Dudes and dolls, I have an admission to make to you all: I’ve only seen a single Saw movie. In fact, I saw the first Saw — the one where Robin Hood saws off his foot and you’re left wondering if he bled to death or if he was able to cauterize the wound using a hair dryer and an old, rusty bedpan. It was an okay flick.

Well, that was in 2004. Now, four years and five sequels later, Saw is finally getting it’s own video game, cleverly entitled Saw. Taking place shortly after the first movie, Saw (the game) opens with your character, Detective “in Deep Shit” (I don’t remember), strapped to a chair with the jaw trap on your head. After a brief intro cut-scene, you… aww, hell. You know what? Just watch it:

Saw (the game), more or less, is a really intense puzzle game. You move from room to room, solving increasingly complicated and dangerous puzzles, all while being mocked, ridiculed, taunted and otherwise annoyed by Jigsaw — the most overrated villain in recent horror film history.

But I digress.

The puzzles that I got to work through were, while basic, very well designed. They are also somewhat twisted, including one where you have to obtain an electrical fuse that lies inside of an old, dirty toilet. Which also just happens to be filled with hypodermic needles. While some of you will surely be freaked out by your irrational-yet-understandable fear of needles, I saw a hidden Family Guy reference and couldn’t help but chuckle.

The presentation is also magnificent, with many voices from the films coming over to the game — and yes, this includes Jigsaw. Visually, it’s dirty and dingy and depressing and dark and bloody and downright freaking beautiful. The visuals capture the feeling of dread and despair that is ever-prevalent in the films, while also being absolutely impossible to take your eye off of.

But all is not well with Saw (the game). The controls do have some slight problems being, what JW calls “Spongy”. Specifically, your character moves like a sluggish, retarded tank and the game also has one of my greatest pet peeves in games, where when you go to turn the camera you feel like it’s building momentum. It’s annoying, results in a delay between when you go to see something and when you actually DO see something, and overall it just sucks. But that’s really the only minor complaint I have and there is MORE than enough time for things to change, so take this critique with a grain of salt.

Saw (the game) is expected to release alongside the upcoming Saw IV this October. It certainly has the potential to be a good, if somewhat different, movie-based game.

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