Gameitall Hello Ghouls, it’s time for another review, for today’s segment, we enter a game of cat and mouse in a famous serial killer asylum in SAW.
In Saw, you play as Detective Tapp, which some of you will remember as being Danny Glover’s character in the first movie. The Game falls into the actual timeline of the series falling in place between Saw and Saw II. When we last saw Tapp, he was shot in the chest by the fake Jigsaw.
Now Tapp is having a really crappy day. Not only was he shot, but he wakes up in an rundown bathroom with a “reverse bear trap” on. The TV in front of him shows a strange little doll, and the voice of his nemesis Jigsaw (Tobin Bell.) ” Your life has been nothing but chasing me, it has taken your job, your family and even the life of your partner, Now you will learn that there is more to life then just me, survive my trap, and you will see the damage I have caused you.”…. Well, crap. After surviving the first trap, you are forced into a game of cat and mouse in Jigsaw’s first Big trap, set up by him and Amanda. The worst part, all the traps are intended to kill you, and so are the victims, for you have the key to their salvation… INSIDE YOU!
Saw plays out like Silent Hill: Homecoming, it’s slow and more puzzle oriented with a story that actually wants you to keep going. That being said, the game feels like a point and click game then a survival horror, although there is plenty of it to go around.
The main part of the game is surviving the various traps and puzzles, for example, finding a key in a toilet of used syringes. Your character has to avoid traps like broken glass, shotgun rigged doors and spikes. Now some of the traps a fairly easy or interesting QuickTime events, but later in the game they tend to become more difficult, still the answer is usually right under your nose, you just have to look around at your environment to tell.
The combat is where the game feels like it’s lacking, all the weapons are melee (and one gun) But they don’t seem to do much damage to the inmates, unless you use the counter system which kills the inmate instantly. Since the combat isn’t such a big thing in this game, this game is more about the psychological horror.
Like the movies, Saw is dark, graphically and content wise, they use the same engine as Silent Hill: Homecoming, but show off more of it’s lighting effects, for example, throughout the game you have a source of light, in the start come from a lighter, while you don’t see much, it does do the job. Later on you get different types of flashlights, to allow more visibility, even to the point of a camera, which makes for a extremely difficult trap to beat.
Overall Saw has an great story worthy of the original 2, graphically it brings out the some of the best lighting that the 360/ps3 has to offer, but combat really kills the experience.
Saw – 7/10
Pros – Great story, awesome lighting effects, some really neat traps from the series, Tobin Bell voice over for Jigsaw is top notch.
Cons – Combat feels slow and tacky, the ending (while fitting of Saw) is bad.
