To begin, I’ll openly say I was impressed, I played the demo of this a year ago when it was in the hands of Brash Entertainment, and within a year Konami turned it from broken garbage into a serviceable survival horror.
mmmmmmm headgear
This game is great for a few types of people: those who love survival-horror games, those who are into the Saw series (namely the first movie), or achievement whores. The game doesn’t have the best character models ever or the best graphics in the world, but in a way it’s part of the delivery, the grittiness doesn’t take anything away from the atmosphere or the story. You play as Detective Tapp, and like the movies Jigsaw has set you into one of his traps, only this isn’t totally about you as you are set to save those who’s lives you’ve directly or indirectly destroyed in the process of chasing down the madman. The game does the quick cut scenes at times to show you the layout of a trap or an area very much like the movies do, and gives you a glimpse into a classic survival-horror, as you are always switching out or digging for new weapons due to lack of ammo, or breaking bats. Being what it is, Saw is more focused on the puzzles than the combat aspect. Even the combat encourages you to avoid direct confrontation by laying or re-arming traps, electrifying someone in a puddle of water if possible, or simply bolting a door shut to avoid a fight for a bit. The puzzles are entertaining and challenging at times as well, sometimes it’s just seeing things from a certain point of view, other times it’s logic or even trial and error. The achievements are easy to get if you pay attention to them, some are story based, the ones that aren’t are not head-scatchers at all. If you beat the game 1000 points shouldn’t be too hard to obtain.
- graphics 7
- Audio – 8
- Gameplay – 7
- Replay – 7
- Overall – 7.25 / 10 (7.75 if you are into the things I mentioned in the review)
To order SAW on Amazon, just click the link.