Since the announcement in January of the Saw movie series receiving some video game treatment, I have been fairly curious as to how this would be handled. Knowing only that the game is using the Unreal Engine left me pondering even more (when an engine helps make Gears of War all the way to Hail to the Chimp, there seems to be no clear boundaries as what it can produce). After pondering enough, I fell asleep, then woke up the next day and completely forgot that the game was coming, until now.

Website Bloody Disgusting snagged a decent interview with the game’s producer, David Cohen. In it he calls the game “Saw 1.5″ because of the gap it fills between the first and second movies. As far as my main curiosity of how it will play out, he answers with:

“The SAW video game will be a full-on third person horror experience, while maintaining the mystery, thrills and terror of the SAW universe. Players will try to figure out the secrets behind Jigsaw’s plan as well as what is in store for them, but there will also be plenty of action, puzzle solving and of course new and original traps in addition to some of the fan favorites sure to deliver all the gruesome aspects of SAW that we love.”

Now I see the words action and puzzle solving, and my mind slightly thinks of Bioshock, and then drifts off into Portal…. of course with about a hundred times more blood. Having seen and really loved the first two movies (sorry, haven’t checked out the later films, too busy watching gore done better in Japanese film), the game has my curiosity piqued just by the brief description given.

Hopefully it will rely more so on the puzzle than the action, with a dash of suspense and very well thought out deaths, and I think we have a winner. As long as we are not having to fight random mindless enemies rather than allowing the game to rely on suspense and thus being really scared when another character comes up, I can’t wait to ask myself “what I will do to save my own life?” as I try to escape with my life, much like Portal (replacing GLaDOS with Jigsaw and turrets with a person or two).

Of course, reality is setting in, it is a movie based video game which automatically means there is a high chance for suckage rather than it being a triumph (a huge success, an overstating satisfaction). So for now, let us all enjoy getting our hopes up for what could be a very good game in theory, go to sleep and then forget about it again, as the release is not until October 2009.

Popularity: unranked [?]