Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

Siren: Blood Curse

1. Official Site
2. Platform: ps3
3. Publisher: Sony America
4. Developer: Sony America
5. Release Date: 07/24/08
6. Genre: Action/Adventure

by Mike Repella

These days it seems like there are only two names that matter in the survival horror genre, Resident Evil and Silent Hill (no, Alone in the Dark you don’t count). With only two strong contenders in the survival horror market, there certainly seems to be room for another good franchise. Enter Siren: Blood Curse, available through the Playstation Network.

Blood Curse is the direct sequel to the original Siren released on the PS2 back in 2004. Like its prequel, Blood Curse is set in a fictional Japanese village that seems to be cursed. Throughout the game you play as several different outsiders to the village who must unravel the mystery surrounding the village and stay alive at the same time. If this sounds familiar it’s probably because you have played any one of the numerous Silent Hill games.

Plot stealing aside, is Siren: Blood Curse worth your hard earned money? Let’s find out.

The graphics in Siren: Blood Curse are a mixed bag. Since this is a survival horror game, much of the play time is spent in dark hallways, dark rooms and dark outdoor environments. Throughout most of the game you will be hard pressed to see more than a couple of feet in front of the player. But on the rare occasion that a level is set during daylight hours you will be able to see that the developers have used a very adequate graphics engine. Each level will feature accurately detailed buildings that are falling apart and rusting out. Each environment is meant to look very creepy and the developers succeeded most of the time. To add to the atmosphere the developers decided to add a grainy look over top of the game. Anyone who has played a Silent Hill game will know what this looks like.

The characters in Blood Curse aren’t as impressive. The characters lack the level of detail that we have come to expect with next gen games and the animation work is stiff. I could understand the stiffness in the monsters (since they are zombies), but the main characters also fall victim to the poor animations. As a result the in engine cut-scenes don’t look as good as they otherwise could have. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been as noticeable a year ago, but Metal Gear Solid 4 has raised the bar and the deficiencies in Siren: Blood Curse are now glaring.

My comparisons to other Survival horror games won’t end with the plot and the graphics. If someone wasn’t looking at the TV and all they heard was the sound of someone playing Blood Curse then they could very well mistake the game for Resident Evil 4. All of the bad guys in the game constantly mumble in some foreign language, which sounds like a dead ringer for the Spanish villagers in Resident Evil 4. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the foreign mumbling is very disturbing.

The in game music does a good job of conveying the atmosphere, but you will only really hear music during the cut scenes. The character’s lines are all done by competent voice actors who do a good job of reading the script and playing their roles.

All around the sound in Siren: Blood Curse does a good job.

The controls and more specifically the camera are Siren’s worst aspect and came really close to ruining the game for me. The problem is that 90% of the time the camera is way too close to your character. As a result, your character’s head and shoulders take up a large portion of the screen. On top of that the developers decided to split the screen in half so that you can see from the closest enemy’s perspective. When this happens the viewable area in front of your player gets even smaller. Throughout most of the game you will be hard pressed to see what is directly in front of your character, let alone see if there is an enemy there. Needless to say the camera is extremely frustrating. The developers did include an alternative camera position, but it does very little to alleviate the problems.

If you can get past the camera then you will find that the game controls from a 3rd person perspective almost EXACTLY like recent Silent Hill games. The game is not combat intensive, but on occasion you will have to fight enemies. When you do get into fights don’t expect a robust fighting engine. Instead you will swing at an enemy with whatever weapon you have on hand and pray that you hit him.

Aside from the camera, the controls aren’t terrible, but why can’t developers learn from Resident Evil 4 and either improve on that control and camera scheme or just rip it off?

Sony decided to take a chance with Siren: Blood Curse and release it in an episodic format. The game is broken up into 12 episodes, with each episode having several sub chapters. At the end of each episode you get a short video showing scenes from the next episode and at the start of each episode you see a summary of what happened before. The overall effect is pretty neat and gives the game a TV style "to be continued" feel.

