Saw: The Video Game | Review

Cole Burton Says Jigsaw is back, and this time he really wants to play a game. Straight out of the popular movie franchise, SAW, Jigsaw has come to the video game platforms Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 to play a game. This review does contain spoilers.

The game takes place right after the first Saw movie. You play as Detective David Tapp. Tapp was shot near the end of Saw and presumed dead; in Saw V, a funeral service was held for him.

The game attempts to make you feel like a pawn in Jigsaw’s game. You do not decide who lives and dies, which the game advertised, and the result is like playing a normal Resident Evil game. The only time you get to make a REAL choice of your own is at the end of the game, where you choose to go back and free everyone in the asylum and be free from your obsession, or you choose to seek the truth and capture Jigsaw. Neither ending is a happy ending.

The game lied about a couple of things. One being that you learn Jigsaw’s true intentions and the Fate of Lawrence Gordon, neither of which you do. Second, you DO NOT get to choose who lives and dies as advertised. Aside from these misconceptions, the game was pretty good. It had a great story but suffered from difficult puzzles and a pretty clunky combat system.

To all of those readers who play this game, I advise you to take pictures on a digital camera, PS3, or PSP and use the pictures for some of the harder traps. Trust me, It will be necessary at some points.

Throughout the game, you are being stalked by a pig-masked assassin whom the game calls Pighead. You do kill Pighead later in the game but you never discover who he or she is.

The traps in this game, not to be confused with the puzzles, are very interesting. You have enemies with Reverse-Bear traps from the first movie (Amanda wore one), Venus Fly traps from the second movie (Michael, pictured above, wore one), Shotgun Collars from the third movie (Lynn wore one), and Cube traps from the fifth movie (Straum wore one).

The Reverse-Bear trap is on other enemies in the insane asylum. If you stay away from them long enough, the timer goes off and the enemy’s jaw is permanently ripped open.

The Venus Fly trap is a mask with nails in the front and back, if you stay away from enemies with those on long enough, the timer will go off and the mask will close. You and other enemies wear these. If you get close to someone wearing one, both collars will blink. You have to get away from the enemy or your collar will go off, the enemy has to get close to you, or their collar will go off.

Finally, the cube trap is worn by stronger enemies. They cannot see you, but they can hear you. You can walk them into traps to kill them easily.

In addition to those traps, you can lay tripwires rigged with shotguns to kill others, use stun traps, gas traps, and even explosive traps.

All you have to do is get to the end of the asylum at any cost. There will be many puzzles, traps, enemies, victims to save, and evidence to collect along the way. There is also a wide variety of weapons, but the combat system is so awful, you should stick to your fists and the rare magnum. After you save every victim, they will all have something awful to say to you. It may make you wish you could have let some of them die.

In the end, this game is no where near perfect, but it’s a nice game for a fun play through and worthy of carrying on the Saw franchise. For those of you trophy and achievement hunters, they are rather easy in this game.

I, solidsnake222, give Saw: The Video Game an 8.0 out of 10.