‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ is no ‘Dead by Daylight’

Asymmetrical multiplayer games have been done to death in the survival horror space. Between running from Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13^th or a mysterious killer in Last Year, you can expect to find a title featuring a group of people trying to fight against a killer. Or in some cases, multiple killers. The latest horror experience on the block is Gun Interactive’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which is based and stylized from the popular horror movie franchise of the same name. The game focuses on recreating the terror from the movies (similar to what Friday the 13^th did). And similar to its predecessor, there are plenty of comparisons made to the current asymmetrical horror juggernaut on the block, Dead by Daylight.

As a quick refresher, Dead by Daylight finds players trapped in a secluded area trying to escape the killer; these players are tasked with repairing generators to open the exit gates. One player takes on the role of the killer and has to “hook” or “kill” the survivors to ensure they don’t escape. Dead by Daylight features a wide array of original survivors/killers and some licensed characters too (like Ghostface from Scream, Chucky from Child’s Play, and even Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre). In the case of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the players are tasked with escaping one of the farm locations from the movies, while three people take on the role of “The Family” members who are trying to kill the victims.

The essence of both games follows a similar beat (e.g., killers looking to kill and survivors looking to escape a location), but both offer different experiences to their players. As such, even though both can live together in harmony, it’s hard not to make comparisons, as did other asymmetrical horror games of the time that came out. I found myself doing those same comparisons as I ventured into the different maps and played the games.

If you’re stuck figuring out the differences between both, I’ve mapped out these such instances below to give you a good idea of what you’re getting. And to make it clear, I like both games! It’s just acknowledging that certain elements are stronger in one game than it is in the other, but it’s still a fine experience.

The Cast

As mentioned above, Dead by Daylight has a far wider selection of survivors and killers available for players to play and customize. Feeling like a killer clown? There’s an option for that. Want to play the iconic Final Girl from Halloween? Laurie Strode is ready and waiting. And there’s a continued stream of new characters, chapters, and customizables being launched throughout the year to spice things up. Stick to your main or try someone new, there’s a great growing cast list waiting, and you get to repeat options even if someone is playing your character.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre keeps it small but tidy. There is a core group of victims and killers you can choose from; each has their own special ability and nuanced personality. The game wants to create a horror movie feel, so there are no repeats – if someone else is playing as Leatherface, you can’t be Leatherface. The locked treatment forces you to learn new characters, and you get to flesh out their skill along the way. However, since each character has a special ability, there is a predictability factor that you know going into what they can do. Like, if someone is Connie, you know that she’ll be able to easily unlock a door compared to Ana.

The Maps

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s maps are so beautifully created and full of nuance. Even though victims always start in the basement/tunnels, the area looks lived-in and like a scene from a horror movie. The house location expands that terror to offer new twists and turns to encounter. In Dead by Daylight’s case, the maps are stylized after different franchises and themes, but they always have the same element: a misty fog, big walls and/or windows to jump through, and a dull, grey feeling. Unless it’s a licensed title, like the school from Silent Hill, there isn’t much variety to change up your experience – you’re getting the same map in a new skin.

The Goal

Speaking of the experience, Dead by Daylight’s biggest problem might be the gaming variety of its matches. If you’re the killer, you’re hunting down the other players, but you’re always hooking them to feed to “The Entity.” In the case of survivors, you have to repair five generators to power the exit gates. Always. Generators and hooks can feel repetitive, and repairing isn’t a quick feat, you’re there waiting for a while until it’s done. It’s fun to play the matches at first, but after a while, you need some variety, or else you’re doing the same thing on repeat.

For The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, you have multiple options for escape. For instance, power down the electric barriers to escape the side gates, mess with the values to open the gas gate, or input the fuse to open the basement gate. And for the killers, you’re hunting down the players but you have abilities to vary up the hunt. Sure, you might stick with a similar formula if you’ve played the game enough times, but there’s more room to change up your game so that it doesn’t stay the same match after match.

Upgrades & Skills

A stark difference between both games is that The Texas Chain Massacre incorporates a skill tree while Dead by Daylight goes for an item web instead. Even if someone were to max out their perks and items in Dead by Daylight, the game is designed in a way that fresh newbies (who have nothing) can still make it through a match. Don’t get me wrong, it’s much better for survivors and killers to have improved-upon perks, but it’s not the end of the world.

You can feel how inexperienced you are in The Texas Chain Massacre. Actions will cause a lot of noise, and you’ll be unmatched against players who have been geared up and trained to run the map. Since skill points rely on leveling up, you’ll be left waiting a long while before you’re even able to address stat concerns. It took me a long while before I could get 1-2 victims in a place where they could have a reasonable shot against The Family. Meanwhile, my Family members didn’t seem to have the same power against killers I’d faced in the past; I kept slashing and slashing victims to no avail. The uneven balance affected my enjoyment in matches and felt like a chore at times.

Mechanics & Bugs

Between the two, Dead by Daylight has a much smoother in-game experience. The game has been out for many years now, so the developers have been able to address and fix concerns as they happen. Meanwhile, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre still has some design choices that need to be fixed ASAP!

For instance, the trigger button when feeding or attacking Grandpa is too small and finicky. Grandpa sits at a stationary location on the map where killers feed him to improve his radar kills, and victims attack him to reduce those abilities. Sometimes you have to angle your character and the screen to a specific spot so that Grandpa can register that you want to do something. It’s a terrible feature when you’re a victim in a rush trying to attack but Grandpa is giving away your location to the other killers. Why? Because the game won’t let the button function appear and let you attack.

The same can be said when you’re in a rush running away from a killer. The slam function on the door or closing the metal basement doors isn’t timed right, the camera angles block off needed actions to go through doors/grates, and sometimes a hit by a killer isn’t registered, even if you’re clearly in hitting distance of the victim. As I said above, these choices have affected the enjoyment of a match when they pop up. Hopefully, they get fixed in later updates as it would be a much smoother experience and make the match more balanced.

Do you have a favorite between The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Dead by Daylight? What do you love about both games? Who is your favorite character? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Featured Image Credit: Sumo Digital, Gun. Media, Vortex Inc