The SAW movies have become a yearly release around Halloween which combine gore and horror for some cheap and gratuitous violence in movie theaters worldwide. Jigsaw, the main protagonist of the movies is also the enemy in the movie tie-in video games. The original SAW released last year in October and its sequel, SAW II: Flesh & Blood is ready to scare players just a year later. Video games that are based on movies are rarely great titles, especially if they have so little time to be developed. Can SAW II build on what its predecessor has started or will it saw in half its ambitions?
Developer Zombie has not quite had its breakout hit and might be best known for SAW: The Videogame and Blacklight: Tango Down. The studio picked up where SAW had left of. Zombie tried to create a video game that incorporates the puzzles, tension and feel of the famous SAW movie franchise. SAW II brings back some of the known characters which might please fans of the films but does little for newcomers.
I usually don’t bring up something as generic as ‘how are the graphics?’ – but in SAW II’s case I need to mention it, the game is not on par with the visuals of current generation games in this late stage of our consoles. Character models are clunky and look generic especially in their facial animation which is very important in a horror game. Textures are also less than impressive but are well disguised in the dark lighting which makes this flaw less noticeable. While the visual appeal is rather low, the audio can make up for it quite a bit with good environmental sound effects, solid voice acting and good atmospheric music.
The meat of the game lies in puzzle solving and making your way around Jigsaw’s labyrinth of death while avoiding traps and other ‘players’ in his twisted game. Puzzle solving and action sequences along with combat sound great on paper but Zombie just does not pull it off. The puzzles are generic and repetitious causing them to become more of a nuisance than a challenge. Also, the traps are based on quick time events which are mastered after just a few encounters and easily avoidable, taking much of the tension and fear away from what becomes a gimmick.
There are several controllable characters throughout the game but I was not able to identify with any of them because of the lacking gameplay which broke the immersion. This is a 3rd person action game but controlling the characters often feels clunky and mechanical with combat that is derived of quick time events rather than skill.
Unfortunately this is not a good game. The title feels rushed and misses the great potential it has. The SAW video game franchise could really become something enjoyable because it has the perfect setup for a horror game. However, it fails to execute the mechanics and therefore misses its main goal of being a scary and fun video game. I would recommend that whoever develops the inevitable SAW III takes their time with it and skips a year in order to create a well handling and scary video game that players can enjoy. If gameplay matches the good audio quality of this year’s title, SAW III could certainly become a worthwhile horror game.
Score: 5.5 / 10
SAW II: Flesh & Blood was developed by Zombie and published by Konami for the Xbox 360 and PS3 on October 26th. A copy of the PS3 version was provided to us by Konami for reviewing purposes.
