Note to the original review
Susan, you're great and so far I really enjoyed your work. Even though I was looking forward to Saw the Game after your review. I, as a gamer / horror-thriller fan, am afraid it flopped. I started playing yesterday afternoon (only found out 2 days earlier it was out in Europe) and I must say for a movie based game its good. However that doesn't make the game good. I'll explain my point of view and everyone can flame me after for all I care.
Susan's Review can be found here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/6670-Review-Saw]
First glance
The movies themselves stopped being interesting after Saw II so they made a great choice creating a game around movie facts that most people would remember (the none-Saw-fans out there and those who stopped paying attention after they turned off Saw III halfway for sucking beyond worse than a sequel to Jaws). The game in atmosphere does have a lot to offer. Dark surroundings, traps, blood everywhere, good music, cassette players and creepy noises. The highpoint being the Jigsaw voice and case files scattered around the gameworld. However this is also where the game stops being interesting and starts getting boring.
Actual excitement
I'm pretty sure I'm now half way through the game and already I had to stick my hand down so many toilets filled with needles, it becomes more a drag than an actual scary sequence. Same goes for the shotgun traps, switchboard puzzles, lock picking, pipe-cog puzzles and gear puzzles. If they'd have taken half of them out this game would probably have felt more thrilling. There are too many small "traps" in this game for it to be a realistic Saw environment. The big thing you're in this game for is the timer challenges where actual lives are at stake. They could have taken half the small work out, but then they would probably be left with a game that takes every Zylom, Nitrome or Miniclip junky about 30min to finish.
Edge of your seat moment
Where the movies have moments (and yes, I've seen them all) where you sit on the tip of your seat thinking "OMG, is he/she really doing that" making you feel the pain of the person going through it. The game actually misses this point completely by not really pulling you in far enough. So far only the first big timer-puzzle you'll get has the factors right. You are actually suffering with the person trapped.
With all the other traps it becomes more of a question "will I see how this person gets tortured and not do anything or save this person by solving the puzzle?" Sicko that I am, I usually go for the first and than the second. Unlike the movie, if you picked the "lets see him squeal" option you'll have to do the puzzle anyway to get any further in the game. In the movies this is sometimes not an issue. Someone dies you get to live with blaming yourself for it. I understand that for a game its good to make people solve puzzles to continue, but it would have been nice if they'd involved getting something special for choosing to let someone live or die. The one game where Moral choice would have made a difference.
Fighting your controls
Like any survival horror game there's a fighting element in this one. First let me highlight a good thing about them. They are generally scary in a Saw kinda way. Shotgun collars linked to yours, guys with detonators bound to their hand, etc. They deliver a good challenge and can be sorted out "none-violent" by making the dumbass run into one of the traps in a room or made by yourself. Now it slides downhill.
Soon enough you'll think Jigsaw runs some sort of an employment office. There's so many people trapped in this asylum it becomes unrealistic for one man
to actually set this all up. On top of that comes the weapons. I'm playing the PC version, cause I still think consoles are for people who haven't got 10 fingers, and it became very frustrating once you find out you're better off not using a weapon instead of fighting the controls while using a baseball bat.
Let us talk about the main figure. He's a rogue detective. I assume this guy know his way around weapons. Fabricated or homemade ones. Beating someone manhunter style shouldn't be this hard for someone who had police training. More than once I got cornered and because you aren't able to dodge anymore you'll suffer the terrible fate of standing still and getting you head kicked in. Or dropping your weapon and fisty punch your way out if you're fast enough and not stunned all the time.
Finer details
The puzzles are all pretty much borrowed from your standard puzzle websites and popcap games. I hope there will be some more different puzzles cause right now the only ones I keep looking forward to are the ones with people strapped in a Jigsaw contraption.
Besides that there are clues scattered around on the psychiatric case of Jigsaw. These are mixed in with details of the asylum.
The asylum files I found have so far (remember, only half way through) shown no use what-so-ever. They don't even add to the Saw story. They are as far as I can see a story on themselves and it wouldn't have made a link of difference leaving them out for us so we could focus on the actual Jigsaw files. I seriously hope these eventually lead to something.
Conclusion
The main question I've been asking myself while writing this down is "will I continue playing this game". My honest answer would be "yes", no capital y. If you can set aside all the things bad about this game, the core puzzles are appealing enough for me to actually see what there's still left. However this won't become a game that I'll play in one sitting. Its a game you ever so often jump into to do a quick (not counting the walk to it) puzzle. Even though this game has nothing scary to it for a Saw game. I'm pretty sure if you got a really cool grandma or a set of gaming parents you can recommend this game to them. It'll thrill their pants into a nice brown color. To me and probably most gamers that have been playing for a while, its just a puzzle game trying to be scary while it isn't.
