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The 13 Best Uses of Chainsaws in Video Games

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If you’re visiting this site I’m going to go ahead and take a leap of faith by saying a majority of you are insatiable gorehounds. You appetite for all things red and squishy is bottomless. If when the on-screen psycho revs up his chainsaw gets your nether regions aflutter, than this is definitely the list for you.

Other than being one of the most terrifying tools created by man, the chainsaw is also a weapon favored by many an iconic serial killer or out of control madman. The sound it makes is unmistakable, and when you hear it, you know someone’s day is about to get ruined. Head past the break for thirteen of the most bloody and brutal chainsaw appearances in video games. Just make sure you have the stomach for it first. There’s nothing quite as gross as cleaning vomit off a keyboard. Ick.

Doom

In the original Doom, the chainsaw was a coveted weapon because of the amount of damage it could deal in a short amount of time. The weapon was even parodied in Doom 3, where a shipment of them was sent to Mars by mistake. How convenient.

Silent Hill 2

I love horror films and I love horror video games, so when the two collide I’m happier than a hobo with a shotgun. In Silent Hill 2, one of, if not the best game in the series, there’s an Easter egg that many gamers might’ve missed. After you’ve completed the game and have a gasoline tank in your possession you can get the chainsaw. Besides being uber-powerful, this chainsaw is extra special because it was modeled after the one in Evil Dead.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Other than being the oldest game on this list, Texas Chainsaw Massacre is also one of the worst. It was just a bad, bad video game, and not just because it didn’t have a robust conversation system or intuitive combat. This is one of the first licensed games to suck, and this tradition has been kept by a plethora of awful licensed releases since. On the positive side, it did let you jump into the tattered shoes of Leatherface and let you stomp around cutting down helpless teens along the way. I feel it deserves some respect because it was banned from many stores for its violent nature, so in a way, it helped pave a way for future violent games to come.

Manhunt

Manhunt is memorable for a number of reasons. It was highly controversial because it let you perform some insanely twisted executions on your unsuspecting enemies. Suffocating someone with a bag over their head was disturbing partly because of how realistic it was at the time, but mostly because it gave you the opportunity to really let loose your inner psycho as you watched your flailing foe slowly go limp. As if that weren’t enough, at one point in the game you get a chainsaw, which many of us then used to kill even more people in unspeakable ways.

Splatterhouse

I’m just going to go ahead and admit something: I’ve never actually finished a Splatterhouse game. I came pretty damn close to finishing the reboot, but that took every ounce of will and determination I could muster, and I still didn’t finish it. Each game in the series has a chainsaw in it. The first introduced us to Biggy Man, a creature that had dual chainsaws for arms, the sequel (literally) threw a possessed chainsaw at us, and the reboot brings back Biggy Man, only this time around you actually get to use a chainsaw against him.

MadWorld

Continuing the alarming trend of chainsaw arms is MadWorld’s Jack. This overlooked Wii brawler answers that age old question of what exactly is black and white and red all over? It was easy to love because of its fun, over the top, and moderately deranged personality. It’s just unfortunate it came out for a console whose audience had very little interest in it. But because it rewarded you for dispatching your foes in the most creative and fucked up ways possible, it deserves a spot on the list.

Silent Hill: Homecoming

This one technically isn’t a chainsaw, but it’s so badass that I just don’t care. Homecoming wasn’t the most memorable Silent Hill so far, mainly because it was just too generic. It’s also not a great sign if a video game franchise inspires a film adaptation, then the games start taking inspiration from the film (I’m looking at you, Resident Evil.). One of the problems with Homecoming was your character, who because of his military training could quickly beat down pretty much any enemy the game through at him. This bothered me until I got the circular saw, and realized how much fun it is to cut down every twisted creature the town sent my way. It also didn’t hurt that the weapon was taken straight out of one of my favorite recent horror films, the French flick High Tension. That severed head scene in the murderer’s truck — anyone who’s watched it should know what I’m talking about — will stick with me forever.

Dead Rising 2

Arguably the biggest selling point, and the only real reason to check out the Dead Rising series is the crazy arsenal of weapons you can use to cut, burn, freeze, blast, bludgeon, and electrify the unrelenting hordes of zombies that are thrown your way. A football bomb? Aww, that’s cute. How about a teddy bear turret? How quaint. What about a motocross bike with dual chainsaws attached to it? Now we’re talking. If this series has taught us anything it’s two things: the first lesson learned is in a zombie apocalypse, a chainsaw is a man’s best friend. The second thing is even a macho zombie slayer can mow down hordes of the undead in 3 inch pumps.

