SAW Genesis [Preview]: The oldest house

We get an in-depth look at the upcoming video game prequel to the SAW films

It’s been ages since I watched a SAW movie, but I remember the premise concretely. Victims are usually trapped in a room, given some tools, and need to figure out if and how to sacrifice themselves for either the greater good or personal escape. The main antagonist, Jigsaw, has become iconic in horror films, and the methods by which the characters are often forced to mutilate themselves gets more and more gruesome.

So, naturally, we need to put that into a video game.

Bloober Team took on that initiative as a producer/publisher and, alongside developers Anshar Games and Broke Mirror Games and IP owner Lionsgate, has developed SAW: Genesis, a brand new game that dives into the past of the series.

Our preview is hands-off; we watch pre-recorded play sessions as the developers on hand discuss the game and its virtues. We right away realize that this isn’t a typical Bloober game. While their previous projects are typically single-player psychological experiences, SAW is an asymmetric 3v1 game. That is, we have a Judge that sets the traps and three “Accused” characters that need to work together to escape.

The game is set in the 1920s, and serves as a prequel to the SAW franchise. Bloober wanted the game to be raw, rough, physical, hence the idea to move the franchise into the past. While this means that we don’t have Jigsaw per se, we do have some of the ideas and people that inspired him and his works, in this case the Judge as a sort of precursor. After WW1 the world is in turmoil, with tough living situations causing people to break down and the world to kick its Industrial Revolution into a technological one. The Judge is inquisitive, a fan of technology; advances are booming everywhere, so people are trying everything and anything to get ahead. He can fall between the cracks with his experiments because no one is looking specifically for him. Instead of a single room that Jigsaw might use, the Judge needs to set up entire areas almost like a labyrinthine escape room.

And therein lies the question: Why is it different than what we know of SAW?

In the case of Genesis, the Judge is vulnerable. He wins through planning and pressure. Here the Accused can fight back and even kill the judge to win their escape. The gameplay is divided into two loops:

The Judge observes, isolates, strikes. It’s worth noting that he doesn’t aim to kill, just like in SAW proper, but offers them choices they need to make to solve the puzzles. It’s probably worth noting that all of the choices lead to some blood being spilled, if not getting killed completely. But because he doesn’t do it directly, to him it’s not murder. He wins the match by orchestration. In the game, players can choose whichever Judge they want to use, and while this person will have different focuses and abilities they’ll still have the same tools.

The Accused, named so because the Judge puts the failures of their morality on them like a piano falling out of a building, use explore, coordinate, escape loop. They’re designed to make us say “what would I do” in these film style situations, and use SAW 2 & SAW 5 as inspiration since thematically they were more about cooperation to get out of their specific traps. The Accused also have what is called a rehabilitation trap. They can sacrifice a body part to free themselves or trust teammates to reach them in time (if they’re still alive). If they lose a hand they can still win but now they’re impaired with things like being unable to open heavy doors or lift heavier objects. Each Accused has different perks but they’re more general in nature at the start. The developers want to go the route where there’s more of a build process to give players more ability in developing a character in their own way as they gain knowledge and advance.

During the preview we were walked through one game session to give us an idea about how things can play out. Players start by selecting their Accused or Judge, and the world is procedurally generated. It’s set up like maze architecture, with Judge-only corridors and elevators that turn the space into hunting grounds. The Judge always knows where everyone and everything is, but the Accused are essentially blind.

At the onset one player, Zoe, splits up from the other Accused and goes off looking for tools. Max, the Judge, can see her, watching and planning based on her actions. Right now she’s disarming traps, but a sudden appearance from the Judge causes her to go for the quick kill, but he gets away. This early moment is very un-SAW, and interesting to see how the tables can almost turn between the two sides.

Meanwhile, Ava comes across a potential clue behind an extremely hot oven type door, burning her hand as she opens it. It takes out part of her health, but she needs to get the reward inside.

With the Judge now escaped from Zoe and back to stalking her, she inadvertently springs a trap and Max captures her, taking her away. Ava, realizing this, quickly decides that she needs to save Zoe and decides to slide down a chute to find and rescue her. With Max off working to set more traps, she succeeds and Zoe is freed.

One of the core aspects of the game is a series of challenges that the Accused need to accomplished, like team puzzles that unlock gates to help them move forward. Each challenge is unique, and requires either multiple people or very quick hands. The third Accused, Leo, comes across a valve wheel that needs turn, but it’s located behind a barbed wire wall. Someone else could have been on the other side already, but with the team split up it’s on him alone. Just trying to get to it tears apart his skin, leading to blood everywhere.

Max, hiding and observing over the last few minutes, prepares a room for a strike. He tricks and leads them into the room, using one of the more powerful technological tools, a poison gas emitting device. The Accused start to hallucinate and see things like creatures, leading to a fight sequence. It’s all in their heads, they’re not actually fighting anything, but they still lose health and, more importantly, time.

Eventually the Accused fall one by one into rehab traps, losing body parts and their lives. The Judge wins, and the match is over. There are different endings that players can get, but outside of escaping the more interesting ones may be the different “final” deaths that they can succumb to. We see a few in a teaser, but one of the ones that sticks out is a first person view from an Accused in which we see a trap (they wear a head vice the entire time) squeezes it closed, crushing their skull. The game can end by the players dying or escaping, but can also end if the Judge misplays the situations. And, because the Judge lives by a moral time limit, that ticking clock can also end a match. Matches typically last 10-15 minutes, depending on how the Judge sets up the experience.

SAW: Genesis is built around fast-paced escape room encounters, something that could stretch Bloober Team’s portfolio of horror game concepts. It’s going to be interesting to see how fans of the series and horror game genres react to the game when they finally get their hands on it. Early Access is set for the Fall, but the team will host two rounds of playtests before then, closed alphas in July and late August.

Funny enough, even though Jigsaw isn’t in the game, Bloober Team love the character so much that they put him in the trailer anyways, even using the actor behind Jigsaw, Tophin Bell, as the trailer voice over.