The horror genre of gaming has just rocketed. The question is, has it gone up or down in the game adaptation of SAW? Hollywood films have often disgusted film critics, and top of their list is SAW, and some have even described it as “torture porn”. Whilst the movies are made to shock viewers through mutilation and graphic depictions of death and pain… something that the Saw team have mastered.

You play as the new character and protaganist, Detective Tapp, as he regains consciousness and desperately attempts to free himself from a deadly trap. A metallic trap-like helmet has been affixed to his head that will bisect his cranium if players do not press the correct buttons that flash on the screen, a puzzle that has featured many-a-time in console gaming. It is not complicated, but its the time you have to react, the tense music, and the screams and yells coming from surrounding cells which all add to the high tension, nerve-racking experience.

SAW gives you everything you could ask from an 18 rated Horror video-game, ranging from barrels of pig guts, limb twisting, to improvised surgery. Fans of the films will also be pleased to know that the game is a kind of montage of all the best moments of SAW I, II, III, IV, V and VI, but none of the scenes are quite as gut-wrenchinly realistic as the films, but the graphics have just enough kick to make you feel the queasiness! Unfortunately the films can only provide so much resources from which the game can work, and after a while it begins to become repetitive.

Jigsaw is a phsycopathic man (if he can be called human) who has locked you up in this insane asylum, and he acts as kind of an evil god, controlling all movement in the facility through magnetic doors and cages. Whilst there is not much variety in the décor, the game is still tense 24/7. In each chapter of the game, Jigsaw has imprisoned a person from Tapp’s past and he must reach the victim and release them from one of Jigsaw’s intricate deathtraps, for example, you have to release a man from a metal rack, and every wrong move causes his body to be perforated with steel spikes… Lovely!

Included in Jigsaw’s traps are tripwires (which are rigged with shotguns that turn any room into a slaughterhouse!!). Another feature of the game is that if you step on objects such as broken glass, it will damage your health as Detective Tapp is barefoot throughout the whole game. Why the  Jigsaw has killed your partner, ruining you life, and now has trapped you in an abandoned insane asylum that he alone controls. If you succeed and escape from the brutal traps, you may discover the truth as to why Jigsaw is such a twisted serial killer.

Finally, the SAW franchise has seen its highs and lows, and many horror fans have left the series behind after SAW 3, complaining the story has become sickening, revolting and confusing. As if that wasn’t enough, SAW 5 topped the charts of worst horror ever! The game is not the best of its kind, but it is still worth it, although I would not choose it over games like Call of Duty 4, 5 and 6, because of its repetitive nature, yet I would completely abandon the idea of playing it!

+ Great Horror Atmosphere

+ Pulls you into the game

- Repetitive gameplay

- Too much like “torture porn”

6.5