With the arrival of Halloween, Halloween, blood and pumpkins, we review the video games that best treat one of the great icons of terror: the chainsaw.
In one of the most emotional cutscenes in Halo 4, Cortana, the artificial intelligence that always accompanies the Master Chief, claimed to be able to give us more than 40,000 pieces of information about the sun. Cortana claimed to know all the information about him, about his size, light and stellar cycle. “And despite that,” he said, “I’ll never know if it looks real, if it FEELS real.” After all, the rays of the sun will never caress your skin and you will never know the comforting warmth with which they fill us inside on the coldest days of the year. His AI condition does not allow him to understand how depressing winter time is, lacking in light, and he does not know what the tickling of our skin is caused by rubbing with clothes after having burned in the sun. It is a beautiful scene. Very suggestive and sad … but even more important, real. Because well thought out, we’ve all been Cortana at one time or another. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of topics on which we have a lot of accumulated information, enough to give talks and symposia with it. And yet many of those themes are nothing more than a wish. We have not experienced them and we may, sometimes luckily and sometimes unfortunately, never experience them.
We may not know what it FEELS to lose a child, for example, but we know perfectly, almost as if it were ours, Ethan Mars’s descent into madness in Heavy Rain, Lee’s in The Walking Dead, Joel in The Last of Us, Booker DeWitt in BioShock Infinite and Bayek in Assassin’s Creed: Origins. That is not exactly a feeling that we envy and want to live, as it happens to Cortana with the rays of the sun, but it is still curious how it captivates and traps us, how it moves us, moves us inside and moves us. It’s so intoxicating that screenwriters — even without losing a child — never stop writing about it, and gamers — even without losing it — also don’t stop voraciously consuming stories about loss, family, and the father figure. Without really knowing why, we are accumulating more and more information on the subject. We are becoming experts in it (or at least believing it).
After killing Big Smoke in GTA San Andreas, we even believed we were capable of writing Las couplets of Jorge Manrique.
In the same way, even if you haven’t killed anyone (or so we hope …) you can surely make rivers of ink run on what her first “murder” must mean for Lara Croft on a psychological level in the Tomb Raider reboot. Or about what must go through the head of the Prince of Persia when he fights with his father in the Sands of Time. Or about the implications of the fight between Snake and The Boss at the end of Metal Gear Solid 3. Hell, after killing Big Smoke in GTA San Andreas we even believed we were capable of writing Jorge Manrique’s verses. But enough of negative FEELINGS. We also refer to the good ones. To love, for example. Even being happily in a couple, we find it difficult to experience something as timeless as what there is between Johnny and River in To the Moon. It’s hard to reach a connection as special as the one Yuna and Tidus have in Final Fantasy X, or as pure and problematic for the world as Max and Chloe’s in Life is Strange. And yet we have all given sentimental advice to friends and acquaintances.
Maniac Mansion (1987) was one of the first games to feature a chainsaw … even if only in a testimonial way. If you tried to use it, it had no gasoline. As a joke, LucasArts put the can down to refill in his next game, Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (1988). But of course, in that there was no chainsaw.
Experts in tearing people apart
The same thing happens with chainsaws. What a change of subject, huh? We could ramble on about many other feelings that we think we are experts on having not yet experienced, but look at the calendar. Happy Halloween. They are not dates to talk about love, but about guts, blood and pumpkins. Of the undead and witches. Of chainsaws. Because the same thing happens with them. The writer of this article, without going any further, has not seen a chainsaw in person in his entire life. If now they tell him to go buy one and that he cannot pull Google or Amazon, the poor man has no idea which store to go to. MediaMarkt? The gardening section of El Corte Inglés? He wouldn’t know how to name a single chainsaw brand and he can’t explain how it FEELS to have one in hand. How much it weighs, what is its feel, if it empowers inside … And despite these shortcomings, the guy knows everything there is to know about chainsaws. It has tips and tricks for giving and gifting. Once he found the right store, be clear that he would not accept the help of any employee.
