After five weeks of balancing patches and bug fixing, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is getting its first piece of new content in the form of a specially designed outfit for the star of the show, Leatherface. Giving new meaning to the phrase “in-game skin,” this new cosmetic option for the human-flesh-clad Leatherface has been handcrafted by Greg Nicotero, the award-winning makeup effects artist behind AMC’s The Walking Dead.
GameSpot is able to share the exclusive first look at the skin here. For a deeper dive into how this new take on Leatherface came to be, horror obsessives ought to check out the developer diary now available only on Bloody Disgusting, which includes a chat between Nicotero and Gun Media’s Wes Keltner about reimagining a horror icon.
The “Nicotero Leatherface” pack will sell for $16 in-game and launches this October. It includes the new skin, a new chainsaw with custom sounds, and a new kill animation for all versions of Leatherface in the game. The killer’s skills and perks remain unchanged, meaning this is a purely cosmetic pack.
Nicotero has established himself as a force in the horror world due in part to his makeup effects work on The Walking Dead, bringing the undead “walkers” to life and consistently inventing new ways to showcase a grotesque zombie-infested world for 11 seasons and a slew of spin-offs, though his career as a monster maker spans four decades. His Leatherface skin is highlighted by a mask made up of several layers–and thus, several victims–as well as a loose jaw area somewhat reminiscent of The Walking Dead villain, Beta.
In The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this marks Leatherface’s fourth in-game skin, alongside his default Killing Mask, the Pretty Woman, and the Old Lady, each of which was originally seen in the 1974 movie. A never-before-seen skin for a horror mascot like Leatherface suggests the developers have the creative wiggle room to get weird with the film’s license, so expect to see more maps, killers, and new looks for established killers, in the future.
In our The Texas Chain Saw Massacre review, we gave it a 9 out of 10 score, saying, “As one of the year’s scariest and best-designed experiences, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has reset the bar for multiplayer horror games.”
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