Japan is under invasion from the living undead in this remake of survival horror classic from Sony, 'Siren: Blood Curse' for the PlayStation 3. X-Play has the Review!
The Pros
- Interestingly spooky tale
- Different perspectives and characters add variety
- Sight-jacking feature is engaging
- Multiple ways to get through many of the obstacles
- $40 makes it a pretty good deal for fans of the genre
The Cons
- Very clichéd
- Episodic release is a complete gimmick, but buying it like that is a waste
The original Siren on the PS2 didn't exactly set American gamers aflame with excitement. Siren: Blood Curse tries to remedy the problem by Americanizing the first installment of the game. Don't expect Sarah Michelle Gellar to show up any time soon. While the game doesn't move too far away from its roots, the story has been adjusted to add a couple of faces from the states. Other complaints from the first game, such as not being able to move around while sight jacking, have been addressed, but new issues arise to take their place.
Watching Me, Watching You
The game focuses largely on a small US news crew that has come to Japan to film a story about the legend of Hanuda, a cursed village, where they witness a brutal human sacrifice. From there, things just go downhill. The crew consists of a divorced couple and their spunky ten-year-old daughter, and a cameraman who happens to be one of the more extreme examples of a black stereotype we've seen lately (even by Japanese-game standards). There's also a young college student named Howard, who tries to rescue one of the sacrificial damsels, along with a decidedly non-Japanese priestess, and a moody Japanese guy with a rifle who looks like an escapee from a Tokyo gangster flick.
The game moves between the characters in a mostly uneven fashion. Much of the game revolves around Howard, but everyone gets plenty of moments to scurry in fear through the dark. The gameplay is almost entirely standard for the genre, with a couple key additions. Played by default from a third person perspective, you can switch to and play from a first-person perspective at any time, which is useful when the limited camera controls become too unwieldy.
Creep and Sneak
Sight jacking is another interesting addition. Since combat is, as usual, not the game's strong suit, and Bella, the ten-year-old girl, can't fight at all, sneaking is an absolute necessity. Sight jacking lets you see through the eyes of the cursed denizens of Hanuda (called "shibito"). When using this feature, the screen splits to show dual perspectives. When a shibito sees you, the game automatically splits the screen so you can see the pursuit from both views as well, which is an eerily effective effect.The final interesting facet of the design is that the game uses the same locations over and over—while giving each locale a slightly different feel and objective for each character—and you can often navigate the landscape and complete objectives in different ways. Exploring yields bonus items that help flesh out the story, different weapons, and other manners for solving problems. This is a nice element for players who want to move through the game in a more methodical fashion. Generally, each of the twelve episodes takes, at most, an hour to complete, but you can extend that by taking the risk to cover the map more thoroughly.
I Need Violence!
Admittedly, most players likely won't go this route, simply because you can't kill most of the monsters. With a few exceptions, the shibito simply get up shortly after you take them down. Combat is a tedious affair, thanks to the twitchy turning controls, a complete lack of targeting, and no defensive moves whatsoever.The biggest problem with Siren: Blood Curse is that it isn't particularly distinctive. Character models are detailed, but there's little here that feels or looks like anything more than a PS2 game in hi-res. What's especially lamentable is how tame the gore is. Sure, the walking dead look grisly with their bloody eyes and pale complexion, and some of the more grotesque forms are creepy. Yet even a close range blow from a shotgun does absolutely no visible damage to the models. For a game where a group of normal humans are fighting for their lives against horrific odds, brutal violence and actual damage modeling would have considerably increased the creep factor.
Instead, players are left to blindly hack at zombies with pick axes, shovels, and scalpels, and the only payoff is some temporary spattering of blood. On the plus side, the audio work is exceptional—easily the best parts of the presentation, with great surround sound and really frightening ambient and vocal effects.
Not Quite Cursed
The whole "episodic" nature of the release is an unnecessary gimmick. The first episode is only 20 minutes long, and each episode has a pointless recap and next episode preview. In fact, since you can't buy each episode singularly (and it probably wouldn't be worth it), paying $15 for four episodes at a time seems absurd. At $40, however, Siren: Blood Curse is a pretty good deal for fans of Japanese horror. For all its lack of innovation, there's an involving, if convoluted story here, and some commendably spooky moments.
Review by: Jason D'Aprile
Comments
Quatarsys
... ... 2, , .
mmm ... I can not disagree with the review of the game ... But the similarity of Siren with a series of Silent Hill in a review without any words, but it is obvious.
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