Because thanks to Gears of War, for example, that same editor is very clear about what model of chainsaw he wants: a lancer. And don’t try to sneak it in with a retro lancer or LG lancer. You are not going to overpay for miscellaneous shots like bayonets or grenade launchers. What I would also buy, just in case, is a paddle and a bit of zeal. If he learned something from Dead Rising 2, it is that there is only one weapon more powerful than a chainsaw … and that is the remo-saw. He even knows how to assemble it himself, without DIY tutorials and with a little glue on a workbench. You can even remove the bank. It is worth it with the kitchen table. You also know what a good chainsaw sounds like. How quality ones purr. Resident Evil 4 taught him to distinguish that terrifying timbre of voice and forced him to know how to calculate the distance that separates us from him. Now it can tell you, just by ear, how sharp it is and how many streets and rooms separate you from its bite, or how many steps behind you its wearer goes. And of course, Left 4 Dead made it clear to him that they run on gasoline and Doom reminded him that they are not only used to cut down trees, but also to get ammunition. I said, you know everything about chainsaws.
We have had several video game adaptations of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Evil Dead and Scarface, the three films that did the most for the image we have today of the chainsaw as an icon of terror and popular culture. And we don’t even talk anymore. In the photo, one of Leatherface in Dead by Daylight (2016).
The three acts of the chainsaw in the cinema
Because it was the seventh art that presented the candidacy of chainsaws to icon of terror and popular culture, but video games have been responsible for consolidating and perpetuating it. Those in charge of our transformation into chainsaw experts. And curiously, their evolution in this industry is very similar to what they followed in the world of cinema. An evolution that is perfectly summarized in three films: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974), Scarface (Brian de Palma, 1983) and Evil Dead 2 (Sam Raimi, 1987). Or what is the same, a first film in which we find the chainsaw in the hands of the villain. Also, a totally dehumanized villain, almost turned into a nightmare monster by “having no face” and not being able to speak well. Then comes a second example that also puts the weapon in the hands of “the bad guys”, but here these are normal, ordinary, vulgar people. Small-time gangsters and thugs, yes, but as human as anyone. And a third example in which it is the protagonist, “the good one”, who takes control of the weapon to impart justice and fight against monsters. That is to say, chainsaws have gone from the dream world, where their owners are “faceless men” like Leatherface, to the real world, where they fell into the hands of criminals who the public itself ended up snatching them to offer to their heroes and cry out. revenge. A bit sadistic.
Video games went through those same three phases. One of the oldest that comes to mind when thinking of chainsaws is undoubtedly Splatterhouse, from 1988, in whose third level we faced Biggie Man, a demon with a sack around his head and two chainsaws for arms. A first variant of the Leatherface stage, as would also be Zombies Ate My Neighbors, from 1993, in which one of the enemies directly looked like Jason Vorhees, from Friday the 13th, and chased us with the happy weapon through a labyrinth called Chainsaw Hedgemaze Mayhem . Years later we would still be trapped with a madman at the reins of a chainsaw, but it would be in House of the Dead 2 (1988), where our prison would be the Colosseum and the enemy, a giant monster called Type-205 and nicknamed Strength. But without a doubt, the maximum exponent of this phase would arrive in 2005 from the hand of Resident Evil 4 and the mythical Doctor Salvador, whom we already feared from the cover of the title. It was as influential and important for video games as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the imaginary moviegoer. This stage has had more recent successors and examples, such as Sadist, one of the final bosses of The Evil Within (2014), or as Sawrunner, from Cry of Fear (2013), an independent horror masterpiece (and as independent as that was born being a Half-Life mod). But none have brought her to the degree of purification and excellence that she achieved with Shinji Mikami and RE4.
The second phase of this classification, which shows to cover all the works with chainsaws, is the Tony Montana stage, and to it belong for example all the deliveries of GTA and Saints Row that succeeded Vice City (2002) and Saints Row 2 (2008) , in which he was already making an appearance. In both sagas there were moments in which this weapon fell into our hands, but at the end of the day we were also part of those small-time criminals that we talked about before, the thugs and gangsters. It was also one of the many items in the mixed bag, something residual, and it certainly didn’t have a horror focus. Chainsaws had passed into the hands of human enemies, they were no longer just a thing of monsters, and we found them in games like Full Throttle (1995), in whose mythical highway 9 appeared bikers armed with them who tried to shoot us down. They even appeared in sports titles like WWE (where the legendary Chainsaw Charlie was) and Evolution Snowboarding (where we fought enemies with chainsaw who were snowboarding down a mountain). But as we said, it was just one more option within the huge rival arsenal. A secondary and punctual object with hardly any prominence.
