Siren Blood Curse - 10/10
Horror games, where are they these days!? Or to put things more bluntly, where are the quality horror titles? This era of next gen consoles has been a mixed bag for scare fests, there really hasnt been alot on offer from any console. FEAR kick started proceedings by shoving psychological twisted imagery and troth loads of blood and gore in people's faces, the appearance of Alma *a creepy girl in a red dress, usually covered in blood* was a frighteningly awesome enemy for the game, that made many gamers jump during her many random appearances, but the same shocks cant last forever, and in FEAR's case, they didnt. Next up we had Condemned 2 Bloodshot, long story short this game was utterly brutal and psychotically scary, and remains one of the most sadistic games you can play on PS3, and one of the best horror games money can buy. So after Condemned 2 Bloodshots successful arrival, surely the terror in games must be on the rise!? Well, sadly everything went back down hill yet again for the genre with the putrid pile of steaming chunder that was Alone In The Dark which was not at all scary and was about as visually appealing as an outdated PS2 title. It bombed big time, leaving a plethora of horror crazy gamers somewhat depressed.
Well, as you can see from this pattern everything seems very up and down in the horror mold, well thankfully we are on the high again with Sony's PS3 exclusive PSN title, Siren Blood Curse, and hell didnt this generation of gaming needed a game as eerie and spooky as Siren Blood Curse. Everything about this game from the muffled moans during the title screen to the blood dripping presentation is terrifying, in a good Japanese horror way. We all know the Japanese are the kings of horror when it comes to movies and video games and Blood Curse is no exception, it is a mix of The Ring, The Grudge, The Eye and a drop of Blair Witch Project amongst many other asian horror movies all combined into one, resulting in Siren Blood Curse. Team Sirens effort is a breath of fresh air while still maintaining all the qualities of an old fashioned survival horror game. From clunky combat, corridoor exploration gameplay, searching for obscure items, the odd puzzle and companion ship with other characters. It's all done at a pedestrian pace and the paths can be linear, but for Siren Blood Curse, it works perfectly considering the structure and narrative of the game, which is based around various characters in the same village with each episode being set at a different time and place.
After creeping through four terror packed episodes, i can confidently say that Siren Blood Curse is indeed THE horror game to own at this current time. There really is no other game like it, let alone no other horror game that can compete with its constant weirdness, demented audio, hair raising chills, seriously f***ed up enemies, photo realistic characters, hugely intense gameplay and refreshing concepts that the Siren team have implemented. The most appetising news about all this though is that Siren Blood Curse can be bought at a full price of just $60, or $15 per episode, Which is generous value for money considering how god damn nerve knottingly creepy this entire game is. Not only is it the best horror game available on PS3, its also the best PSN game on the PStore.
Fans of previous games will have a fair idea of what it's all about storywise but for those new to this series this is how it goes. An American TV crew have inhabited the evil Japanese village of Hanuda, oblivious to the sick happenings that are occurring throughout the village. The team's goal is to investigate the gruesome sacrifices and rituals that had taken place years ago at the village, as members of a TV crew its a rare chance at making a documentary of their discoveries and any footage and clues they find will obviously prove beneficial to the success of their TV show. But upon arrival they begin to realise something is awfully wrong with the village, witnessing a real life human sacrifice taking place in the woods during the night alarms the team, and when the siren sounds begin to start and they find out that the villagers are possessed eye bleeding freaks, this is when the team split up and this is when Siren Blood Curse begins. The game structure is set out in TV style episodes similar to Alone In The Dark, but unlike Atari's lazy effort, Siren Blood Curse puts this structure to perfect effect, like a miniture horror series.
The characters that find themselves lost in the village include the following:
Wright Howard - The young potty mouth high school teenager who cops a bullet to the chest at the beginning of the game. This spunky cool whippersnapper dude makes good friends with Miyako during the game and doesnt mind getting himself soaked in blood when the Shibito get too close.
Miyako - The cutesy innocent yet slightly spooky Japanese girl lead of the game, Miyako was also from previous Siren titles and finds herself back in a similar mess with the Shibito, the evil village, the cults and the mystery surrounding the rivers of blood and siren sounds.
Melissa Gale - Celine Dion lookalike Melissa is the partner of Sam. She seems to have a good relationship with Bella.
Bella Monroe - The young daughter of Sam. Bella's missions involve enemy evasion instead of combat. She is small and just a kid, so hiding in lockers, under beds and in other child sized places is her solution for dodging the Shibito.
Sam Monroe - The dorky, calm and collected father of Bella. Sam seems disturbingly casual during the horrific situation, and shows no emotion to anyones torture. A creepily passive natured man that finds most things comical rather than emotional. Can he be trusted?
Amana - The red clad cultist girl who was apart of the severe stabbing scene at the beginning of the game, she reunites with Howard.
Sol Jackson - Chubby, Baldy and wears glasses. Dont be decieved by his burly looks, this member of the American TV crew is as scared and petrified as everyone else is. He is more of the giant whimp of the crew.
Seigo Saiga - Little is known about Seigo, a noble loner Japanese man who carries around a shotgun. He doesnt mind going gun-ho on anything that moves either. Friend or foe? Either way, like the others, he is part of the Shibito menu.
