The Saw movies are certainly not favourites of mine, to be honest, I hate them. I find the horror movies pretty boring and the same can be said for the survival horror genre in videogames. They just don’t appeal to me whatsoever, so the thought of playing through a ‘survival horror’ videogame based off of the Saw movie franchise wasn’t the most appetizing of prospects to say the least.

So I started my playthrough ready to hate this game, but by the end I kind of appreciated it. That’s not to say the game is great, it’s far from it, but it’s not as terrible as a game based off of a series of, fairly mediocre, horror movies might sound. The game takes place between the first two movies in the franchise and you take control of Detective David Tapp, a minor character from the first movie, who’s trying to track down The Jigsaw Killer. You’re healed by Jigsaw after taking a bullet in the chest and taken to the, now abandoned, Whitehurst Asylum. The game starts with you trapped in the iconic reverse bear trap and you have to escape, otherwise your head will be in a million bits on the floor. Pretty standard stuff in the Saw universe I think you’ll agree.

Escaping traps like this requires you to complete a fairly simple quick time event. Once you’ve removed yourself from the jaws of death, it’s time to go get Jigsaw. Of course, it’s not going to be easy. Along the way you’ll come across a series of ‘tests’. These tests come in the form of people who’ve crossed paths with Tapp in the past. It’s in these tests I think Zombie Studios could’ve made this game a hell of a lot more interesting. These scenarios are basically a device for driving the story forward and I never really felt satisfied by the outcomes. I think this is a massive missed opportunity for some ‘moral choice’ gameplay. Getting to choose what happens to these people would’ve made a lot more sense gameplay-wise because that’s what the series is all about. Secondly it would’ve stopped the game from being just another mediocre survival horror. It’s not like this could’nt have been done either. There is choice involved at some points, but it isn’t enough to really have an impact on the game as a whole.

Story-wise I think fans of the movies will be pretty satisfied. The game follows the conventions of a Saw movie pretty well. There’s certainly scenarios that people will be used to by now, and that could prove a sticking point for some. Others might see the opportunity to get more of that wonderful Saw story too tempting not to pick this game up. Who am I trying to kid? No one, and I mean no one, watches those movies for the plot. There’s a few familiar faces here too, but it won’t affect the experience of non-fans, because they’re the same characters you’ve seen in every other torture porn (yes, that’s an actual genre now) movie going. This is a game for fans though, there’s no doubt about it. I certainly wouldn’t have played it had I not been reviewing it.

Besides the QTE’s in trap situations there are a number of other elements that make up this game, some of which came as quite a surprise. The majority of the game is a third person action game. You wander through the darkened, stereotypical, horror movie environments hitting other ‘game players’ with improvised weapons as they come at you and that’s about it. Combat feels really unresponsive and clunky. I didn’t expect much, but this is pretty bad. It’s certainly no Dead Space, that’s for sure. There are some puzzle elements here too. These usually involve Tapp foraging around inside a dead guy in the morgue or sticking his hand in a toilet bowl filled with feces and dirty needles. Oh these writers, so inventive. You’ll be happy to know then that the game isn’t really up to scratch in the graphics department, otherwise there’d be some stomach-churning moments.

Like the rest of the game, Saw is pretty average in the graphics department. Everything looks, pretty much, as it should. The environments are dark and menacing. Just the typical horror movie affair really. The one thing I appreciated was the lack of repetition in the environments. Sure, there was a little bit, but the majority looked different enough to the point where I never felt I was retracing my stepts, even though I was in a completely different area. The character models aren’t much to shout about either, they look alright, but with the amount of darkness employed in the game, it didn’t really make much difference to me. However, this might be different for the Saw die hard. The only real problem I had graphically was the texture pop in, thankfully it didn’t occur to often.

Another really nice presentation feature was the voice of Tobin Bell. He provided the distinctive tones of Jigsaw for the game and thank god. Without him I don’t think the character would’ve come across right at all. Speaking of Jigsaw, his omnipresence is key to the movies and it’s been captured perfectly here by Zombie. Sadly, Bell is the only Saw cast member to provide his voice for the game. The lack of Danny Glover wasn’t really a problem, but it would’ve certainly been a nice touch.

The one thing I really have to compliment Saw on is the scare factor. I wasn’t really expecting much as I can usually sit through a saw movie pretty unphased. This game really did have me on edge a lot of the time and, I’ll admit it, I played it exclusively during the day. The darkened asylum, combined with Jigsaw’s commentary really worked well and I think survival horror fans will enjoy their experience in Whitehurst. However, the game can get pretty repetetive so don’t go in expecting something fantastic. Konami could have a good franchise on their hands here, but much improving needs to be done before it can compare with the likes of Silent Hill and Resident Evil.

I want to play a game. Just not this one.

6/10

---

Popularity: 1% [?]