At first it was the weapon of terrible monsters that came out of our nightmares, then that of gangsters and criminals, to end up in the hands of the heroes and protagonists.
The chainsaws were slow to gain importance and be an extension of the protagonist, as in Evil Dead. The Tony Montana stage would encompass all those titles in which he had a practically anecdotal role, such as The Simpons Wrestling (2001), The Simpsons: Hit & Run (2003) and Fallout New Vegas (2010). In it we would also put all those games in which it served little more than a wink or tribute, either to the cinema or to other games. It happened with the chainsaw from Quake II (1997), which had in mind to pay tribute to Doom, and with the one from the first Silent Hill (1999), which was designed in the image and likeness of the one used by Ash in Evil Dead. Or in Conker’s Bad Fur Day (2001), where it barely served for its multiplayer and for one of the most memorable intros of Nintendo 64, with Conker breaking the console logo in half and dropping a “Stupid logo.” And of course in this category it would remain to include adaptations of the world of cinema such as Scarface: The World is Yours (2006). Because yes, we have also had several adaptations of the three films mentioned above, although of course nothing happens if we forget about them for today. Luckily, there was only one game of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but from Evil Dead we have had to suffer repeatedly thanks to The Evil Dead Videogame (1984), Evil Dead: Hail to the King (2000), Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick (2003) and Evil Dead: Regeneration (2005).
After the Leatherface and Tony Montana phases (with those parallels between The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Resident Evil 4, or between Scarface and the GTA saga, respectively), it would be the turn of the Ash Williams stage. It is the most recent and in it the chainsaw is already in the hands of the protagonists and the “forces of good”. It is true that this classification must be taken with a grain of salt, as we do not have an exact entry and exit date for each period. There were games of the nineties in which the chainsaw was already in our possession, it was important and it served to execute demons and save the earth (like Doom, obviously, which is from 1993). And no less true is that inventions such as Marcus Fénix’s lancer already had a precursor in Edgar’s chainsaw, a character from Final Fantasy VI (and who dates from 1994, having been born more than ten years before the CGO sergeant) . Despite these licenses, the greatest exponents of the Ash stage arrived well into the 21st century and did so in a staggered manner. These are the cases of Gears of War (2006), MadWorld (2008), Dead Rising 2 (2010) and Lollipop Chainsaw (2012).
How to make love to a chainsaw?
This selection of games has mastered the art of hacking enemies to the point of teaching us to make love to their chainsaws. In their classes, the first thing they made clear is that you have to call them by their name, and you also have to whisper it in their ear. Because there is no worse lover than the one who does not remember who you are and your name the next morning. Gears of War did not let the chainsaw be another weapon, on the contrary, it made it our main asset against the locust hordes and gave it a new and affectionate nickname: lancer. He even showed us where and how to play it, incorporating a unique reloading system that gave us more damage if we changed the magazine correctly. And if we did it at the wrong time, trigger. He was one of the most influential third person shooter of his generation and he pointed the spotlight around the world towards chainsaws, showing where to find his G-spot. But lancers also shoot, so for many they are not strictly speaking a chainsaw. To satisfy the most classic, the fans of the missionary position, MadWorld arrived just a couple of years later. Platinum Games collected what they learned and embodied it in the main weapon of Jack Cayman, his famous anti-hero. I change the refills and bullets for a special cooling system that forced us to know when to activate the chainsaw and when not to avoid overheating it. The developer created a drop-down chainsaw like an Assassin’s blade and even doubled it like a PS4 Pro. She even added several finishers to it. Jack’s adventure had no taboos and was a wild explosion of blood, sweat and saliva, as it should be. In addition, as it also had its tender and shy touch, MadWorld recommended us to turn off the lights in the room whenever we do it with a chainsaw, to highlight its forms and silhouettes. Although in his case he got the wrong button and instead of the light he turned off the color, leaving everything in white, black … and red. Perfect. Great.
Edgar Roni Figaro, from Final Fantasy VI (1994), and his particular lancer, the same thing cuts off a few espers that closes you a handful of wormholes full of locust. And that was ten years before E-day and Gears of War. In the image, his avatar in Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (2012).
