The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

[h1]Massacre of a game[/h1] The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is yet another survival horror game taking a crack at Dead by Daylight. Much like the name of the movie it's adapting, the game is also a bit of a massacre. There is a lot of room for improvement and not a lot of desire for improvement from the developers. If you are thinking about getting the game, either wait for a decent sale or just play DBD instead. [h2]The Good[/h2] + Texas Chain Saw Massacre offers asymmetrical gameplay. Unlike the competition (which is only DBD) where you play as one killer against 4 victims, here you play as a team of 3 killers vs 4 victims. This is the best part of the whole experience and one thing that should make it a viable alternative to other horror games... + Few unique ways of escaping available for the Victims' side. They will get repetitive as you play but it is still better than Dead by Daylight's generator system. [h2]The Bad[/h2] Oh boy, here is where things get very, very tricky. I want to love this game but the next few things on the list really don't allow me to. - TCM is full of bugs. From animations getting stuck during specific actions, to the whole game getting stuck and crashing you to desktop, there is little of everything here. Some issues are minor and can be overlooked but there are some that can cost you the whole match. During one specific minigame where you have to fix a fuse box and open one of the exits, if you use a mouse to do the minigame, it will likely get stuck in place for a few seconds after the box has been repaired. Needless to say that running without being able to see is a recipe for disaster. To give credit where credit is due, the developers have acknowledged a big number of these bugs and are *supposedly* working on fixing them. If and when they actually fix them is a whole different story. - Lack of players and long waiting times are also a major issue with the game. On Steam there are around 1200-1500 players in-game at all times (that might even be a bit generous). There is crossplay available between PC and next-gen consoles which is helpful as without it waiting times will probably be even longer. With all that said, if you want to play with the Victims you will be waiting for at least a minute and thirty seconds (and I'm probably being way too generous again). That isn't a big issue though, right? It wouldn't have been if the match would actually start once everybody loads in. It is extremely common to switch lobbies at least once or twice while searching for a match as many who play with the family or victims might want to use a specific character that is already taken by someone else. - Perk system that allows you to play in your own unique way... or so it should. There are actually only a number perks that are incredibly good and everybody uses. Most of the choices you have are either useless or apply to very specific scenarios. [h2]The Ugly[/h2] The single worst problem is balancing... or lack there of. There is no skill-based matchmaking so it's a pure coin flip whether you get a player who's just bought the game or one who hasn't seen the sun for the last few weeks. In some of the previous patches it was possible to at least mitigate this issue. Player levels were visible so anyone could see the overall level of the enemy team and make a decision whether they want to continue or try a different lobby. Developers were made aware of this so they decided to just make the levels of everyone invisible. While it's understandable that they wouldn't want players constantly switching lobbies, there are far better ways to resolve this problem (like if they had used skill-based matchmaking in the first place...). Balancing does not only apply to levels and players you are facing, far from it. Some of the maps in the game are heavily one-sided as well, Slaughterhouse being a prime example of a Victim-sided map. [h3]Supporting your own product is apparently too much to ask for[/h3] The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was released in August of 2023. As of the writing of this review there have barely been any significant updates. A bunch of cosmetic DLC (which is paid, of course) and a few small updates that fix a thing or two. There is a new map and characters coming out soon but that doesn't change the fact that this game is evolving at an incredibly slow pace. If the updates continue to come out once every 2 months, I really don't see a bright future for the playerbase of TCM.

How the fuck does Gun Interactive think that the pricing is fine for the dlcs? Its another live service game with sims 4 like marketing. Im tired boss... The lack of respect for the consumers money and happiness is just so bad. I already have to pay 70€ to get access to all of the new content, the game has been out for 3 months . 10€ TWICE for a character at which you are sometimes unable to play him, because someone else picked it first? I really want to make it clear that 10€ for the amount of effort and reused assets that went into them is awful. Also they fumbled the bag very badly when designing core aspects of the game such as balancing and the skill tree. Locking perks within paths that you pick, in the skill tree, is unfun and generally just bad design. It conflicts with a perks main gimmick and that is to spice up your gameplay, making it unique and allowing the player to switch between different playstyles. Except you dont get to do that here. There is also a loadout system that is rendered useless due to the fact that you can only have ~ 1-2 active builds. You have to reset the tree in order to choose a different path, why? I have to spend minutes redoing the skill tree just to change my playstyle? Its so useless and feels like forced extended playtime. And the cherry untop of it is that some of the perks are random when you pick them, so you arent even guaranteed to get the build you want. Now about the balancing... I cant really break every aspect of this game appart, since im no game designer but one thing is clear... Its slow paced, there is a lot of room for cinematics and is meant to be played casually. Except thats not what it does, people are very likely to treat this as a competitive experience and since there are things such as perks, abilities and exploits that are either useless, good or absolutely broken, people will use them and redefine what is game is actually meant to be. I had lots of more fun when the game was freshly released and at which nobody really had an idea on what they were doing. My view and opinion of this game fell off so quickly. I do not recommend this game, not worth my time, money and sanity.

So..................I have played since launch and today is the biggest update so far. I haven't launched the game since the update finished because I wanted to write this review. All I can say is WOW!!!!!!! GUN does not give a S**T about their community. I say this because how can you release a game and every single content update is behind a pay wall. This game is literally teetering on the edge of extinction only 3 months post launch. On any given day there are only about 1,200 people playing on steam. You cannot justify charging extra for content when your game is barley afloat. If i could get a refund I would just based on principle. How would you feel if you went to a fast food restaurant and ice cubes in your drink were extra or lettuce or cheese on your burger is $10 extra. It's a pathetic attempt at a cash grab. Every game now starting to be just like mobile games with micro transactions. We only get 40% of a game anymore and are extorted for money for more content that should have just came with the game. I love playing this game, but i am not stupid enough to pay for content that should be free. I am a fan of TCM long before the game. I will play this game and not drop a single Dollar on filler content. I am honestly surprised that there isn't a $10 charge for the map as well, but GUN probably figured the game would outright just die. Just remember steam community there's always the next content drop and another $5 or $10 per cosmetic LMAO. I have feeling this game gonna die before f13 did and that's saying something.

[b] It was fun while it lasted [/b] The game came out rather fun until the massive outflow of the playerbase on pair with disabling crossplay and lack of content besides expensive cosmetics and patchnotes which some of them were good in terms of balancing and polishing the project Takes a long time to find a match nowadays and the game itself is a bit too pricey for it has to offer The game launch was nice and thriving but not without the problems I mentioned that probably led to its downfall (bugs, some unbalanced designs, crossplay went down, lack of content etc)

[b] The DLCs are abhorrently priced[/b] . 10$ for a single character, whereas the character's abilities are locked and there is no other way to get them than paying. you can also buy skins which are 5$ and 1/3 is just reskins of the other ones in the same pack. It's just nothing to look forward to any more in this game unless you pay awful prices after paying 40$ for the albeit fun but fairly barebones "base game" which [b] is not worth 40$ when everything costs so much[/b].