Published by: Konami
Developed by: Zombie Studios
Release Date: October 21, 2010
Available on: Xbox 360, Playstation 3
INTRO: Another year, another opportunity to cash in on horror fans’ love of a popular franchise. The last Saw game came out and I thought it was playable, but strictly for fans of the series rather than hardcore gamers. They’ve finally dug deep and pulled out a sequel. Will it be quality like Saw IV, or will it be a stinker like almost every other sequel?
To get you hyped up, I’ll let you know that Saw II officially allows you to step into the dark and tormented world of Saw 2 and experience the gruesome traps that Jigsaw has created to test your will to survive. With new traps, puzzles, and combat system players will need to think fast and act quick to pass the rigors of the tests Jigsaw has engineered. Set between the Saw and Saw II movies, the game follows Detective Tapp’s estranged son Michael, who become Jigsaw’s next subject while he is investigating father’s recent death.
GAMEPLAY:
Once again, the Saw series has been represented relatively well in the video game world. The atmosphere is appropriate. You feel like you’re in one giant industrial warehouse and you always feel like you’re waiting for something horrible to happen, and at times, these things do happen.
If you liked the first game, things have changed.
The combat has changed, and gone are the shotgun traps and head-exploding trip wires (although other behind-the-door traps will kill you). Instead, you’ve got a new combat system where you have to follow a quick time event. Every. Single. Time. You might think this is kind of cool and you’re right, it works better than last year’s system but in my opinion it also takes you completely out of the game experience. These QTEs become tedious after awhile and they only increase in number as the game goes along. The plot of the game isn’t really well put together, a lot of stuff is picked up as audio files and case files, and you can only play the tapes in the game menu. Come on!
Controls haven’t improved a lot here. There are moments when you’re walking across a plank trying to get to another area and you’re going to fall off a lot when trying to use the thumbsticks to balance.Then you’ve got to wait for the loading time to clear out and spike your controller on the ground, cursing the game for making you fall at the last minute. On top of that, when you die (and yes, you will die), this game has a knack for awful checkpoint placement. Frustrating.
There are puzzles aplenty and they’re fairly decent. There’s lots of people to save and sometimes it feels silly to do it by typical videogame standards but it works most of the time. Some of the puzzles are awesome, some of them will make you beat your brains against a sharp rock in frustration, others will make you yawn as they’re lazy button mashing/switch throwing mini-games.
In the end, this feels like a relatively okay representation of the moral choice gimmick of the Saw series but it’s seriously hampered by really bad controls that slow things down significantly. They tried to bring things together and ameliorate certain conventions but it didn’t work overly well and instead the game feels tedious after a few hours. Too bad, really.
Gameplay: 5.5/10
GRAPHICS:
The environments look pretty good, albeit very dark and repetitive. The characters look pretty bad, making this game look like a budget title without a doubt. The character animations are jerky and awkward, which doesn’t help things.
Graphics: 6/10
AUDIO:
Sound is pretty good, really. The voice acting is well done and
the music is atmospheric and appropriately creepy. Some of the weapon sound effects don’t sound so hot but for the most part, sound is the best part of this game.
Audio: 7.5/10
FINAL VERDICT:
This game is a missed opportunity for awesomeness. It takes a big step sideways from the last game and unfortunately isn’t really worth your time. If you LOVE Saw, you’ve probably already got this. If you’re only so-so about the series then avoid this one. You could always rent it to see what you think, but Saw II is mediocre at best.
Final Score: 5/10