Siren Blood Curse

Review from George - Wednesday, 15 October 2008 @ 11:20pm

Siren Blood Curse is not a stand alone game. It’s the second… Actually no, scrap that. Siren Blood Curse is a revamped version of the game Siren. With added blood and curses for all the family to enjoy.

Now this isn’t the first horror to come from Japan Studio. In fact the Japanese are known for scaring the shit out of us. Either through horror or seemingly harmless advertisements, which to them are funny and creative, to us, very disturbing and weird

The narrative story revolves around the lives of 7 different characters, who for their own reasons have been brought to Haunda, and now in order to survive they must find a way out while creeping past scary looking Asians.

Now that is the village Haunda. A picturesque haven of human sacrifices, devils, ghosts and high taxes. It’s in this gem of a village that the game is set. Haunda is a village plagued with an urban legend of devil worship and human sacrifices. And doing nothing out of the ordinary or unexpected, Americans being Americans decide to hike through miles of protected forest and do some investagationing. And this is where the story starts.

The characters you’re able to play as… You really know nothing about. And this is a relief really. I’d rather spend my time playing the game than learning the secret history of my characters left shoe. But playing as 7? This can go two ways. It can be daunting to switch characters and adapt constantly to each of their controls or can make for an interesting concept that holds your attention. Although sticking to cliché genre based characters, you do find a welcoming contrast between them. Going from a shovel wielding angst hate machine of a man to a small girl who can only use her small size as a means of slipping past enemies does shake things up and hold your interest. And this is good, as anyone will tell you, finding diversity among genre games is starting to become rare.

Besides having not much of a back story, several of the characters are there for a reason. They’re American. And being so, find it upon themselves to challenge 200 years of Japanese superstition. Because after all, it is freelance documentary filmmakers we rely upon to keep the truth upheld.

Unfortunately for them instead of finding the chocolate fountains and rainbows they set out for they bear witness to ritual killings. And like anyone in that situation, you must now go the opposite way you came, and run deep into the thick forest.

Japanese American welcome party

The game itself is split into 12 episodes (levels), with each episode having 3 parts; A beginning, middle and end for those of you without powers of assumption. With 7 playable characters, each with their own story to be told, this does produce a tiny conundrum. Luckily Japan Studios are paying their staff enough Yen to produce fluent gameplay that doesn’t confuse the hell out of us. I’m looking at you, Megaman.

With the introduction of each part to an episode, you play as a different character. Which one you play as depends on what exactly is happening within in the story. And because playing as each character separately can irk the hell out of us, some of them are coupled together. Much like in James Bond 64, only the bitch wont stand in front of you, get shot, and ruin your mission in this game.

Sony's overreaction to a man holding a Wii Mote

Running and hiding is an essential skill you will need to play this. But is in no way an easy task. The running yes, but the hiding can be quite difficult when 5 zombies are standing directly in your path, and you must creep by completely unnoticed. This is where a genius and essential idea has been thrown in. Sight jacking. Sight jacking allows you to see what other characters, or enemies see by splitting the screen into two views - yours and theirs. Allowing you to see through your enemies and other characters eyes is a great advantage, as it lets you time attacks with precision, follow someone if you get lost or watch yourself wave around shovel through the eyes of your enemy.

The games controls, although painfully easy to navigate, are addling to begin with. If you're familiar with the action button from the Zelda series, you should be fine with this. But it's ok. All you actually do in the game is run from point to point, hiding and attacking an enemy or two. This works great with this game, but will leave players that are more puzzle driven vexed.

Visually, Siren: Blood Curse is stunning. The story is told through scenes of red, blue and black tinted landscapes. With the occasional fuzzy TV effect thrown in for fun. There are times in the game I couldn’t even tell if footage was real or computer generated. Mind you, I wasn’t wearing my glasses in the first place. To better understand it without having to play it - take a camera and film yourself running through all the bushes in your backyard. Now lets take this footage, turn the contrast to maximum power, and turn the brightness to minus 10. And you now have yourself an accurate recreation of all of Siren’s cutscenes. This isn’t in any way meant as sarcasm. This is smart you see. It sets the mood perfectly. I found myself leaning closer to the tv, turning my full attention and senses towards the game. It was clear from the get go the developers were intent on drawing you into the game as you would be a film.

The Blair Witch Project Siren Blood Curse's overall concept is laid out and understood within the first hour, or even 25 minutes depending if you like shooting every inanimate object in sight or not. You’re trying to get away from evil things, you change characters through-out the game and play from their different prospective and adapt to their abilities, then finish the game. Ta-Da.

So in conclusion really... I liked this game. But the lack of anything really happening in it makes it hard to expand upon. The fantastic atmosphere made the game. Although it lacked Silent Hill's hair-raising suspense, the implementation of sight jacking, and a episodic system surely make it stand out.

Now I will mention, you can download this game online. It downloads into 12 episodes on to your console. You can replay them anytime, and delete a few if they’re dull I’m sure. Sony did allow you to download the full game for a very reasonable price… If you were American. So bad luck guys, so save those pennies cents.

P.S I would love to give a shout out to Australia Post

Australia Post, love ‘em, opted to throw the parcel ( Which contained Siren) I assume near my front door. Unfortunately they missed and it was buried deep within the Jasmine bush. Noticeable only when my youngest cat started attacking the package.

A visual presentation of how it should've been placed. Note Jasmine bush on right, and lazer cat.

Pros

Visuals, Siren: Blood Curse is stunning. The direction and episodic system Japan Studios implemented for this game worked well.

Cons

The simple ' Walk to next point, change character, repeat.' dragged on a little. Watching another character on sight jacking, you tend to just watch their screen. This works against you when you look back at your screen and realise you've gone off path and have been running into a tree for the past 4 minutes.