RATING: 3 Keys RESULT: Loss REMAINING: *not timed
Hello Escape Authority readers… I want to play a game. Before you stands an important choice: what do you value most? Are you here to enjoy a series of puzzles, or to be immersed like never before in a cinematic world? Choose wisely, for one path leads to gratification and the other will be game over.
The Official SAW Escape is an immersive, multi-room (progressive) escape experience that brings to life twisted games inspired by the blockbuster SAW film franchise. Guests enter the historic Egan & Co. Meat Packing plant for an after hours tour, only to find they are players in an elaborate game devised by the infamous Jigsaw killer – a twisted mastermind who creates terrifying tests designed to help participants learn to value their lives. By working together to combat their fears, venture far out of their comfort zones, and solve intricate puzzles, guests will have the opportunity to win their freedom as they traverse the twists and turns of an entire factory of Jigsaw’s games – one of the largest escape experiences in the world.
With a whopping ten theatrical releases and counting, the world of SAW has more than passed the test of becoming one of the most iconic horror franchises of the modern era. Focused on the final days of John Kramer, a brilliant former engineer pushed to his breaking point by an inoperable frontal lobe tumor, he takes it upon himself to teach others the value of appreciating human life. The only problem is, he does this by ensnaring them in horrific mechanical traps of his own design, activated by puzzles that either teach their subject a valuable lesson, or result in their own grisly, painful end. From those who do not pass his tests – nearly all of his targets – he cuts a small puzzle piece out of their very flesh, leading the authorities to label him ‘the Jigsaw killer.‘
Though focused on the value of life, the SAW movies are much less about story and instead put a heavy spotlight on the puzzles and challenges that Jigsaw’s victims are subjected to. As such, in a twisted way, it really is a perfect choice for the theme of an escape game-style attraction.
No expense was spared to bring the world of SAW to life. Further bringing this beloved franchise off the screen to immerse guests in The Official SAW Escape, several of its cast reprise their most recognizable roles. Tobin Bell himself returns as the brilliantly deranged Jigsaw, and there’s even a well-placed cameo from his most devoted disciple, Amanda – once again played by Shawnee Smith.
Without question, Jigsaw’s greatest masterpiece is how immersively stunning the scenic is throughout the old Egan & Co. Meat Packing plant – the location he chose to retrofit for his original game. The tour begins in the lobby, before giving eager meat aficionados exclusive access to back of house areas of the facility, including a rundown employee break area and their grimy adjacent locker room.
The ‘tour,’ unsurprisingly, was just a ruse to bait Sin City tourists into becoming unwitting volunteers for Jigsaw’s latest game. You’d be amazed how easy it is to covert more than ten rooms of a functioning meat processing plant into a nightmarish torture chamber from hell.
Atmospheric effects create a tangible sense of danger, while functioning equipment and meat conveyers charge the plant with an undeniable kinetic energy. And you never know when Billy might show up on his tricycle to heckle contestants already at their last wits.
Naturally, it all builds to an epic scenic crescendo – dropping remaining survivors right into the middle of the iconic bathroom straight out of the 2004 original film. Following in the… ahem… footsteps of Adam and Dr. Gordon, it is here that unlucky volunteers must too make a choice: live or die.
Learning to value life has taught us to always be as respectfully truthful as possible. We feel strongly that feedback is key – and just as important as acknowledging what’s great is being honest about what’s not, and why. From a strictly game perspective, puzzles are where The Official SAW Escape struggles most.
The gory beauty of the SAW franchise is that to the very core, puzzles are what Jigsaw is all about. They don’t need to fit a theme – they need to teach a lesson about the value of life. The Official SAW Escape is one of the only examples where having puzzles for puzzles’ sake makes total, organic sense. Fitting those puzzles in the storyworld is, in this instance, actually the easy part. Making them logical and intuitive was perhaps less Jigsaw’s forte.
When compared to newer games from Egan Escape Productions, The Official SAW Escape relies far less on the use of its live actors, and that diminished interaction greatly impacts the puzzles themselves. Many of the rooms find Jigsaw’s unwilling participants on their own, with no way to ask for specific hints if (and when) they’re needed. With less recent puzzles that already struggle to make intuitive connections, this lack of optional assistance can very quickly become frustrating.
It’s also important to be transparent that some of this game is also beginning to show its age in ways that directly impact the guest experience. During our visit, several padlocks had the numbers on their dials so worn down that they almost couldn’t be read at all. We also experienced some finicky tech issues, including a joystick control that seemed to move more at random than in the direction it was shifted, making a puzzle that could have been much more fun become entirely tedious.
