Like everybody else, I was surprised to hear Bloober Team’s next title would be based on the Saw franchise. I was less surprised to hear it was going to be a 3v1 asymmetrical multiplayer game, as that seems to be the go-to genre for games based on horror franchises nowadays, but what I saw of Saw: Genesis has me feeling a bit optimistic about this one standing out from the pretty tired formula that so many have pursued.
I didn’t get any hands-on time with Saw: Genesis because it was presented during an informational theater appointment. We got to see a match played, as well as various gameplay clips and the like, all while members of Bloober Team explained aspects of the game and answered questions. Worth mentioning is how cool the closed theater room was, styled after a demented room in which Jigsaw would work. There was a creepy decapitated corpse prop, jars with nasty-looking contents on musty shelves, and blueprints for all sorts of violent devices across the walls. It definitely sold the game’s vibe, which, thus far, seems just as frightening and gory as the source material.
Credit: Bloober Team
Unlike most of the asymmetrical multiplayer horror games I’ve played, the main baddie of Saw: Genesis – fittingly called “The Judge” – isn’t especially imposing. He’s a scarred and frail-looking elderly man whose penchant for kidnapping and judging people would inspire Jigsaw many years later. That’s the first thing about the game that piqued my interest; it takes place shortly after World War I, long before John Kramer would get up to his nasty shenanigans across the Saw films. Given that this was a pretty brutal era when medical science and general technology weren’t nearly as advanced as they are now, I foresee a lot of potential for freaky, rustic traps and unsettling scenarios.
The other major thing to intrigue me was The Judge’s character and killing methods. As mentioned, he’s not all that tough, making him more of a sneaky trickster than a hulking slasher. In the match we watched, The Judge would creep about in the ceiling, watching players and trying to inhibit and trap them using environmental tricks and tools like hallucinogens. It was stated a few times that it isn’t all that hard for the “Accused” to overpower The Judge if he’s not careful, and we even got to see him get killed by a team, so I get the vibe that the game balance between the three Accused and The Judge will be fairly tight.
Credit: Bloober Team
The Bloober Team members mentioned that The Judge sees himself as saving or rehabilitating these Accused, rather than tormenting or killing them for malicious reasons, which is another thing that sets him apart from your standard game slasher. I dig that there’s a clear throughline between his beliefs and the Jigsaw Killer’s, as it makes the game feel like a proper prequel to the films in both tone and philosophy. Plus, The Judge has got a super sick design, with his prosthetic mouth making him come off as more imposing than he physically is. Plus, he can occasionally summon a larger “accomplice” to capture an incapacitated Accused, which is a nice parallel to Pighead in the movies.
It seems like Saw: Genesis won’t be skimping out on gore.
Also, I can pretty handily confirm that Saw: Genesis isn’t pulling any punches when it comes to intense gore. Throughout the playthrough, I saw people dragging their way through tight, barbed wire-laden spaces, pulling their feet out of bear traps, and even saw one Accused have the entire bottom half of their head get completely torn off, leaving their lower jaw hanging on by a thread. The devs definitely spared no expense in showing off how brutal the traps’ aftermath can be, which feels perfectly in line with the Saw franchise itself.
Credit: Bloober Team
While I wouldn’t call myself a big fan of asymmetrical multiplayer horror games, Saw: Genesis has got me more interested than I would have anticipated. It seems like Bloober Team/Broken Mirror Games and Anshar Studios mean what they say and are really trying to make something that stands out from the type of horror games that have become so standard across the industry. Only time will truly tell how it plays out, but we’ll get a better idea once the first closed alpha starts sometime this month.
