Saw is a flawed but nonetheless fascinating experiment. With some time and polish, this could be a fantastic game.
When I saw this game advertised, I went "WTF" because I wondered how in the hell "Saw" could be made into a video game. Yet like the endless sequels to the movies, I was curious and drug in. The shocking thing is: Saw is a decent game. No masterpiece mind you, but believe it or not with some polish.... it COULD be. Saw is very experimental and brings a surprisingly large plate of fresh new ideas to the Survival Horror table.
The game follows Detective David Tapp, who fans will remember as Danny Glover's character from the first film, who was nursed back to health by Jigsaw after taking a bullet in the first film. The game begins with Tapp in the familiar Reverse Bear-Trap, and upon freeing himself he finds himself trapped in an asylum filled with Jigsaw's traps and games. He must survive, but he must also save the lives of various peoples who he has wronged. The games set up for these people all have a catch, once their game begins their fate is entirely in the hands of Tapp. The games are set up so Tapp can either use the device to save their lives or to kill them. Save them, or live with the burden of knowing you have taken a life when you could have easily saved one. It's a smart way of presenting these elements, and is certainly smarter than any of the film sequels.
The games plot takes place between the events of the first and second films, and is surprisingly coherent for something bearing the "Saw" title. Fans of the film will enjoy the plot as it fills in a surprising amount of holes and thankfully doesn't dig any new ones up.
The graphics are a very mixed bag. On one hand, the environments are terrific. The games environments are creepy and definitely look at home in the "Saw" series. The traps are detailed and you will see many traps from the films as well as many new ones. Yet when it comes to character modeling and animation, it is extremely ugly. I don't think I've ever seen stiffer character animations than the ones on Detective Tapp, who might as well be an action figure. In fact when he turns on his lighter his arm literally vanishes for a second before snapping into a specific position holding the lighter.
Tapp himself also looks strange. Remember how he looked at the end of the movie? Remember how after Sing died he was washed up; becoming overweight? How about the fact that he was relatively old and was starting to gray? Let's not forget the fact he has some severe scars. Well, apparently after getting shot and nursed back to health he managed to lose that weight, perm and trim his hair, shave his beard completely and most impressive of all he managed to go from being about 50 years old to somewhere around 22 years old.
The enemy animations are a bit better, but not a whole lot and there is a weird glitch where their arms and legs will be ramrod stiff and their textures will smooth out to a matte white.
The gameplay itself is a mixture of a puzzle game and a survival horror game, which is the logical route to take. You will often have to pay attention to the environment to pick up clues for an upcoming game or to progress, and many of the games themselves require you to think on your toes to survive. The environment is probably the most prominent enemy in the game. Jigsaw took away your shoes, leaving you with bare feet and he didn't care to hire a janitor seeing as glass, nails, splintered wood and the like are a constant hazard and will cause you to bleed and lose health when you step on them. Then there is always a chance that the door you see up ahead will be rigged with a shotgun, and who knows if the dark is concealing a tripwire that will lead Tapp to his untimely demise.
Then there are the enemies, which are other people Jigsaw has captured. You have a key in your stomach and that key is something of a skeleton key that can free everyone of Jigsaw's lackeys from their own traps. That is their motivation. Their actions are based on the traps they wear. The first kind you meet have the reverse bear traps, and they will charge you due to the ticking clock. Later on you meet some fellows in these strange cubes, who cannot see you but can hear you and if they hear you, they will feel for a nearby object and start swinging wildly and will follow the sounds you make. You can deal with these folk with makeshift weapons, but these weapons break very easily and you must think about whether or not it's a good idea to waste the weapon when a tougher enemy could be nearby. You can also run like hell, which leads to some very intense moments. You can lock and bar doors, as well as block them. It is very intense to run away from an enemy, especially when they start wielding projectile weapons, barring doors and then high tailing it and praying they don't catch up. You can also make traps yourself, or re-arm traps you have bypassed and then lure them to their doom.
One of the most interesting parts using the enemies with traps attached is during the second level, where you are forced to wear a shotgun collar. Every inmate on this level has a shotgun collar attached as well, and when you come near an inmate with a collar it will trip a small detector in the collars. Your collar will begin to blink, as will theirs; but the difference is their collar is now on a timer. They only have a short time before the collar kills them, and they will charge you. Yet the closer they get to you, the faster your collar will blink and the closer YOU are to death. If they get so much as two arm-lengths close to you, you are dead meat. This means you cannot use weapons, and your only choice is to run until their collar goes off but they themselves are extremely fast. This is easily one of the highlights of the game, as it becomes extremely tense.
The problem with the gameplay stems from controls, repetition, and poor puzzle design. Puzzles often repeat themselves and even then, they are often very easy. They will give themselves away in certain areas and it doesn't help when these kinds of puzzles repeat themselves numerous times. This makes the game tedious, and the controls don't help. I swear the controls were designed to show the player all the different ways Tapp can die, because they are a hindrance in every area except for the puzzles. To combat enemies, you must change to a completely different control scheme. Swinging weapons is sticky and delayed, it literally takes 15 seconds from hitting a button for Tapp to actually react. This means you have to learn to time your attack based on distance, which is not a good thing. Then there are some annoying platforming sequences where the controls are so sensitive that if you so much as push the stick a quarter of the way, you are doomed.
The only puzzles that really remain interesting throughout are the ones I like to call the Boss Puzzles. The Boss Puzzles appear at the end of each level, and take the form of the aforementioned traps where you must save or kill someone. The first few don't allow you to kill them or else you lose, and some will kill you if you lose, but later on you can lose them and continue the game - which will have a negative effect on the ending. The Boss Puzzles range from simple to complex, but they are all a tense race against the clock and the devices themselves are all unique in design.
Overall, the Saw game is far from perfect and it feels very experimental. With some polish, this could actually be a very good game. The game has a thick atmosphere and while not terrifying, it can be very intense and suspenseful. Here is hoping that the upcoming sequel fixes these flaws, because there is a lot of potential here. If you aren't a "Saw" fan you best stay away, the game is gruesome; certainly not as graphic as the films, but just as twisted. Yet if you've followed the series and want a good way to spend a weekend, this game is worth a look even if it has some dull edges.