• Is it age appropriate?

  About our ratings

  (Flash is loading. If this text does not disappear you need to install the latest flash version)

  Not age appropriate for kids under 17, age appropriate for kids over 18; suggested age 17.

• Is it any good?

  3.0

• Common Sense says

  Atmospheric horror game with gory, sadistic gameplay.

Why We Rated This

The good stuff

• Ease of play:

  While some of the puzzles can get challenging, the game itself is fairly easy to control thanks to many icon-driven cues on the screen (such as press X for this, or B for that, etc.).
• Educational value:

  Not an issue.
• Online interaction:

  Not an issue.

What to watch out for

• Messages:

  Like the movies, Saw doesn't deliver any positive message other than the fact you've been captured by a twisted psychopath named Jigsaw and not the one who IS the psycopath. Plus, players have to make moral decisions while saving others who are also at the whim of the evil Jigsaw.
• Role models:

  Players assume the role of a kidnapped detective who is captured by the serial killer named Jigsaw. They must decide whether to help others out of their deadly traps -- though these others have upset your character in the past. Will you help them or let them suffer? A good role model will save them despite their differences. But players must also fight against violent inmates who follow Jigsaw. Jigsaw is a twisted, evil person.

   

• Violence:

  Much like the films, this game is disturbingly violent, gory, and bloody -- not just because of seeing and hearing characters dying in pain but because a demented serial killer is deriving pleasure of this "game" where the player has to try to survive. Characters can die with a bear trap on the face, shut in an iron maiden chamber, exploded, ripped in half, or sawed to pieces -- and you witness it all with screams and blood. To defend yourself from others, you can use bombs, spiked bats, pipes, shotgun traps and other things, some which result in your decapitating your enemy.

   

• Sex:

  Not an issue.
• Language:

  The game does contains offensive language, including the "f--k" and "sh-t", as well as "damn" and "hell."
• Consumerism:

  It could be argued this game serves as a marketing tool to promote the Saw films, but at least it's not debuting the same day as a new Saw film, which would be even more shameless.
• Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

  References to drugs can be heard or read throughout the game, but the act of drinking, drugs, or smoking isn't seen in the game. Examples of drug abuse references include "I promise I won't do it anymore: the drugs, the cutting, none of it," while LSD use is referred to in the file of an asylum patient.

What Parents Need to Know

This review of Saw was written by Marc Saltzman

Families Can Talk About

More on Saw