The third to enter MadWorld’s dark room was Dead Rising, who proved that yes, it was even more cool. How about hundreds of enemies on the screen and two chainsaws linked by an oar for us to fight Darth Maul 2.0? Because there is only one saber crossing more sensual than that of two chainsaws, be it in Gears or in Dead Rising, and that is the one in Star Wars. But for sensual, the last of the examples that we put before, Lollipop Chainsaw. And we do not say it only because of its protagonist, Juliet Starling, who also, but because of the intelligence that her script wastes, which parodies the series B films to which the weapon has always belonged. Seeing is believing. Chainsaws laughing at themselves, reflecting on their gender and consideration. All this being the main weapon of a hack and slash difficult to forget. Metalanguage, breaking the fourth wall … As the slogan of Jot Dow Magazine says, Smart is the new sexy. And for those who are not so fond of personality and preliminaries, Lollipop had allowed to get to the point and implement a multitude of improvements to the weapon, such as the mode to decapitate zombies. After those four games, as after four years of a career, we were awarded our own diploma as chainsaw geisha.
The passage of chainsaws through the Leatherface, Tony Montana and Ash Williams phases is not only reflected in single video games, but also in some sagas and franchises. In Resident Evil, without going any further, the chainsaw was a constant presence after its consecration and repeated in all the numbered installments since then. But in Resident Evil 7 it went a step further and allowed us to handle it in a final battle, being us the ones who became a jagged threat. Something similar happened with Splatterhouse, which left behind the terrifying Biggie Man of the original title and in its 2010 remake, in the middle of the “Ash era”, equipped its protagonist, Rick Taylor, with his own giant chainsaw. In turn, in the aftermath of Silent Hill it became a regular reward after finishing the adventure, to see if that would embolden us and dare with a second round. And to these classic names that have changed, we should add the new additions, such as Shadow Warrior 2 and the multiple chainsaw massacres of Lo Wang; or like the Warhammer 40,000 games, where it is a common complement to the characters and also has its own name: chainsword. When the student surpasses the teacher.
Unforgettable the command-chainsaw that NubyTech marketed on PS2 and Gamecube on the occasion of Resident Evil 4. It was a special edition product, since only 50,000 numbered units were made. It is one of the few things that today is still worth more than copies of Resident Evil for Gamecube. (Damn Code Veronica speculators …)
Back to Cortana …
Sure we have left many names and moments in the pipeline, but you know how this goes, the best chainsaws are those whose gasoline is scarce. The less they let us use them, the stronger they are. And we don’t have gasoline for more. So let’s go back to the scene we mentioned at the beginning, that of Cortana, the 40,000 facts about the sun and the longing to know what it FEELS. Because we cheated, like Hitchcock in Panic on the scene. We have summarized the scene for you to reflect on why we know so much about chainsaws without ever having seen one. But we have not quoted Cortana’s final sentence, who at one point turns to the Master Chief, absorbed in his affairs, and says: “Before everything is over, promise me that you will find out who of us is the machine.” The Master Chief can feel everything Cortana would like, but if he doesn’t appreciate it, what’s the difference? What difference does it make?
Video games have taken chainsaws to a new level. They have reinforced the image that the cinema offered of them and have enhanced it and made it evolve within the collective imagination. Thanks to them we have lived and FEEL things that nobody would have thought of, such as putting ourselves in the shoes of the murderer, and not only in the official game of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but also in cases like Manhunt (2012) or Dead by Daylight (2016). We even discovered what our mascot would be like if we attached a chainsaw to it, something that Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (2013) illustrated perfectly with our beloved Blade Wolf. Chainsaws have been through all genres and types of adventure. From fighting games (with Alisa Bosconovitch from Tekken) to speed games (like Twisted Metal). They don’t offer the actual experience, but they offer one that we wouldn’t trade for anything … and that’s one of the reasons we fall in love with it. We may not know how chainsaws FEEL in real life. How much they weigh, what is their touch, if they empower inside, what brands are there or where they are sold. But we know many other things about them and we have many incredible experiences associated with them. Surely if we bought one we would get the same disappointment as when we discovered that polar bears do not have white fur. And it is that sometimes, simply, real life cannot equal fiction. Who of us is the machine?
