One.