The 20 hours of Texas Chain Saw Massacre that I've played have been plagued by near-constant technical issues, from frequent server disconnects to bugs, some entertaining and others game-breaking. Granted, two of those games added bots post-launch, so there's still time for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to catch up in that regard. I hate to keep making comparisons, but bots are a fantastic way to improve matchmaking but also the tutorial experience, and it's a feature Friday the 13th: The Game, Evil Dead: The Game, and Dead by Daylight all benefit massively from. On that note, why is there a timer at all? I think I speak for a lot of players when I say it should be up to each person's individual patience whether they stick it through a lengthy lobby to wait for one more player or abandon the operation altogether. And while the revving of Leatherface's chainsaw is a constant delight whether you're on his side or running in terror from the iconic killer, it's absurd that every match needs him there – as in, if no one picks him, which happens all too often, everyone's booted from the lobby after waiting for several minutes and forced to start from the beginning.
You need exactly seven people to start a quick match, while four will suffice in private matches.
The thing is, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre's maps aren't considerably bigger than those of its contemporaries, but they are infinitely more annoying due to the simple fact that they lack any guidance whatsoever. The sheer size and complexity of the maps make them near-impossible to navigate until you've played enough times so as to memorize them. It doesn't help that the maps are needlessly intricate, littered with chambered basements, shortcuts, barricades, sheds, barbed-wire fencing, and wells that lead to giant underground areas. At the very least, a very basic map laying out the major landmarks would be incredibly useful whether you're playing as a killer or survivor, but alas, you're left to learn the lay of the land through trial and error. The Cook is described as a killer with an intimate understanding of every nook and cranny of the area, and yet without an in-game map, I feel about as familiar as the victims who've been blindfolded, abducted, and trapped there.
Which killers can squeeze through the tight spaces? How do I access my teammates' health meters to know if they need to be healed? Some of this, but not all of it, is included in the tutorials, but who has the time or patience to watch and memorize all 46 of them? Again, for the sake of my Texas Chain Saw Massacre review, I tried to do exactly that and it still took some time to get into the swing of things. In The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, you're greeted with an absurd list of exceedingly dull videos to watch and then thrown into the action without any in-game cues as to what the stacks of bones on the ground do, or where to find the fuse for the fusebox, or how to unlock this box, or the utility in feeding grandpa vials of blood. Even after the tutorial is over, Evil Dead: The Game still gives you clear quest and map markers letting you know precisely where you should be and what you should be doing, because why the hell not? You could argue that a feeling of disorientation adds to the tension, which I suppose is true in some dubious way, but it's a tension that doesn't feel earned. Compare it to Evil Dead: The Game, whose tutorial is fully playable, actually quite enjoyable, and still not a fraction of the time sink as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre's. Now that I've had a good couple of weeks with the game, I'm much more accustomed to the maps and my objectives, but that doesn't excuse the nightmarish onboarding process for newcomers. the blood constantly draining from victims' bodies, will often bring about that sweet relief. Mercifully, the aforementioned in-game timer, i.e.
I watched every one of them and I was still totally lost playing my first few matches, to the point where I was often begging for a family member to find me, or for all of the victims to escape, just to end my miserly shambling. There are 46 tutorials, none of them are playable, and only a few were selected to have voiced dialogue. The most immediate is the lack of clear direction for both killers and victims. Unfortunately, as much as I appreciate many aspects of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, I do have a few big issues with the game in its current state.