Saw: Genesis switches up Dead by Daylight's formula with escape room thrills

The idea of a video game based on Saw, the mega-popular horror movie franchise, seems like a no-brainer until you stop to think about the logistics. Jigsaw isn’t exactly a powerful slasher villain that sounds morbidly fun to embody in a game; he’s a weak old man who hides behind a wall of monitors. The idea doesn’t seem to lends itself to an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game, at least not in a Dead by Daylight kind of way. Bloober Team is hoping that it has solved that deadly puzzle with Saw: Genesis.

Revealed at Summer Game Fest, the 3v1 multiplayer game adapts Saw into the world’s bloodiest escape room. A team of victims must work together to escape a series of death traps while one mastermind screws with them from the shadows. Polygon learned much more about the clever concept at Summer Game Fest, getting a glimpse of gameplay ahead of Saw: Genesis’ impending early access release. There’s a clever idea here, but it’s all going to come down to Jigsaw’s favorite word: execution.

Saw: Genesis is a prequel to the film series and takes place in the 1920s, in the wake of World War I. Though there’s no real indication in the films that there was a killer who inspired Jigsaw, Bloober Team believes that a post-war setting works as a starting point due to people of the era trying to process the horrors of the time. That’s a very tricky sales pitch considering how quickly it could teeter into villainizing veterans experiencing PTSD if handled the wrong way, but story isn’t likely to be a focus in a multiplayer game like this.

The real meat comes from Genesis’ escape room premise. Players are thrown into a maze of puzzles, with procedurally generated elements, and split up into two sides. One person plays the role of the Judge, who is this era’s version of Jigsaw, and the other three play the role of the Accused. The latter are the victims, and their goal is to escape a sprawling map by completing a series of objectives together. They can split up to accomplish that, or stick together and use a ping system to better communicate. Each match also has two challenges, which play more like the “games” seen in the films.

The Accused are playing blind; they can’t see the map and have to find the objectives they need to complete. They can find tools like screwdrivers that can disarm traps faster, and pick up makeshift weapons that can be used to fight the Judge off. They also can lose things — their limbs, specifically. Certain challenges might require someone to sacrifice an arm so the team can move on. In one challenge I saw, a player had to shimmy through barbed wire to find a valve, taking a lot of damage in the process.

The Judge has more power in the situation, but not in the way you might be expecting. Like Jigsaw, he’s not an invincible beast; he just has more knowledge. The Judge can see a map of the entire maze, and they have access to secret elevators, corridors, and catwalks that hang above the rooms. That allows them to quietly sneak into the maze and set up traps or ambush unsuspecting players. The Judge still has to be very careful, though. They are weak and can be killed by the Accused, keeping the game true to the films while still giving the Judge an advantage.

I saw a good example of how that dynamic works in a bit of hands-off gameplay. After completing some objectives, the Accused made their way into a challenge room. Little did they know, the Judge was hiding in the catwalks above them. The villain pulled a switch that locked the doors behind them, ensuring they couldn’t leave quickly. Then they threw a gas canister down below, causing them to hallucinate. They were left fighting off imaginary monsters, giving the Judge the ability to hop down and ambush them. The Judge wins when everyone is incapacitated, while at least one survivor needs to make it out alive to win. The Accused are on a soft timer too; if they take too long, the body traps around them will trigger and kill them. Bloober Team says a match lasts around 10 to 15 minutes total.

Naturally, there’s going to be a bit of fan service in there for Saw sickos. Some of the traps and challenges are inspired by ones from the films, but they’re more rudimentary since the Judge is working with World War I tech. You can expect to see a certain acid trap return, so prepare your stomach for that.

The footage I saw seemed very early — too rough to really judge in good faith — and that makes sense. Bloober Team says that the game will launch into early access in the fourth quarter of 2026 as a premium game, and it expects it to stay there for at least a year. Things like meta progression are still being hammered out behind the scenes. (Players will get experience for completing matches and be able to unlock new skills for their characters.) If developers Broken Mirror Games and Anshar Studios can make the escape room loop work, it could have a devilishly clever Saw adaptation on their hands. Just expect a lot of tinkering to get it there.