Leatherface is one of the best-known horror movie characters of all time, but it may surprise fans to learn thatTheTexas Chainsaw Massacrestar is close to celebrating his 40th year in video games. While he was certainly one of the first horror movie characters to make a video game appearance, Leatherface has had sporadic cameos since, leaving him mostly overlooked. Now, though, with Netflix announcing a new entry in the franchise, and talks of a newTexas Chainsaw Massacregame, he’s back in the limelight.
The rumors about anewTexas Chainsaw Massacregameare all the more exciting because they are tied to Gun Media—the team behind theFriday the 13thsurvival game. If true, this could mean big things for Leatherface, as theFriday the 13thgame is among the best-selling horror games ever released on Steam.
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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1983)
While it may be one of the first horror video games ever made, it’s far from a glamorousdebut for Leatherface.The Texas Chainsaw Massacreis absurdly simplistic. It puts players in the shoes of Leatherface as they chase innocent victims around a grass field. There are a few objects that can impede the player’s movement, and once their chainsaw runs out of fuel the game is over, but other than that the game is about as basic as it gets.
Surprisingly, this pixelated imagining ofThe Texas Chainsaw Massacrewas considered gruesome enough to get it banned from many different stores, meaning that it suffered terrible sales and mostly fell into obscurity over the years. Still, while it handled poorly and sold even worse, it gets points from fans for being an innovator in thehorror game genre.
Mortal Kombat X
It wasn’t until almost 30 years later that Leatherface made his return to video games, this time coming in a downloadable content pack onMortal Kombat X. The difference in graphics between Leatherface’s first and second appearance in video games is truly astonishing. InThe Texas Chainsaw Massacregame, his chainsaw is the same color as his body and his head looks vaguely like a pumpkin, but in Mortal Kombat X, he almost looks as if he’s walked straight out of the movie screen. He also boasts some of the goriest, most horrifyingfatalities inMortal Kombat X, befitting of a horror movie legend.
Unfortunately, Leatherface tends to fall somewhere in the mid-to-low tier among all the characters and was a polarizing choice among fans when he was first announced. Still, this was the beginning of a string of solid video game appearances.
Dead by Daylightfeatures Leatherface as he was meant to be played. WhileMortal Kombat Xintroduced a faithful and exciting version of the character, Leatherface will always feel a bit out of place in a fighting game. InDead By Daylight, fans got to hunt down their victims in a fashion that the developers of the 1983 game were probably picturing in their heads. He’s also joined by a slew of horror movie legends like Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, andPinhead from theHellraiserfranchise.
Dead By Daylightalso managed to do the character justice. At his core, Leatherface is one of the simpler horror movie characters. As such, he’s one of the easier characters to master in-game and all his abilities are centered around locating and chasing down his victims. He’s basically plucked straight from the movie franchise and dropped into the game, and that is a good thing.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone
TheCall of Dutyfranchise often receives a lot of flack for being unimaginative, but last year’s Halloween event proved that the game is capable of putting out content that is wildly different but purely enjoyable. Of course, TheHaunting of Verdanskalso brought along Leatherface for his first-person shooter debut. It’s a concept that shouldn’t work, but it did. Leatherface was equipped both with his trusty sledgehammer and a “Family Heirloom” weapon skin that modified the FiNN LMG to look like a chainsaw.
The biggest win for Leatherface during The Haunting of Verdansk was that he only shared the limelight withJigsaw from theSawseries, so players were bound to encounter several enemies donning the Leatherface costume in any given lobby. It was also during the height of the pandemic and the height ofCall of Duty: Warzone’s popularity, meaning that during Halloween last year,The Texas Chainsaw Massacrewas a big deal.
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