Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Game – Johnny Explained
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Game comes with a few new faces on the side of the killers. Original movie producer, Kim Henkel, is consulting with this game’s development team to help with authenticity and freshen things up a bit. Two of the new killers introduced are Sissy and Johnny. Mysterious siblings of the Slaughter family that fans never even heard of, until now. In this case, Johnny will be looked into and detailed on what makes him one of the most valuable killers in the bunch. In terms of his mechanics, he’s the easiest to get into. Which, in turn, makes him a primo avatar for players who are dipping their toes with the Slaughter family.
Johnny is reminiscent of “Tex” from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre III film. Played by Viggo Mortensen, Tex is a clean-cut, rather handsome fellow who charms victims into making decisions of their own free that will ultimately spell their doom. Johnny is a similar character. Unbeknownst to the uninitiated, Johnny is an efficient hunter. He comes with tracking abilities that can sniff out victims who are playing “hide and seek.” Despite his pleasant demeanor, he’s a somewhat demented killer who likes to toy with his victims.
Armed with a hunting knife, Johnny can slash up his victims with ease. He also moves around rather quickly, keeping up with fleet-footed survivors with no problem. His abilities are set up in a way that they can’t be cheesed. They are more contextual than anything else. Johnny is kind of ‘middle of the road’ in terms of his attributes and he’s probably the best choice for newcomers to Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Game.
Johnny’s Abilities
So, Johnny’s main ability in this game is ‘Hunt.’ This ability enables him to highlight hidden footsteps that are peppered throughout the map. It’s not an all-encompassing ability like ‘Detective Mode‘ in the Batman Arkham games. Instead, it’s more like The Witcher III. You will find a single footprint on the ground, hold down the interact button and the footprints will appear. They will lead straight to the last location of the survivor. This is only temporary, though. So, players will need to act fast. Looking into ways to make this ability last longer can make all the difference. Therefore, looking for nodes that can help out with this within Johnny’s skill tree is recommended.
The preliminary footprints will only be accessible within a specific range. This, of course, can be upgraded to a wider proximity through unlockable tiers. There are other unlockable abilities to try out, giving Johnny more of an edge. Hence, ‘Pack Animal‘ enables Johnny to see survivors sneaking up on him. While ‘Hurt Pride‘ helps him shake off his state after being stunned faster. Lastly, ‘Blood Runner‘ gives Johnny extra endurance whenever he’s running around with a vial that is at least 50% full.
Johnny’s Attributes
Johnny can be a tank in many regards in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Game. The closest member to him, in terms of attributes, will be Leatherface. His Savagery marks up to +40. Which, makes him one of the deadliest killers in the family, next to Bubba. His hunting knife will take chunks off the survivors, making him a rather frightening force to encounter. His Harvesting only goes up to +15. Therefore, this makes Johnny the weakest harvester out of the bunch. He is best used just for smoking out the survivors and doing damage. It’s best to leave the harvesting for The Cook and Sissy.
On the flip side to this, Johnny’s Endurance hits at +40. As mentioned before, he is really good at keeping up with the victims and even outrunning them in some cases. With the ‘Blood Runner‘ ability equipped, he can pursue extensively without running out of steam. He can be especially useful during the last quarter of a match, with a survivor running toward the front gate. He can catch up with them pretty quickly and tear them down. It is also easy to figure out where they are going with his ‘Hunt‘ ability.
Johnny’s Skills
Through the accumulation of XP, players can unlock various upgrades with a skill tree that’s associated with different characters. Thus, there are also “Attribute Points” that can be unlocked with nodes of a character’s Skills Tree. These are used to adjust the attributes related to a character. There are only 30 of them total to store up. In Johnny’s case, he’s in a pretty good spot in his default setting. The only thing that might need to be tweaked is his Harvesting. Feeding Grandpa is an important feature in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Game and it shouldn’t be overlooked.
There are only certain pathways that players can use within a respective Skills Tree with a character. With Johnny, finding a way to prolong his ‘Hunt’ ability can really give him a boost. The footprints will only be visible for a short duration. So, making them last longer will certainly help out players in a pinch. Also, keep in mind that skills can be rolled back and respeced if a player feels that Johnny isn’t going in the right direction. Johnny is all about detection and being the leader of the hunt, in many regards. So, try and unlock skills that will enhance those elements.
Conclusion
Johnny is a new character in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Game created by Kim Henkel, yet he seems somewhat familiar. His design is the most basic out of all the killers, but he’s also the most accessible within the group. New players who want to gain some XP might want to give Johnny a try. He’s the easiest to get used to and he’s pretty fun to play. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Game is now available for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.