Susan, you're great and so far I really enjoyed your work. Even though I was looking forward to Saw the Game after your review. I, as a gamer / horror-thriller fan, am afraid it flopped. I started playing yesterday afternoon (only found out 2 days earlier it was out in Europe) and I must say for a movie based game its good. However that doesn't make the game good. I'll explain my point of view and everyone can flame me after for all I care.
Susan's Review can be found here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/6670-Review-Saw]
First glance
The movies themselves stopped being interesting after Saw II so they made a great choice creating a game around movie facts that most people would remember (the none-Saw-fans out there and those who stopped paying attention after they turned off Saw III halfway for sucking beyond worse than a sequel to Jaws). The game in atmosphere does have a lot to offer. Dark surroundings, traps, blood everywhere, good music, cassette players and creepy noises. The highpoint being the Jigsaw voice and case files scattered around the gameworld. However this is also where the game stops being interesting and starts getting boring.
Actual excitement
I'm pretty sure I'm now half way through the game and already I had to stick my hand down so many toilets filled with needles, it becomes more a drag than an actual scary sequence. Same goes for the shotgun traps, switchboard puzzles, lock picking, pipe-cog puzzles and gear puzzles. If they'd have taken half of them out this game would probably have felt more thrilling. There are too many small "traps" in this game for it to be a realistic Saw environment. The big thing you're in this game for is the timer challenges where actual lives are at stake. They could have taken half the small work out, but then they would probably be left with a game that takes every Zylom, Nitrome or Miniclip junky about 30min to finish.
Edge of your seat moment
Where the movies have moments (and yes, I've seen them all) where you sit on the tip of your seat thinking "OMG, is he/she really doing that" making you feel the pain of the person going through it. The game actually misses this point completely by not really pulling you in far enough. So far only the first big timer-puzzle you'll get has the factors right. You are actually suffering with the person trapped.
With all the other traps it becomes more of a question "will I see how this person gets tortured and not do anything or save this person by solving the puzzle?" Sicko that I am, I usually go for the first and than the second. Unlike the movie, if you picked the "lets see him squeal" option you'll have to do the puzzle anyway to get any further in the game. In the movies this is sometimes not an issue. Someone dies you get to live with blaming yourself for it. I understand that for a game its good to make people solve puzzles to continue, but it would have been nice if they'd involved getting something special for choosing to let someone live or die. The one game where Moral choice would have made a difference.
Fighting your controls
Like any survival horror game there's a fighting element in this one. First let me highlight a good thing about them. They are generally scary in a Saw kinda way. Shotgun collars linked to yours, guys with detonators bound to their hand, etc. They deliver a good challenge and can be sorted out "none-violent" by making the dumbass run into one of the traps in a room or made by yourself. Now it slides downhill.
Soon enough you'll think Jigsaw runs some sort of an employment office. There's so many people trapped in this asylum it becomes unrealistic for one man
(and woman, for those who saw the movies)
Let us talk about the main figure. He's a rogue detective. I assume this guy know his way around weapons. Fabricated or homemade ones. Beating someone manhunter style shouldn't be this hard for someone who had police training. More than once I got cornered and because you aren't able to dodge anymore you'll suffer the terrible fate of standing still and getting you head kicked in. Or dropping your weapon and fisty punch your way out if you're fast enough and not stunned all the time.
Finer details
The puzzles are all pretty much borrowed from your standard puzzle websites and popcap games. I hope there will be some more different puzzles cause right now the only ones I keep looking forward to are the ones with people strapped in a Jigsaw contraption.
Besides that there are clues scattered around on the psychiatric case of Jigsaw. These are mixed in with details of the asylum.
The asylum files I found have so far (remember, only half way through) shown no use what-so-ever. They don't even add to the Saw story. They are as far as I can see a story on themselves and it wouldn't have made a link of difference leaving them out for us so we could focus on the actual Jigsaw files. I seriously hope these eventually lead to something.
Conclusion
The main question I've been asking myself while writing this down is "will I continue playing this game". My honest answer would be "yes", no capital y. If you can set aside all the things bad about this game, the core puzzles are appealing enough for me to actually see what there's still left. However this won't become a game that I'll play in one sitting. Its a game you ever so often jump into to do a quick (not counting the walk to it) puzzle. Even though this game has nothing scary to it for a Saw game. I'm pretty sure if you got a really cool grandma or a set of gaming parents you can recommend this game to them. It'll thrill their pants into a nice brown color. To me and probably most gamers that have been playing for a while, its just a puzzle game trying to be scary while it isn't.
