Horror is a difficult genre to pull off successfully in both the film & game industries. Creators have the choice of being daring and trying to be scary, however if unsuccessful it will just become a laughing stock or they can take the easy route out and just fabricate a horror style plot around a series of gory events.
If you aren’t familiar with the Saw franchise, it is a series of horror films that apply the approach of a horror style plot modelled around a series of grisly and elaborate death sequences. The films critical standing ranges from entraining but flawed to quick cash in over the franchises seven films.
As a fan of the films, even if the term fan is being stretched a bit thin in some of the films, I was excited to play the franchises first foray into videogames, suffice to say I could have spent my time better elsewhere.
Though the game does not require you to have knowledge of the film series, from the off it is obvious it was built for the fans with a plot that utilises many characters and traps from the films (and ultimately screws with the story established by the films by doing so), therefore basic knowledge of the overarching plot of the Saw films is probably best advised before you jump into the game.
You play as Detective Tapp, who despite being killed off in the first film is alive and well for the game. You have been locked in an asylum by the mastermind and antagonist of the franchise, Jigsaw, for the purposes of completing your test of survival. However, the inmates of the asylum have been put into their own game, where the only way to win is to kill you. As you progress you begin to learn more about Tapp's past and why he has been imprisoned for one of Jigsaw's games. Along the way you'll have to try and save people from some of the well known traps from the films in order to progress through the game.
Ultimately the story takes a back seat for the majority of the game as you are much more focussed on attempting to navigate the poorly designed levels which have more of an emphasis on trial & error rather than genuine skill. Littered around the tight hallways are insta-kill shotgun traps, trap rooms which you must solve the puzzle to in a very short amount of time in order to escape alive and dumb enemies that will either be impossible to kill or practically kill themselves due to some very poor A.I.
You can collect items laying around the environment to use as improvised weapons such as pipes, table legs, mop handles and returning icons from the films such as the infamous spiked bat. Combat itself is clunky, you have to ready your weapon and then chose either a light attack which is quicker but deals less damage, or a heavy attack which deals more damage but leaves you vulnerable for longer. Hit detection is a bit off with many hits simply sliding off your target but don’t worry, the enemy will never miss you so you'll soon be check-pointed back to a checkpoint 15 minutes previous. That's another problem with Saw, the lack of checkpoints & the long loading times for a game based entirely of having to do things multiple times to succeed; it makes you frustrated rather than feel challenged, and what's worse is the game isn't actually difficult.
As for puzzles, they all take the form of a short mini-game varying from shifting tumblers to open a lock, rearranging pipes to start/stop a flow of gas or rearranging a switchboards components to get the electric current flowing. None of them are challenging, but they are well designed and one of the few parts of the game that are actually very good. The more elaborate puzzles come in the form of traps and can range from memory tasks, perspective puzzles, logic puzzles or obstacle courses; all of which with a death clock ticking down to make you panic & attempt to trip you up. The puzzles are genuinely the best part of the game, with some great ideas of both scenarios and puzzle tasks which even if they repeat themselves occasionally you will welcome with open arms because they are tense, well designed and challenging for the right reason.
To be blunt, Saw looks like shit. Now this may be due to the actual inclusion of faeces smeared on the walls and floors in some areas but is more likely due to poor graphical design. Now whilst the game looks terrible, this benefits the environments and makes them look more like the films due to the lack of colour, grimy appearance and repetitive nature making it feel like you are in some sort of labyrinth. However, where I am letting it slide in terms of environments, character models look downright awful and animations are pathetic, not to mention hilarious.
The audio is just as bad, with the majority of the game having no audio accompaniment and it being the most forgettable and least interesting soundtrack I have ever heard when it is there makes it barley worthy of mention. The voice acting is also downright crap with only Tobin Bell making the transition from film to game to reprise his role as Jigsaw. All other characters have been re-casted for the game which as a fan is off-putting and the new voice actors are worse than the people who played them in the film which at times is hard to believe due to the films being known for their lack of actual acting talent.
Saw is simply an abysmal game, it doesn’t deserve to be played by anyone let alone fans. If you are a big enough fan of the films you'll get the game regardless and depending on how much it offends you by screwing up the source material will depend on how much you will defend it because it is a part of the franchise you love. As a fan of the Saw films I can well and truly say that I am ashamed this exists and is without a doubt one of the worst games I have ever played.
Saw – 2/10
+The Brilliant Puzzles
+Tobin Bell
-Bad Story That Goes Against Established Source Material
-Broken Gameplay
-Ugly
-Awful Voice Acting
