LV1 Gaming had the opportunity to go to Summer Game Fest and the interactive media event Play Days. While there, Bloober Team developers of titles such as Cronos: The New Dawn, The Medium, Layers of Fear, and Silent Hill 2 (2024) were showing off their latest title, SAW: Genesis. The game was developed by Broken Mirror Games in collaboration with Anshar Studios and published by Bloober Team. Now, it would not be Summer Game Fest Play Days without an unforgettable room to go along with the presentation. Bloober Team designed a true Saw experience, 20th-century torture devices, diagrams covering the walls showing experimented-on cadavers, and even snacks with the iconic puppet Billy on them. We didn’t play the upcoming title, but we were shown its basics and gameplay.
A new spin on the iconic asymmetrical horror genre is the best way I would describe the gameplay for SAW: Genesis. First off, the game is a 3V1 online cooperative asymmetrical horror, where you are either the judge or one of the accused. As the Judge, after surviving World War 1 with disfiguring injuries, he is dedicated to making humanity better through pain and sacrifice. Oh yes, this game takes place 100 years before the original movie for various reasons, including creating a narratively accurate origin of the SAW story. The Accused are people who have been kidnapped and are forced to play the game with other accused in order to survive the madman’s attempt at rehabilitation.
Where SAW: Genesis stands out from other titles in the genre is that the Accused can kill the Judge. Furthermore, the maps are procedurally generated deadly escape rooms, where the accused will have to sacrifice literal parts of themselves to escape. The sacrifice system is legit! There will be moments when the accused will have to lose access to one of their hands to gain access to a necessary piece of a puzzle. When it comes to the core gameplay loop, the accused must work together to outwit and outmaneuver the Judge. With numbers and cooperation on their side, they can take down the physically weak Judge, but he has an accomplice who can drag people to rehabilitation traps. He has access to hidden corridors around the map, a noise-detection map, a paralyzing toxin, and even a cool hallucinogenic bomb that creates some diabolical enemies for the accused to fight through.
There was no official release date, but it is expected sometime in the fall of this year. As a fan of horror movies, especially the Saw franchise, I am excited to see more of SAW: Genesis!
