Saw II doesn't need much explanation

You begin the game with a key embedded in your face, just below your right eye. The key unlocks a mask. The mask is about to snap shut on your face, and that will probably hurt. So you cut the key out of your face with a scalpel (which also hurts) by pressing a button really fast and moving the analog stick. Ew.

From there, you explore, solve things, avoid traps, and defeat psychotic opponents. That's Saw II. See? We told you it doesn't need much explanation.

Ha! We jest! (Kind of.) We actually didn't get to play much of the game, so there's not a lot we can comment on. Is the combat better than it was in the first game? We don't know. Are there elaborate and exciting puzzles? We don't know - the puzzles we did play were pretty mundane, if challenging (we needed help from the guy standing next to us a few times).

Like we said, we know that Saw II is about exploration, puzzles, traps, and scary dudes who want to kill you:

• Exploration reveals clues that help solve puzzles, as well as the remnants of previous victims and torture devices, some of which trigger scenes depicting their gruesome pasts. You'll also catch glimpses of current victims meeting their fates as you pass windows and fences. 
• The puzzles we encountered were typical: find a glow-in-the-dark message which reveals a three-digit lock code, rotate concentric circles to line up icons... that kind of thing.
• Traps are quick time events, though the button press indicators are cleverly integrated with the environment, keeping you as immersed as possible.
• We only fought one opponent, and it wasn't real combat. He was a spike-headed "charger" who ran toward us and had to be coaxed into an elevator shaft.

Above: See how it says "Watch your step?" A clever investigator will realize that the door needs to be opened, and the opponent lured into the shaft. Pretty deep stuff

If you like torture porn, and the Saw series especially, Saw II is a game based on that. Damn that sentence was informative! The game builds on the story from the first Saw game, and is very similar, so if you liked that game, guess what? You'll probably like this one.

If, however, you have no interest in Saw, this may not be the game to suck you in - we didn't notice any massive innovations. But like we said, we didn't get to play much, and we won't know for sure until we play the rest of the game. Maybe Jigsaw has more up his sleeves than we realize.

Apr 9, 2010