The Cutprice Guignol

I am, as most of you likely know by now, a huge fan of the Saw franchise.

Put me in a pighead mask and call me Amanda, but, for my sins, I can’t get enough of this nonsense bit of convoluted torture porn soap opera. I fell in love with the series as a needlessly edgy teenager and came to adore them even more when I realised just how much bloody fun they were as a slice of outrageous camp alongside the splatter and VHS tapes. So, when we got the announcement of the upcoming Saw game, Genesis, earlier this year (well, during Pride Month to be exact, because the people behind this franchise know exactly who their fanbase is), it led me to cast my eye back towards the two earlier entries into the Saw video game canon.

Specifically, Saw: The Video Game, which came out in 2009, and Saw II: Flesh & Blood, the sequel which released a year later. The games had a bit of a bumpy production run, with original distributors Brash Entertainment shuttering before the game’s release, but it was snapped up by Konami shortly afterwards in the hopes that it would serve as a spiritual successor to the Silent Hill franchise (and, look, as a huge fan of the Silent Hill series, we’ve got to be honest with ourselves that what was being put out by the SH series at this time was exactly at the staggering, iconic quality of their original outings). The games were subject to the requisite hand-wringing over violence in video games at the time, with accusations of depravity and inhumanity thrown at the newfound franchise in much the same way the movies were, but as a woman who loves a little bit of nastiness in my stories, that was hardly going to put me off.

When it comes to what the games get undeniably right for people who love the film series, I have to give credit to the sheer vibes of this little duology. The grotty, gritty, sickly green-tinged industrial backdrops are actually pretty beautiful captured, and Tobin Bell’s return to voice John Kramer lends it a sense of authenticity where it really matters. The soundtrack, by Alex Guilbert, is a real standout for me – it pays homage to Clouser’s legendary film scores without interfering with the scant, grimy setting with too much cinematic drama, and let me tell you, this playlist had me doing the dishes with a lot more urgency than normal.

In some ways, I think the Saw franchise is one well-suited to a video game adaptation. I mean, it’s right there at the start of almost every Jigsaw monologue – I want to play a game. Games and puzzles form the heart of the movies’ storyline, so there’s some (exposed, gory, gruesome) connective tissue between the two mediums to work with. It’s this aspect of the first game, at least, that I think works best – the puzzles are well-pitched in difficulty, and there’s some genuine creativity in how the traps are executed in the new medium, such as a pain meter limiting how long you can search in a toilet full of needles or other game participants actively hunting Tapp to get their hands on the key in his chest. It feels both true to the Saw series and the survival horror genre it was trying to fit into. The second game relies way too heavily on QTEs, their overuse kind of a relic of this era of gaming that I’m glad to see having declined in popularity since, and the less said about the combat in either game, the better.

In terms of connections to the movies, the iconic traps are as much the fanservice cameos as the characters who make the jump to the new medium – Saw fans are such that you’re as likely to hear a oh my God, is that the Venus Flytrap from the opening of Saw II? I can’t believe they got her for this! than you are excitement about the return of Detective Tapp from the original movie. I actually quite like the use of Tapp as the protagonist for the first game, given how much he went through in the first film – it makes sense that those events had rendered him damaged enough to attract Jigsaw’s attention, and, with the labyrinthine lore of the franchise, he’s as good a character any to get another outing. Though it’s undeniably funny that this version of Tapp bears not even a passing resemblance to Danny Glover, who originated the role. Sure, this character model clearly hasn’t even heard of Danny Glover and he’s voiced by Earl Alexander. It’s Tapp, don’t worry about it, you’re going to be looking at him from behind most of the time anyway.

I’m less taken with the second game’s choice to use Tapp’s son as a protagonist, just because it feels like dredging over the similar territory but without the connection to the films to fill out at least some interesting backstory, though this could be more due to the fact that the second game just objectively sucks as a piece of storytelling. It’s scattered and unfocused and feels like it lacks the grounding in the wider Saw-niverse, which is one of the main appeals for these games in the first place.

So what about what’s to come? I’m really looking forward to Genesis, which looks to be a historical multiplayer addition to the franchise – something so far removed from what we’ve known before that it’s going to be either a huge hit or an utter flop with little room for anything else in between. I’d love to hear your take on the games if you’ve played them, and what you’re hoping for from future entries – let me know in the comments below!

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(header image via Telegraph)