The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Game has released its largest update since its launch in August.
The November 28th update is absolutely massive – releasing a new victim, family member and map, alongside a bunch of bug fixes and other changes. In this article, we’ll dive into all the new features and characters that are part of this huge update for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre Game.
The Newest Family Member – Nancy
Firstly, we have a brand-new family member: Nancy. She is just as brutal and murderous as the other family members, brandishing a lethal garden hoe to attack her victims.
She’s got a killer backstory too. She married – and murdered – her 3 husbands, and used her friendly looks to lure in victims. One such innocent victim was the mother of Johnny – one of the other playable family members in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre Game. After killing his mother, Nancy raised Johnny as her adoptive son to become as twisted as she is. It almost makes you feel bad for him…
Enough backstory. Now, let’s talk about Nancy’s gameplay.
Nancy has two unique abilities. Firstly, her Spy ability let’s her see through the eyes of one of the victims. This lets her see that victim’s approximate location, and she can convey this onto to her teammates, or chase after them herself.
Secondly, Nancy can place barbed wires in doorways and in wall cracks. This slows down and injures victims if they walk through it.
Stats-wise, Nancy has a naturally high blood harvesting, with lower savagery and an even lower endurance. This means that she can collect a lot of blood to feed Grandpa but might lack in damage and speed.
The Newest Victim – Danny
Switching sides to the victims is Danny – who is actually Maria’s boyfriend. You might remember Maria from the game’s lore as the college student who went missing – and was killed by the Sawyer family – whilst exploring Texas. As such, Danny came to Texas to try to find her.
Getting into Danny’s stats, he has a naturally high proficiency (completing environmental interactions) and toughness (max health/survivability). His endurance (total stamina/stamina drain and regeneration) and stealth (noise meter) is moderate, but he lacks strength (family member stun time/grappling effectiveness).
Of course, players can fine-tune these stats by using points from Danny’s skill tree.
Danny’s ability Study and Tamper is a potentially powerful ability. First, he needs to “study” objects, such as toolboxes, the water pump, lamps, batteries, etc. This will increase his “knowledge level”. With enough knowledge, he can then “tamper” with the exit interactions (e.g. the water pump) to keep them open longer.
This ability definitely doesn’t feel as strong as something like Connie’s Focused ability or Leland’s Lifesaver. However, it might be useful in certain contexts, especially if you gain enough knowledge, so go ahead and give it a try!
However, you will have to open that wallet of yours and pay a hefty £8.50 ($9.99) each for Nancy and Danny. Luckily however, the map is free to all players!
The New Map – Nancy’s House
Speaking of the new map! It’s set at Nancy’s house, and is the fourth map in the game. They definitely went more for the family house map’s vibe, which I am a huge fan of.
We’ll see how this map plays out in the next few weeks, but hopefully there’s no major gameplay issues (looking at you Gas Station).
>Nancy's House, the new free map coming to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, is releasing today around 2PM EST!
— The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (@TXChainSawGame) November 28, 2023
New Victim Danny and New Family Member Nancy will be available to play too.
Who will be brave enough to face off against Nancy? pic.twitter.com/oOXPLhMmow
Leatherface is No Longer a Requirement in Every Match
One of the biggest changes in this update is that Leatherface is no longer a required character in order to start the match.
Despite being one of the most iconic horror villains of all time, and the poster child of the game, players did not like being forced to play him every match.
This resulted in extremely long lobby queue times, where family member players would sometimes just refuse to select Leatherface, delaying the game’s start for minutes on end.
We’ll have to see how this impacts the game, as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre Game was built around Leatherface and his chainsaw. There are blockades littered all around the map, which only Leatherface can break. Without him in the game, it might lean more towards the victims, who could potentially outrun or “loop” the family members infinitely at certain parts of the maps.
Plus, Leatherface is the only family member who starts in the basement with the victims. That will definitely make the start of the game way less stressful for them…
Bug Fixes
The developers have also fixed over 200 bugs. That’s certainly an achievement. Whilst we aren’t going to go into all the bug fixes in this article, check out the patch notes if you’re looking for something in particular.
A Renewed Hope for the Future?
Despite the game’s huge launch in August – with a high player count bolstered by a day-one Xbox Game Pass release and some glowing reviews – the player numbers and satisfaction soon began to drop.
Players criticized the lack of major content releases, pricey cosmetics and an increasing repetitiveness surrounding the core gameplay loop.
Nevertheless, it’s great to see the game receive such a large update – even if the majority of the new content is behind a paywall.
Addressing concerns about lobby queue times, bugs and gameplay gripes is a big step in the right direction, so hopefully the developers keep the momentum up!