Saw Review [PS3] Page 2

24 Nov 2009 at 15:56:49 by Tim McDonald
Systems used to review this title: (PS3)

Other nice touches are similarly overused. Jigsaw has rigged up plenty of areas around the asylum with shotguns connected to tripwires. You can disarm them to pass through, and can even re-arm them later to kill enemies. This is all fair enough, except that they can be rather hard to see. The idea, presumably, is to make you slow down rather than rush through the asylum. The problem is that levels can be empty but large, and carefully checking the path ahead of you at all times feels like artificial lengthening of what is otherwise a pretty short game. It gets worse as checkpointing becomes more sporadic. Having a checkpoint, walking down a corridor, and then having another checkpoint is one thing. Having a checkpoint, fending off three goons, solving a puzzle, avoiding a room full of shotgun tripwires, fending off another goon, and then walking into a nigh-invisible shotgun tripwire and having to start back at the beginning is infuriating – and, again, anger and repetition are both of very good ways of reducing any sort of fear the game has built up.

Shotgun collars suffer the same fate. A little way into the game, Tapp is fitted with a collar that will blow his head open if he gets too close to an enemy wearing the same collar, so these enemies need to be avoided until their own collar detonates. Initially, hearing the tell-tale beeping is terrifying – you run, slam doors shut behind you, bolt them, shove boxes in the way, and continue running. After a few chapters, you realise that shutting doors is pretty pointless because as long as you don't back into a dead end, they will die long before they get close to you. It's even simpler once you gain the ability to set traps of your own, or one of the game's rare guns.

As such, what starts as an incredibly atmospheric puzzle game with shit combat turns into a slow, dull, and incredibly repetitive trek through a largely empty environment that will kill you if you move too quickly. With shit combat. Really, really shit combat.

It's saying something when punching is the best method of surviving in a game filled with weapons. It's saying something else when you walk into a room filled with shotgun traps and an enemy with a metal box on his head (no, really) and instead of carefully leading him through them, you hit him once in the head with a nail bat, he dies, and the game congratulations you for “Killing the Berserker.” Hysterical laughter based around the fact that something was apparently supposed to be a boss is also a pretty good tension killer, believe it or not, as with so many other things in this game. Even when bosses are properly signposted, as with the closest thing the game has to a final boss, things don't get much harder, with constant punching doing sod all damage but being a sure path to victory.

And when the repetition really gets to you and you start coasting through the game, you have time to think, which is not a good thing. Tapp doesn't have any shoes, and so walking on broken glass does a little damage, but there are plenty of bandages around that heal you – can't he wrap his feet in them to prevent this damage? How did Jigsaw manage to capture a few hundred people and lock them all in asylum? Why has no-one outside noticed the regular bomb explosions? Where the hell did Jigsaw get 600 TVs from? Why is it that fishing around in toilet bowls full of syringes for keys can kill Tapp if he takes too long and the “pain” threshold gets too high, but it doesn't actually inflict any health damage when he takes his hand out? Why can Tapp carry a flashlight, four health hypos, some power couplers, a few fuses, a bunch of nails, and an assortment of traps, but he can't put a gun in his waistband? Why is it that the game adaptation of a film series renowned for gore has laughable levels of blood, with only the end-of-level deathtraps really shocking in terms of violence, and most of the rest somehow managing to undercut My Little Pony in the bloodbath stakes?

Saw is entertaining, for a little while. Then it's dull, boring, and repetitive, and the many, many flaws become much more apparent as the game goes on. Huge fans of the series will likely get a kick out of it for a short time and might benefit from a rental, but everyone else would be well-advised to steer clear.

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