Editorial: SAW Game Is Depraved And Inhumane; Konami Should Be Ashamed

Every so often we’ll come across complaints by parent groups about ‘M’ rated games or violence in games and readily set them straight about liberties and having a good time. Games like GTA may push controversial boundaries just as games like Soldier of Fortune pushed the boundaries in acts of visual violence. These games were still fun despite their adult-oriented content. And while parent groups would rather not have these games on store shelves, it's necessary to point out that the games weren’t for kids but they were very entertaining for the age group in which they were intended.

Nevertheless, there are some games that push boundaries in unnecessary fashion. Games that seek to do nothing more than stir the pot of controversy, get some recognition and make a few headlines. Games like Thrill Kill, Mad World and ManHunt fall into these categories. Nevertheless, the latter two still managed to not take themselves too seriously and offer up some kind of John Carpenter-esque moral about violence in society, etc. This, however, is not the case with the upcoming videogame adaptation of the pathetic torture-porn film franchise, SAW.

Let me readily point out that this SAW game has no portent moral message or even a directive in which the overt violence and scenes of mutilation correlate to something sane people might find enlightening, entertaining or fun. In other words, Konami is publishing a game that’s as sick, twisted and pointless as the intellectually-deficient movies of the same name.

So what makes this game so sick? How about having to kill individuals you know little about and having to dig through their insides to find items? How about going through various scenarios while witnessing all kinds of forms of torture, mutilation and sadism? What's more is that none of it really serves any purpose or agenda, other than seeing various characters subjected to ill-treatment for the sake of doing so.

There is nothing funny about what happens in the game SAW. As mentioned, the actual gameplay consists of partaking in the same warped, perverse and depraved acts of human indignity that the movies seem to depict as a relevant form of “thrills” or “horror”.

Now for anyone who is quick to jump to the defense of this game, let me quickly point you in the direction of some gameplay footage that was on display at the San Diego Comic-Con [via GameTrailers]

That’s just a small, pointless taste of what this high-quality, disturbing game is all about. Can you imagine suffering [no pun intended] through 20 hours of that artistically inhuman garbage? Well, Konami seems to think that SAW as a game, is far less harmful to mainstream gaming than Six Days in Fallujah. In which case I will readily ask how surfing through a man’s intestines for a key to a door is somehow less offensive than reliving six days of a soldier’s life in the Iraq war? At least the latter tackles controversial subject matter that could at least inform a lot of people about how things really were over in Iraq. The same can’t be said for SAW.

I’m terribly disappointed that Konami would make themselves easy targets for Jack Thompson to rip them a new one. And you know what? I couldn’t find myself hesitating to agree with any parent group deciding to boycott this torture-porn trash hiding under the pseudonym of a “game”.

Last time I checked interactive entertainment is supposed to be fun and entertaining, not a crash course in being a tutorial for sadists to get pleasure from. At least, I hope that’s not what Konami is aiming for, because if it is then they should be ashamed.

If you disagree, that’s fine by me. See if you can stomach watching a few more gameplay trailers if it’s all fine and dandy for you. I won’t knock that the game looks visually competent and appears to have a well rounded gameplay design, but good gosh have they gone off the way end with the content. For that matter, anything involving SAW is already off the way end. I think, though, it would be more disturbing if the game actually manages to make it to retail shelves and it would be grossly disturbing if it actually sells well. In that case, it would only showcase that Konami has tapped a market of truly depraved minds.