Left 4 Dead 2

I loved the hell out of 28 Days Later and its sequel, so when Left 4 Dead came out and gave us a taste of the more agile Rage zombie, I was immediately hooked. Then Left 4 Dead 2 took everything to the next level in terms of weapons, where the chainsaw finally made its bloody debut. Sometimes those last few steps to the safe room are the hardest, especially when your team is weak, the ammo is scarce, and there’s a river of zombies coming toward you. The chainsaw remedied this by giving us the chance to cut them down like a hot knife through butter, or better yet, like a chainsaw through an infected’s midsection. Good times.

Dead Island

If you played through the entirety of Dead Island and don’t remember seeing a chainsaw, don’t worry; it’s totally understandable that you missed it. The weapon is actually an Easter egg, and it’s not an easy one to find. In the Jungle level if you look hard enough you’ll come across a shack surrounded by swamplands. Standing in front of this shack is a rather large Thug named Jason. That’s right, fucking Jason Voorhees is in Dead Island. Once you take him out, albeit temporarily because anyone who’s seen a Friday the 13th film knows he’s coming back, you can find his chainsaw in the shack. It would’ve been more fitting to find a unique machete, but I’m not one to complain about a free chainsaw.

Dead Space 2

In the first Dead Space, I wasn’t entirely sold on the Ripper, but in the second, it ended up being one of my favorite weapons. Because Dead Space 2 is brimming with pint-sized Necromorphs that tend to come at you in packs, the Ripper is a fantastic tool for shredding their scrawny asses quickly. And come on, I mean, what’s cooler than a gun that holds a spinning saw blade in mid-air so all you have to do is hold the trigger and watch the giblets fly? Nothing, that’s what.

Resident Evil 4

While I’m sure an overwhelming majority of us aren’t too fond of the sound a chainsaw makes, I’m positive that Leon Kennedy has grown to fear that buzzing sound more so than a fleet of clowns riding giant charging spiders. I can’t tell you how many times a chainsaw-wielding bag-faced bastard caught me while I was sliding a fresh clip into my gun, forcing me to watch in horror as Leon took a chainsaw blade to the chest.

Gears of War

The Lancer is almost definitely the most iconic chainsaw in all of video games. It’s brutal, efficient, and the chainsaw attachment is exponentially more fun to use than that stupid bullet firing feature the Lancer has. When my grandpa wasn’t telling me how he used to walk five miles in the snow, uphill both ways, to get the mail or somethings, he always told me “It’s way more satisfying listening to the gargled screams of a man as you tear through his spine with a chainsaw!” Also, my grandpa’s a serial murderer.

Now we’re at that part of the article where you call me names and tell me what I missed. Get to it people, I’m ready for your burning hatred.

Toss Adam an email, or follow him on Twitter and Bloody Disgusting

Gamer, writer, terrible dancer, longtime toast enthusiast. Legend has it Adam was born with a controller in one hand and the Kraken's left eye in the other. Legends are often wrong.

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One of Clive Barker’s Final Convention Appearances Will Be at New Jersey’s Monster Mania in August

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Clive Barker

We told you earlier this month that horror legend Clive Barker is leaving the convention scene behind to focus entirely on his writing, with various upcoming projects in the works.

A series of final appearances from Barker will begin at Days of the Dead Chicago this month, and we’ve learned Barker will also be coming to Monster Mania in New Jersey.

Clive Barker will be signing at Monster Mania 59 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, which runs from August 2 – August 4, 2024. Stay tuned for more info from the convention.

Barker’s official statement earlier this month explained, “… it’s time to focus entirely on writing. I’m not stopping public events because I’ve lost delight in meeting you all over the years. I’m as passionate as ever about sharing my imagination with readers and moviegoers around the world. In the very room where I’m writing these words, I have the manuscripts for a very large number of projects (Thirty-one of them), some very close to completion, others still telling themselves. There are some wild projects in this collection of works, whether close to finished or done. There are also stories that you all knew I would be finishing.”

“Abarat IV and V are amongst the books at my feet,” he continued. “So is the Third and final book of The Art and the sequel to The Thief of Always. There are also return visits to characters and mythologies you may have thought I would never return to.

“I hope I am still able to surprise you in the decades ahead.”

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