The actual game plays a lot like an adventure game. At the start of each level you are given goals and sub goals. You then have to figure out how to accomplish the goals. Most of the time you have to solve a puzzle, find some sort of item or defeat a certain bad guy. The puzzles themselves aren’t that hard to solve. You also aren't left guessing what you have to do next since the goals are clearly defined and a fairly detailed map of each location is unlocked from the start.

Throughout the game you will play as several different characters. Each of them have their own background stories (if sometimes vague) and reasons for being stuck in the village. Each episode has one to two different playable chapters and each character seems to specialize in certain mission types. For instance, one of the characters is usually featured in the combat intensive chapters and another is predominantly featured in the puzzle solving chapters. Overall the game does a great job of mixing up the gameplay and I was never left feeling bored with the game because of repetitive missions and gameplay.

As I mentioned in the control section, the combat in the game isn’t that robust or rewarding. But one cool aspect about it is that there are several different weapons throughout the game that you can choose from. Sledge hammers, axes, wrenches, table knives, shot guns and so on are all available to pick up and use.

The story in Siren: Blood Curse is slow to unfold and can be really confusing at times. Main characters will seemingly die, only to show up again perfectly fine a couple of episodes later. Things will happen that won’t make sense, but it is all part of the mystery of Siren and most of your questions will be answered by the time you finish the game. Siren: Blood Curse is a story driven game and although the story may borrow heavily from the Silent Hill series it is still unique enough to be enjoyable.

The one gameplay element that truly sets Siren apart from all the other survival horror games is the ability to "sight jack". Most of the playable characters have the ability to scan the environment and lock onto enemies and friends alike and view the world from their perspective. In addition to viewing the game world, the players will also be able to hear everything going on around the targeted character. This ability can be used to solve puzzles and avoid enemy characters. In theory this ability may sound pretty cool, but in reality I found myself only using when it absolutely necessary because it blocks out nearly the entire view in front of your character. To make matters worse, this ability will automatically kick in when an enemy targets you. You can immediately turn the ability off, but by the time you do the enemy is usually on top of you and the damage is already done.

At first I thought Siren: Blood Curse was going to fail miserably in the value category. This is because the first episode can be beaten in literally 10 minutes; that includes playtime and cut scene time. But don’t judge a game by its first chapter. Each subsequent chapter can take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half to finish. With 12 chapters, Siren easily has 12 to 14 hours of playtime.

In addition to the main game, Sony has packed in several hidden items throughout each chapter that are meant to be collectibles. Searching for and finding each item will add to the total play time and replayability. The items usually tell even more of the story or give detailed information about weapons and items.

The game is offered at two price points. You can download a set of four episodes for $14.99 or you buy all 12 episodes for $39.99. You can decide which one is a better deal for you. However, I think if you play all the way through the first four chapters then chances are you will want to play the next four as well, so you might as well go ahead and spend the full $39.99.

Considering that most new games go for $59.99 these days, Siren: Blood Curse is a heck of a deal for fans of the survival horror genre.

Despite the extremely poor camera system in Siren: Blood Curse, I still enjoyed the game. The story may not be completely unique, but it does present several characters that are likeable. On top of that there are enough twists and turns in the storyline to keep you coming back for more.

Sony took a chance with the episodic format. But it's a risk that I think will pay off, since the episodes tend to leave you wanting more at the end of each of them. The story, coupled with the budget price, helps to offset the frustration caused by the camera.

At $39.99 any fan of Silent Hill should enjoy Siren: Blood Curse. Those people who are on the fence have the option of buying the first four episodes to see if the game is for them. As far as downloadable content, Siren: Blood Curse is one of the most complete games available.

Gaming Trend Score

74

1. Graphics: 80
2. Audio: 90
3. Controls: 50
4. Gameplay: 70
5. Value/Replay: 85
6. OVERALL:74