Review:
Saw or Sore? A Saw game review

I've never really been a huge fan of horror films, not for any reason, they just don't interest me, horror games have also never really kept me entertained from start to finish, and as we all know, games based on movies have never fared well in the vast sea of playable games. So when a friend of mine lent me Saw, a horror game based on a horror movie, I just knew I was going to be in for a good nights gaming.

For those of you that haven't heard of or watched the Saw movies, I'll give you a brief insight. The villain, Jigsaw, puts his victims in situations and traps that will cause intense physical and mental torture to give a better appreciation of life when and if they escape alive. Sounds like a charming guy, right?

Your story follows Detective Tapp, a regular character in the Saw movies, who has been captured by his nemesis Jigsaw, and placed in an abandoned insane asylum (why is it always insane asylums...) and tasked with escaping. On his way through, has has to solve puzzles, avoid traps, rescue others, and fight his way through other people locked in the asylum by Jigsaw. The big twist is, for the other people to escape, they need to kill Tapp as the key is hidden inside his body.

Now this alone is a brilliant concept. The game compensates for the player not having seen any of the films by having just enough story in it so you know what's going on, but not too much so it feels like you are having to catch up constantly. The puzzles are inventive and interesting, having lots of those little 'so that's what I was supposed to do!' moments that make you feel like a cross between Einstein and Sherlock Holmes. But the combat is the one area that really lets this game down.

First, let me ask a quick question, how fast can you swing a pipe? Not a huge, 15 foot pipe, one that's little more then 12 to 18 inches long. And I'm not talking about the speed of the pipe mid swing, I'm talking from holding the pipe ready, to starting to swing. A second? Maybe half a second? That's what I thought. Tapp strolls into a room only to be ambushed, you are informed to grab the pipe and get ready to defend yourself. You get into the defensive stance, press attack and... Nothing. It takes at least 3 seconds while Tapp weighs up the consequences of his actions, thinks about the persons family, considers what he will have for lunch on the outside before he starts to swing, and the majority of the time, you miss completely and get beaten to a pulp. If you fail to get the first attack, you might as well reload a check point.