All of these maintenance speedbumps culminated with a vintage safe in the final room. With more than enough time on the clock, and the final puzzle solved, it seemed certain we would win Jigsaw’s twisted game. The dial on that safe, however, had other ideas. Despite entering the correct code multiple times and turning the dial the proper number of times left and right between each digit, the safe never opened. After confirming with the actor that the code was indeed correct, on the fifth attempt, our team finally became frustrated enough to just stop trying and wait out the last couple of minutes on the clock until the exit door would just open automatically. That’s never good news, and worse, it could have been entirely avoidable with a better locking mechanism on the safe.
The Official SAW Escape differs from traditional games in that it’s structured with a progressive flow – meaning that players are always moving forward as other groups begin the experience behind them, with their paths never crossing. This format has been embraced to great success with all of Egan Escape Productions newer games, including Escape Blair Witch at the same venue and the phenomenal Escape IT just down the street.
In those more recent games, we raved about how the timing of their progressive flows played out seamlessly, leaving us never waiting or being rushed forward. Unfortunately our experience with Jigsaw’s earlier designed challenges proved considerably less fluid. In fact, our small but knowledgeable group solved almost none of the individual rooms before being forced forward to accommodate the next team behind us.
That’s a problem, and not just because our lives were on the line.
Long time readers of Escape Authority will know that winning or losing carries very little importance to our team. While this is not something we tend to broadcast at the risk of sounding braggadocios, it does add a bit of weight to this specific example. With somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 different games played, it’s much less important to our team whether the next one results in a win or a loss; our love of escape games is about the total package experience.
But, and this is a big one, there’s definitely something to be said about walking in to The Official SAW Escape having played somewhere around 1,000 games and still not finishing almost a single challenge without being pushed forward to the next room by the time clock. That, in our humble opinion, is a flag as red as Billy’s bowtie that some attention could be given to some of these puzzles to help them flow in a more logical and intuitive way.
With that said, we mentioned at the start of this review that you’re being given a choice: are you here to be tested by puzzles or immersed in a cinematic world? If a traditional style escape game with well-thought puzzle flow is what you’re after, The Official SAW Escape is probably not for you.
However.
If what you’re looking for is the once in a lifetime opportunity to become immersed in the world of SAW and become an intimate participant in your own personalized Jigsaw horror story, run – don’t walk – to Las Vegas. The attention to detail, the Hollywood-quality scenic and iconically familiar characters will create a life-long nightmarish dream come true that SAW fans will assuredly never forget. The attraction is a love letter to the franchise’s biggest fans, jumping straight off the screen into the most authentic reality.
And therein lines our own life-or-death challenge. This is not something we typically discuss in a review, but to candidly pull back the curtain, we struggled with how to score The Official SAW Escape. The biggest problem is that depending on just who is reading this review will determine whether or not we recommend it. As an escape game, this one falls short for us – but as a cinematic immersive horror experience, The Official SAW Escape checks all the boxes and then some. Rating solely on either end of that spectrum would likely shift our score dramatically for better or for worse. For that reason, we ultimately opted to split the difference and meet in the middle at 3 Keys, which our rating system classifies as “a good game.”
It’s also important to note that The Official SAW Escape is Egan Escape Productions’ first stab at this genre we all love. It lays the groundwork for exactly the type of evolutionary trajectory we’d hope to see. Following this experience is the 5 Key Escape Blair Witch, and the company’s newest two games at Escape IT each individually earned an industry-shattering 6 Keys. Simply put, they just keep getting better and better.
Perhaps the lesson Jigsaw meant to teach us is a simple one after all; Enter The Official SAW Experience with the right perspective, and with informed expectations, and your last few moments alive will no doubt be memorable ones. The choice is yours.
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Venue: The Official SAW Escape
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Number of Games: 2
GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:
Duration: 60 minutes
Capacity: 10 people
Group Type: Public or Private / You may or may not be paired with strangers depending on your choice of ticket type. (Private upgrade requires a minimum of 4 people.)
Cost: $49.99 – $59.99 per person depending on date and time selected. Groups of 4+ may upgrade to a private experience for an additional $20 per person. Specially priced combo tickets are also available when bundling The Official Saw Escape with Escape Blair Witch, located at the same venue.
We thank Egan Escape Productions for inviting us to play this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.
