A brief bit of background. I am a massive Saw fan and so when I found out they were releasing the game at least month later than in the USA, I paid a visit to Movietyme, and got me a copy. And onto the review…
Saw is a third person survival horror title, with many parallels to the Silent Hill series. This is only made more apparent when the game flashes up the big Konami logos. For those of you who played through Silent Hill: Homecoming, that game gets a little bit Saw-esque towards the end, to that game’s detriment. But Saw works somehow.
The very first thing you see is your character Tapp (Yes Danny Glover’s character from the first movie.) in the Reverse Bear Trap, another throwback to the movies. You do a little quicktime event to get it off you before it snaps, and then it’s into the main game.
You have to wander around the asylum you’ve been trapped in, as Jigsaw isn’t done with Tapp, not by a long shot. After the events of Saw 1 (for those not in the know, Tapp broke the rules and entered Jigsaw’s lair without backup, causing the death of his partner) After this Tapp was discharged from the force and took the Jigsaw investigation into his own hands. For the record, the game is set between Saw and Saw II
Anyway the main game… The game is set out in this format: You start of in a specific part of the asylum, such as the cells or living quarters. You pick up a tape which tells you of the person in the set piece trap. You then wander round solving various puzzles and traps to get the key or items needed to gain access to the set piece room, where you have to solve more puzzles in order to save the victim. Repeat this five or six times throughout the game. It’s a format very close to the movies, just with the exploration parts in between each set piece, extending the life span, of roughly 10-11 hours, if you explore thoroughly.
Gameplay wise, it’s a very competent setup. It handles well, with some neat touches such as the different light sources. Three become available to you throughout the game (lighter, camera and torch) each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Those out for atmosphere (which this game has in spadefuls) should use the camera, as it illuminates for a second then goes dark again, and takes a few seconds to recharge. It’s utterly terrifying to use. Another neat little touch is the use of floor traps. These take the form of either tripwires attached to shotguns (instant kill, but can be disarmed if spotted in time, then reused, but more on that later) or the broken glass that litters the floor, and with your character barefoot, causes pain as you walk on it.
The main meat of the game is a selection of 5-6 puzzles that get repeated at various points throughout the game. These can take form of either making a complete circuit, using various size gears to make machines move and so on. Now while this may sound repetitive, I quite enjoyed it. They start off easy, but as you progress through the game, they get harder. Towards the end, you have to compete with two 81 square fuse boxes, and a timer of 7 minutes before the bombs go off and you die, having to start again. Tension doesn’t begin to describe it.
In terms of atmosphere, the game is definitely Saw. All the standards are in there, the ominous voice of Jigsaw coming out of nowhere (voiced by Tobin Bell, for extra authenticity), the dark rooms, the red numbered digital timers and all the various things Saw fans have come to know and expect.
Now on to the bad news, the game has a few small flaws, such as its darkness levels, and you may need to turn the gamma up to see the gas pipe puzzles. But it’s biggest flaw is the combat, which is for lack of a better term, broken. You hold L2 to switch to combat stance, and X is a light attack and Square is a heavy attack. Trouble is it takes so long for you actually swing you’ve been beaten to death before you can line up a hit. But combat can the majority of the time be avoided, by drawing the attacker to follow you into some sort of trap, like the afore mentioned tripwire. So long as you stay vaguely ahead of them, and can get it set up, 9 times out of 10 they’ll just blunder into it. See also; electrified puddles. Of course it is beneficial to kill people as trophies are attached to killing people and weapons used.
However the combat is dire, and it drags down what would otherwise be a very good game. The game runs on Unreal engine 3, so looks the business, and genuinely drips with pure menace. A mention should also be given to the story, which manages to not only fit in with the backstory, but having seen Saw VI before I finished the game, it also manages to allude to that movie as well, so doesn’t just smack of a cash in. This is largely in part to James Wan and Leigh Whannell, original creators of the Saw series writing the story and script for the game, and they’ve struck gold, and in combination with Saw VI, breathing life into a franchise coughing towards the end of its life.
Closing Comments: Saw is a cracking game, and with the disappointments Resident Evil 5 and Silent Hill Homecoming turned out to be, it proves it is possible to make a decent horror game that doesn’t rely on bang bang action. It’s a thinking mans horror game. But the poor combat system really hampers the game, and the constant repetition of puzzles may grate on some. But it’s definitely something that should be played. Though non Saw fans may not get some of the movie references, the game itself has a coherent storyline. At the very least, rent it for a week, cuz it’s a good game. Shame it got buried by Uncharted 2 in the USA and releases a week after MW2 here, so a sequel is unlikely. So in that respect it’s as far removed from the films series as possible!
Score: Gameplay-6
Graphics-7
Sound-7
Overall-7/10
