Leatherface is not "superhuman" in 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre', so players wouldn't want to just play him.
Kane Hodder voices the killer - who hides behind a mask of human skin - in the upcoming survival horror game based on 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' slasher franchise.
And publisher Gun Interactive Creative Director Ronnie Hobbs has explained why they wanted to strike a balance between making him "awesome", but not so much that people would only play Leatherface.
In an interview with But Why Tho?, he explained: "So obviously, Leatherface is that weird character because he has to be the strongest. But if you make him so awesome, no one wants to play as anyone else. So either, you make him awesome and then try to bring the family up to speed and catch him, which is tough with the Cook, because he’s slow and stuff. So it’s a fine balance between keeping him original to exactly what he could do in the movie and not making him superhuman. Really, that was the key was that we wanted him to come to us."
The asymmetrical horror experience is set to launch on August 18, 2023, on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.
Game developer Gun Interactive - who developed ‘Friday the 13th’ for Xbox One and PS4 in 2017 - previously unveiled the main villains, Leatherface, The Cook and The Hitchhiker, alongside killers Jonny and Sissy – who were created by Gun in collaboration with the movie’s original screenwriter Kim Henkel.
Hobbs previously said: “As interesting as The Cook, Hitchhiker, and Leatherface are, three killers simply wouldn’t be enough to sustain the game for long periods of time. We needed more. Luckily, ('Chainsaw' co-creator) Kim Henkel came through again to help us solve this issue.
“Kim had several ideas for additional characters that never made it into the 1974 film, but ultimately he allowed us to create new Slaughter family members on our own.
“This level of trust meant the world to me. I knew each new family member had to be unique and memorable, while at the same time looking like they belonged. To put it simply, they needed to stand out, but not in a negative way. While I can’t discuss specific character details, I can say a considerable amount of time and work went into crafting each of the new killers. Each one took well over a year from start to finish, and it’s an aspect of the game that myself and the team is quite proud of.”
