The game pits two teams against each other. On one hand, you have three members of the Slaughter Family, and on the other you have four victims attempting to escape. Each character has their own unique skills and abilities. Injured, the victims must find a way out before they bleed out or a member of the Family gets them.
This game has examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Nancy killed Johnny’s biological mother and kidnapped him when he was a toddler, raising him as her own. When Johnny found out about this from the Hitchhiker he confronted her. She in turn slashed his face, giving him his scar.
- Apologetic Attacker: The Cook occasionally acts like this as he tries to kill the victims, at one point even apologizing for what happened to their friend.
- Asymmetric Multiplayer: The game pits three members of the Slaughter family against four victims.
- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Connie has her shirt tied above her belly.
- Black Widow: Nancy has a reputation as this as all her husbands end up dying or disappearing.
- Bear Trap: The Hitchhiker can leave traps for the victims that will snare them if they are not paying attention.
- Black and Nerdy: Sonny is described as the "best student of the bunch" and one that relies on his intelligence to survive.
- Black Comedy: The gameplay banter from the Family tends to enter this territory. Such examples include Johnny and Sissy enthusiastically greeting Victims like they’re old friends, to the Cook yelling at Leatherface for property damage.
- Blood Is the New Black: The family will be increasingly splattered in blood the more they attack their victims. The “Bloody Family” DLC pack also presents the family as being soaked in blood from the get go.
- Blood Lust: The family feeds Grandpa blood as a way to level him up. When this ability is completely maxed-out, Grandpa can detect the victims wherever they are, and nowhere is safe to hide.
- Blowing a Raspberry: The Hitchhiker will often do this after killing a victim.
- Broomstick Quarterstaff: The Cook utilizes a broken broomstick as a weapon.
- Canon Discontinuity: Effectively for any film after the first. For example, the family in the game are called the Slaughters (the name utilized in the original script) as opposed to the more commonly used Sawyers (established in the sequel). This is also a matter of Writing Around Trademarks, as the most of the films being produced at a variety of studios precludes elements from them appearing without intense rights negotiations.
- Canon Foreigner: In addition to the main three (Leatherface, the Cook, and the Hitchhiker), the game introduces new members of the family created by Kim Henkel, Johnny and Sissy.
- Cosmetic Award: Players can unlock Leatherface's Pretty Woman skin by playing him 10 times and his Old Lady skin by playing him 20. The victims also have color variations that can be unlocked by playing them a certain number of times.
- Chainsaw Good: Leatherface's weapon of choice and preferred tool when executing a victim.
- Cradling Your Kill: Sissy will do this after slitting her victim’s throat.
- Creepy Basement: All of the maps have expansive basements with many corridors and filled with corpses, body parts, and skeletons.
- Cutting the Knot: A good Leatherface player, once they are free to leave the basement, will start destroying the obstacles across the map. This is because the victims can crawl across them, but they obstruct members of the family pursuing them.
- Dead Guy on Display: The victim character not chosen by a player will be impaled on a hook and sawed at the beginning of the level. Leatherface is also able to do the same thing to the other victims if they are dying.
- Detect Evil: When a Family member is close to a Victim, a yellow aura frames the screen and a music cue kicks in if the player is a Victim. The reverse does not happen when the player is a Family member.
- Disguised Horror Story: Petals initially appeared to be a rather serene First-Person Snapshooter where the main objective is to simply take pictures of plants in the wilderness. It eventually reveals itself as a prequel to the game, culminating with the player character (Maria) being murdered by Leatherface.
- Doomed by Canon: The game is set months before the Hitchhiker is killed.
- Downloadable Content:
- Additional executions for each of the family and free chainsaw skins for Leatherface were available on release.
- An original skin for Leatherface designed by Greg Nicotero was released in October 2024. The skin comes with a different chainsaw and new execution for the character.
- The developers have also revealed that there will be new family members and victims sold as DLCs.
- Dumb Muscle: Leland is a former wrestler and is described as being the strongest of the group but lacking in other areas.
- Enemy-Detecting Radar: The Cook's ability allows him to locate where victims are hiding based on sound. Grandpa has a similar function, whose groans will reveal any moving victim's positions on the map. They can only evade this by standing still but even that won’t help once Grandpa is at his final level.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Due to the developers' attempts to keep the game as close to the 1974 film as possible the Cook and the Hitchhiker are only referred to as such over the names given in the sequels (Drayton and Nubbins).
- Facial Horror: One of Leatherface’s executions involves pushing the victim’s face into his chainsaw.
- Final Girl: Ana is cited by developers as being the “Final Girl” of the group (although in the context of the game she can die at any time).
- Fluorescent Footprints: Johnny’s ability allows him to track a victim’s footprints which appear as these.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: The family cannot enter the basement until Grandpa wakes up. Only Leatherface spawns in with the victims, and has to work alone until they either make enough progress (or all get killed trying), make too much noise or the family feeds Grandpa enough blood.
