I would have never imagined the day would come when Saw was turned into a videogame. I mean, nearly every important character in a Saw movie dies, and dying is somewhat antithetical to what makes classic videogames fun. Though all the drama and rumors about possible cancelation, as well as the absurdly long development cycle, had me thinking that Saw was never going to make its way to a digital medium, Konami proved me wrong by saving this project before it bit the dust. Now we all have to ask “Was it worth it Konami?”

As Jigsaw says in his movies, “I want to play a game”. Unfortunately Saw: The Game isn’t much of one. It’s more of an interactive story, much along the lines of Indigo Prophecy or Wet, with some game elements forced in, and this is where it encounters its first failing. The story is just too little, too late. It is place sometime between Saw I and Saw II, but we are up to Saw VI now, and playing through Saw: The Game feels almost old hat. To retain movie continuity, most of the characters have to be loosely connected to the franchise’s meta-plot in the first place. Although the story, when looked at in its own bubble, is actually quite enthralling (if you are in to the whole Saw thing that is) die-hard fans won’t be able to help quirking an eyebrow more than once and asking themselves “why does this all matter.”

You know the writers are trying their best, as evidenced by the fact that I can’t even say the main character’s name without revealing some major plot spoilers. (It’s detective David Tapp. He survived being shot in the first movie.) Unfortunately, the experience is actually weakened for every Saw movie you have seen. For example, Amanda shows up, and the game somewhat expects you to not realize that she is working with the Jigsaw killer. Now, if you have watched all the movies, you not only know that Amanda is a bad guy, but you also know she died in Saw III, and considering that Amanda’s past was finally wrapped up in Saw VI, stories about her tend to interest fans less and less.

However, that being said, the story is actually the best part about this game, because the gameplay definitely isn’t. Once again, if you look at it in a bubble it actually spins a horrible tail around Tapp that ends with him either committing suicide or going insane (oh crap, more spoilers, my bad) and that is kind of cool. The problem is the game play is nothing like what we expected. All of Jigsaw’s traps are composed of quick-time events and casual game-esque puzzles with a thick layer of horror makeup painted over them. In fact, if it weren’t for the combat and the gore, the game would almost be a murderous timed version of Professor Layton, and this is where the game encounters another failing.

Jigsaw never cared about how you lined up gears, or made vials fall down pipes, or put oddly shaped fuses into fuse boxes. His traps were about how much you were willing to sacrifice to save your life or the life of someone else. The game could have included more psychological choices and played out more like a movie and I would have loved it, but instead it feels like the developers are shoving game down our throats even if we don’t want it to. This is even odder considering that cinematic games have recently seen such a massive resurgence.

Speaking of shoving game down our throats, Saw: The Game will eventually put you into combat with other people trapped inside Jigsaw’s game of death. Unfortunately, the combat controls in this game are ass of the highest caliber. You have to press a button to get into a ready stance, which zooms the camera in just far enough to be a hindrance. Then you jam on buttons to do weak or strong attacks, both of which are too slow to be of any use. You can pick up weapons but all of them are even slower and more unwieldy than your fists. You can block, supposedly, but this never seems to actually help. In the end, I spend most of my time avoiding combat simply because it made the game un-fun, and any time I was forced to fight to the death, I simply button mashed and hoped to survive.

Luckily enough, the graphics and sound of the game really do make it feel like the movies, and if you play the game in the dark (as bad as some aspects of it are) you do get that creepy nauseating Saw feeling you get from watching it on the big screen. The environments are dark, dirty, and blood splattered, and the graphics team made liberal use of color filters to make every scene in the game feel just like the tense scenes in the movie. Everything from the organs of a cut open man (who is still alive I might add) to the grisly death scenes involving explosive collars and other unique death traps, make you want to puke all over your console or PC. Everything is rendered in gory detail, and the fact that the game uses famous traps from the whole Saw series over again gives gamers a nice sense of nostalgia. This, of course has caused the game to come under fire for being needlessly gory, but that too gives Saw fans a feeling of nostalgia. The soundtrack is spot on as well, featuring the famous music from the feature films, and I am not sure fans would have accepted any less.

The only downside to the presentation is the voice acting, which is horrible … horrible! I am talking Resident Evil 1 horrible! There is a noted lack of feeling behind the lines of dialogue given by every character in the game, other than Jigsaw himself, who luckily enough was played by Tobin Bell, the same guy who plays him in the movies. This is the game’s third failing. These people are supposed to be dealing with life and death, but their dialogue is so flat it’s hard to take seriously.

When all is said and done, Saw is a very, very flawed game, but even through these flaws I see the potential the franchise has. Admittedly, adapting Saw into video game form was not an easy task, and I never really expected this game to be knock out of the park good. Still, the poor gameplay, the bad voice acting, and the fact that this game sort of “misses the point” of the Saw series really makes the game’s value take a hit. It’s not nearly worth the fifty dollar price tag, but if you are a quick game player, it may be worth a rent or two. On a personal level, I would like to see Konami try again. The game is selling unexpectedly well, even though most critics give it a 6 out of 10 at best. If they make enough money off of it, I would like to see the next iteration be an up to date installment that doesn’t try to shoehorn puzzles down our throat, and instead makes the most out of the interactive movie genre. If they do, I can easily see it becoming the next big horror game hit, and Konami produces Silent Hill so we know they have it in them to do horror. If not, well a combination of bad reviews and controversy over its graphic nature may put the final nail in the coffin for the franchise, way before it ever got off the ground. In short, as Jigsaw would say, live or die Saw: The Game, make your choice.

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