Saw II: Flesh and Blood Review

The original Saw game was not received incredibly well by the majority. I reviewed it last year and managed to enjoy it as a fan of the series, I praised its authentic atmosphere, twisted story and good use of sound effects (you can find my review here). Little over a year has gone by and we have a sequel already, released, rather co-incidentally around the spookiest, scariest time of the year, Halloween. So, the question comes to rest, is Saw II: Flesh and Blood a hidden gem or a blatant cash in?

Looking at the facts, it's a sequel, its released very close to the new film installment, Saw 3D, it took one year to develop and release and it has been released around Halloween, it certainly looks like its going to fall under the latter category and sadly you would be absolutely right in assuming this.

In Saw II: Flesh and Blood, you play as Michael Tapp, son of detective David Tapp from the first game (and film). Michael, deciding to not follow his fathers footsteps as a cop, is a newspaper reporter, one who has a secret he's keeping to himself. Unfortunately for Michael, whilst he may not have followed his fathers career path, he may well follow the same demise. Poor Michael has gone and gotten himself kidnapped by Jigsaw (voiced by Jigsaw from the films actor, Tobin Bell) and it's your job to get him out of it.

So what else besides the main character change is new then? The combat in the previous game was a massive issue. It was laggy and button inputs were completely unresponsive at times, leaving you stood there like a total goon whilst being smacked about. It got frustrating and annoying. Well good news, this system has been replaced, now for some bad news, what its been replaced with as just as bad. Everyone likes quick time events right?

Quick time events when done right can enrich a gaming experience. In this case, all combat has been replaced with a series of button presses which removes any kind of suspense and tension. Before in Saw, enemies used to creep out of the darkness and catch you by surprise with a swift blow to the head, now, enemies charge on screen and may as well do a little song and dance to announce their presence. Any surprise encounters are now gone, your enemy comes on screen, mouths off at you about how hes going to kill you then a big pink square button icon pops on screen and its then just a game of follow the button inputs on screen.

This new combat system is, quite frankly horrific. Quick time events are all well and good when used in the correct manner, say a boss fight, finishing off a large enemy once you have whittled down its health. Using them for ever single fight scene bar one scenario (dodging a charging man) is unacceptable, its beyond boring and any kind of atmosphere that has been created in game is instantly shattered. Gone is the fear of walking around in this dark scary place, there is no threat to you, you aren't going to be jumped on from behind, there aren't going to be any surprise attacks and this completely ruins the feeling of suspense and fear that the Saw series prides itself on.

The surroundings around you do a fairly good job of recreating the dark and dank Saw experience but the locales have a habit of looking very samey. I went into at least 5 rooms during the course of the game that looked identical to others, same inanimate objects positioned in the same places. Lighting plays a big part in the game, with many of the puzzles focused on the use of light but whilst wandering around the complex it can get dark to the point where you cant actually see what is going on at all, which is made significantly worse if you have taken damage as your screen darkens further. This can make things impossible, even with a torch to light the way. Overall, Flesh and Blood's predecessor, Saw, did a better job of providing varied and genuinely creepy locals.

Just like the previous games, puzzles play a huge part in Saw II. There are actually some pretty clever puzzles in there, the use of glow in the dark paint is one of the more notable puzzles. In one scenario you are faced with several numbers on the floor and in the bathroom, a mirror. You have to move to just the right angle to be able to see the reflection just right, you are also given three different weapons as a clue on the mirror. Upon walking back into the room with numbers on the floor, you spot several different murder scene style body outlines done with glow in the dark paint. The aforementioned weapons also had glow in the dark painted outlines next to some of these body outlines which indicated the correct spot for a number for a combination lock.

Some of the puzzles can really make you think, they force you to take a deeper look at your surroundings, try and see things from another perspective. This is really great at the beginning, but sadly the challenge disappears the further you get into the game. Puzzles are recycled, means of solving them are used over and over again which makes even the most complex of puzzles so much easier to solve. They can get very tiresome, especially the lock picking and fuse box sections as they appear every ten minutes or so.

As with the previous installment, Saw II: Flesh and Blood wastes no time in taking you by the hand and leading you to Trophy town or Achievement city, depending on what platform you choose to play this on. I remember getting an achievement for standing still for 5 minutes in Saw but even that seems like a challenge compared to this new batch. If you are a trophy whore then this game will appeal to you. You can ‘earn' trophies in ways such as, playing the game on Halloween and playing the game at Christmas. You can also try entering the Konami Code for another trophy. They are literally chucked at you for doing the most ridiculously simple things throughout the course of the game.

Throughout the game, tonnes of characters from the Saw series pop up, some as cameo fleeting appearances, others as people you need to save. The game never really explains who they are so unless you are a fan of the film series, these cameo appearances will be totally lost on you. The people you save are amazingly hostile towards you considering you've just saved their ass from drowning/electrocution/acid erosion which is just plain rude.

Graphically Saw II isn't terrible looking, although its nothing to write home about either. Locations look good, albeit a little samey. Character design however is a different story. Design is kept simple and facial animation is laughable at best. The best feature of the main character is the super absorbent bandage he wears on a wound in his arm. When injured this bandage is blood soaked, upon using a health hypodermic, the blood literally gets sucked back into Michael's body leaving the bandage squeaky clean. Its a trivial thing to pick up on but the game is full of these silly little problems.

Plagued with bad camera angles constantly, overused puzzles, invisible barriers, poor combat and repetitive gameplay it seems that Saw II Flesh and Blood has taken a massive step back. The previous game was a lot better than this one, it played better, had more atmosphere to it and a better story to boot. If it's scares you're looking for over Halloween, you wont find them within Saw II.