- Gas Station of Doom: The gas station from the original film is a map in the game.
- Hooks and Crooks: Leatherface is seen suspending a victim (the character not chosen by a player) on a hook at the beginning of the level before chainsawing them. This can also be repeated as a method of execution.
- Hostile Hitchhiker: In addition to the Hitchhiker himself, Sissy murdered several truck drivers while hitchhiking from Texas to California.
- Improvised Lockpick: Victims can pick up a screwdriver to unlock doors through a quicktime event. You don't make noise, but rushing it will break your tool, and you have to find another. If Leatherface or the family force you to abandon jimmying the lock, your progress is also reset.
- Improvised Weapon: As a victim, you can pick up a bone shard from human remains to use as a crude dagger to backstab the family. This can only incapacitate them for so long though, and immobilizing evil Grandpa may feel cathartic but it's unrecommended when the family get an alert he's in danger, and your location given away.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Barbara Crampton was revealed to have an upcoming character whose appearance is modeled after her.
- Invincible Boogeymen: It’s impossible to kill Leatherface and his family and combat is recommended as a last option only. If two or more members of the family are chasing you? You are in deep trouble, and need to escape quickly.
- Kill the Parent, Raise the Child: Nancy ‘adopted’ Johnny this way.
- Limited Loadout: A victim can only carry a maximum of two items at any given time. Trying to repair both the fuse and valve gate objectives is unwise since you'll need to fight back, pick locks, or heal at some point.
- Mama Bear: Nancy is fiercely protective of Johnny.
- Necessary Drawback: Leatherface can enter a sprint by holding his chainsaw overhead to deal out massive damage. This needs to be controlled and not spammed, as Overheating his trademark weapon will stall it, immobilizing him as he facepalms at his error.
- Non-Player Character: Grandpa is non-playable but an important character as he will alert the family as to where the victims are hiding.
- One-Hit Kill: Leatherface can instantly kill a victim with a revved up chainsaw.
- Optional Stealth: Playing as a victim trying to escape the family, staying hidden from their sight is important, but not essential to your survival. You can lurk in the shadows, then storm outta the property once you've used the fuse or valve to open doors/gates. Or, you can make a lot of noise from the get-go, grab useful items and leave the basement as fast as possible before the family get organized.
- A Pig Named "Porkchop": The family chicken is called 'Nugget', it can also alert the family to any victims in the area.
- Poison Is Evil: Sissy's ability, Bane, allows her to craft poisons from plants.
- Prequel: The game takes place in April 1973, four months before the events of the original film.
- Product Displacement: The Coca-Cola sign above the gas station in the original film has been changed to 'Quick Soda'.
- Prophet Eyes: One of Nancy’s eyes is cloudy. She is also able to see through the eyes of nearby victims.
- Scenery Dissonance: The slaughterhouse and gas station levels can take place during the daytime. The rather bright sun and fresh Texas outside does nothing to distract that at least one teenager has underwent a Cruel and Unusual Death.
- Seeing Through Another's Eyes: Nancy’s ‘spy’ ability allows her to spot victims via this.
- Seeking the Missing, Finding the Dead: Ana and her friends are searching for Ana's missing sister Maria. Little do they know, Maria has crossed paths with Leatherface’s family and is already dead...
- Self-Contained Demo: A free game called Petals
was released online. It is a first-person game of a character taking photos of flowers that ultimately reveals itself as being the main game's prologue that ends in Maria's fatal encounter with Leatherface and his family. - Shout-Out:
- One of the achievements is called "Welcome to the Family", a likely reference to the similarly murderous hillbilly Baker family of Resident Evil 7.
- The achievements "Dog will hunt" and “The Saw is Family” are references to lines from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.
- The "Pristine" skin for Leatherface's chainsaw shows that it was apparently manufactured by the Hansen company, a reference to original Leatherface actor Gunnar Hansen.
- Sickening Slaughterhouse: The basements of the maps are sprawling disgusting warehouse areas with various human remains and animal carcasses hanging or lying around. Your victim character will often comment on how messed up the family is, just by the sight alone.
- Stealth-Based Game: Darkness is your friend in this game. There are many places to hide from the family giving chase, like in tall grass, or behind furniture. Remember though, you can't stay hidden for long. As the match drags on, an organized family feeding Grandpa will find you eventually.
- Timed Mission: If you play as a victim, you are already critically injured after being abducted by the family. Any first-aid you find won't stop the bleeding. You need to escape and seek medical attention before you bleed out.
- Unwilling Suspension: The selected survivors start out being strung up like this; the males are hanging upside-down, while the females are hanging by their wrists stretched overhead.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: In calling back to the original film most promotional material, including the trailers and poster, use the tagline "A game based on true events."
- Villain Protagonist: For those playing Leatherface or another member of his family.
