Written by: Ian

 

 

 

The "SAW" film franchise has been phenomenally successful- and is now on its six iteration. Therefore, its unsurprising perhaps that a game has come along. But, with so many licensed properties bombing- is this adaption any good?

 

The films themselves are increasingly of very mixed quality, intent on cashing in whilst they can on a yearly basis- so presumably the game follows the same principles?

 

The story of the game takes place in the asylum, and you play as detective Tapp, star of the films. However, I felt that whilst the episodic story of the game worked quite well (you move through floors of the asylum, each one holding a new victim), that you had to be quite a big fan of the films for the story to be entirely understandable. I’ve seen a couple of the films, and I guess missing out on some of them made their plots pretty nonsensical- but I was expecting the game to provide at least some background for players who perhaps wanted a new survival horror game.

 

But instead, you go straight into the game, and there’s no attempt to familiarise players with what’s going on at all- meaning that if you’ve never seen at least a couple of the films (and probably the majority of them, to be honest) then you’ll spend most, if not all of the game, feeling really, really confused.

 

SAW is a fairly traditional survival horror game, clearly taking influence from Condemned, old-school (and to a lesser extent, the newer) Resident Evils, and Silent Hill. You play in an over-the shoulder, 3rd-person view- but this is no action game.

 

 

Tapp moves slowly- he’s barefoot throughout, and there’s loads of broken glass on floors which you have to watch out for, and he also turns quite slowly too. Having said that, there’s not much need for fleet footedness- most of the minions in the game (the other combatants) move pretty slowly as well, and the majority of the game is about tension and puzzle solving under pressure, rather than outright scares.

 

Unfortunately, the scares are some of the better elements- as the puzzle solving gets old fast. Many of the challenges repeat over and over, as well as providing little challenge. Getting a key out of an acid barrel was fun the first time, but dull by the third- just a little more variety would have been nice. Also, most of the challenges are time based- like the films, which is good.

 

Most of the puzzles types (of which there are only 4-5 base types anyway), and all of the locks are not randomised. This makes a first runthrough very tense, and also fun, because the combination of graphics, sound and the clocks do make you sweat a bit. However, if you do fail, chances are you’ll breeze through the next attempt because it will all be the same. Having more random puzzles and locks would have also added some much needed replay value- there’s no incentive to play through on the hard difficulty at all, and a single playthrough will probably take most players only 5-6 hours, even with a few deaths, as checkpoints come left right and centre. It’s a real shame, because when the puzzles are randomised, frustration rarely set in, and kept me tense each time.

 

 

Combat is also pretty visceral and works well to, so it’s a shame about all the repeated models and voicework that spoil it a little too. There are a few quicktime events and other traps that get occasionally annoying because they are difficult to see- but the checkpointing means that they are rarely more than a minor frustration.