Gameplay is where Siren really fleshes itself out, every hour is endlessly intense thanks to the original 'sight jacking' feature. For those of you unaware of this, sight jacking allows the player to see through the eyes of the enemy. One press of the R1 button, and the screen will go into splitscreen layout, one side with your character, the other side being the enemies field of vision. During the sight jack you can see what the Shibito are doing, whether it be tending to their farm crops, making distorted sounds, opening doors or windows. This allows you to have a clear indication where your enemy is located and gives you easy lead way to dodge your enemy without being spotted. Sight Jacking also has its negatives, it can be very nerve racking when seeing your own character in the enemies vision. For example, during Bella's mission in the run down hospital, i made her hide in a small cupboard then whacked on the sight jack, the satanic nurse was approaching that very cupboard Bella is hiding in, the enemy stops, sniffs around, giggles, then turns away. During this moment you will be holding your breath and praying that this she-demon doesnt decide to open that cupboard. And when the tension fades momentarily, the sigh of relief is massive. The form of release from fear is wonderful, and no game does it better than Siren, its like you're part of a horror movie yourself.
Another fine example of this excellent concept put to spooky use is when playing as Howard Wright. His mission is to escape from an insane police officer. You have several options of evasion during this stage, you can either hide under the house, or climb through the window and hide in a locker. Put on the sight jack and you will see what that strange police officer is up to by looking through his vision. He will shoot locks to get into the house, fire gunshots to make you uneasy and scream in frustration unaware of where you are. Make sure you turn your flashlight off as the Shibito will be easily disturbed by your light fixture. Nothing was more terrifying seeing this disabled cop wonder through the house and stare at the locker i was hiding in, peeking through the locker vents was a terrifying experience as you can see just how messed up the officer looks, with his pale skin, rolled back eyes, gaping writhing mouth and dark blood dripping from his uniform. It almost makes you yelp and not in a good way.
Some missions involve you escorting a companion around which makes the gameplay much more difficult. One episode has Wright Howard with Miyako, they both need to get out of the area they're in. The tactic here is to scope out the environment and find a good pattern or safe route so that Miyako and yourself are not spotted by the Shibito. By doing this you can give your partner commands, you can tell them to stay put or to hide somewhere or you can order them to follow you. You can also shout, this is an intentional tactic of alerting nearby enemies and luring them your way while you think of a way of safely getting past them. Other commands will apply depending on the obstacle at hand, for example trying to climb over a ledge will require you to give your companion a boost helping them over that ledge. The character interaction here is clever, it can be a slow build up, but that is what makes this game so intense. Miyako's run is a very slow jog so patience is required when escorting her to a safe area. Scenarios aren't all stealth based, majority of the missions have optional approaches and some episodes are more action heavy. During one scene, Melissa and Bella are starting up a rusty old merc *its classic horror movie stuff* once the vehicle has started, the goal is simple, drive the vehicle through the lonely quaint forest side gravel roads during the night dodging *or running down* any wondering Shibito's walking around. The vehicle missions are great fun and provide a decent stop gap from the slow paced stealth missions.
The gameplay doesnt solely revolve around stealth, combat is required often if you want to give those Shibito a temporary nap *By temporary i mean the Shibito only stay down for a limited amount of time and cannot be killed* The weapons on offer are large and varied. Garden spades, pick shovels, handguns and shotguns are the norm. Guitars and tree branches is where it gets interesting. Smacking an enemy with a blade will have blood splatter your character which adds to the gritty realism of the combat, each weapon you acquire even has its own finishing move, smashing a Shibito's skull in with a blunt object or painting the walls with their brains thanks to a well aimed gunshot is only the beginning. Shibito also have their own finishing moves they can execute on you. The female villagers literally impale you with their own hands, snap your neck or group trample the life out of you, whilst the male Shibito's can stab you to death or strangle you with the blunt end of their weapons. The kill animations and gory death sequences are always a joy to watch. Apart from the molesting/sexual style executions.
If you thought the skin hungry undead from Resident Evil and the rotten nurses from Silent Hill were brain tearingly odd, you simply aint seen nothing yet. In fact, zombies and un-normal nurses will look like teletubbies after you see what ungodly abortions the Siren team have in store for the player. To begin with, there is the standard enemies, the Shibito, a horde of undead, intelligent spastics wanting to murder you with their rusty farm tools. Shibito come in all varieties, from eye bleeding mine diggers that want to bury there axe picks into your soft flesh or choke you to death with their weapons, screaming flailing females clothed from head to toe in dirty farm clothes that bray for a handful of your hot guts, and fat flabby villagers that climb on top of you and literally try to rape you to death..im serious. If a certain Shibito knocks you to the ground, they will get on top of you and attempt to **** you to death, as horrible as that sounds and sick as it clearly intends to be, it does add to the dark dread of this title, i am actually surprised it made it into the final game. because really, whatever they are doing clearly isnt pleasant. But that is how god damn awful and nasty this game can get. Just hide in an area and watch what the Shibito do and you will be disturbed, they either demonically giggle to eachother, scream out loud, chatter in their own languages, play with themselves or thrash about rapidly doing strange dance motions.
The sex crazy Shibito become cute cuddly lambs when the creature variety increases during further progression throughout each dark bleak episode. Yes, it gets worse. We then encounter, Brains; female maids with locks of meat dangling from there faces like frankfurts, these udder faced bitches intend on clawing the player to death until you limply drop to your knees and collapse face down in a sorry sh*t scared mess on the floor *most probably in a pool of your own urine*. The *Brain* breed can even range from enemies that have been overtaken by too much excessive skin, resulting in deformed humans that are strangely too tall due to odd disease deformalities, the worse freak i witnessed was a chubby villager with a giraffe sized neck and a body the shape of a touch lamp. Watching this deformed humanoid mindlessly drag itself around and heavily moan will scare the other life out of you, guaranteed. We then have Fly's, these are moth-like villagers that hover around the area wanting to take you away with them, the way they secretly conceal themselves with there wings and latch to walls like moth's to light fixtures speaks volumes in itself. Now for the real satanic creatures, The Spiders, visualise an undead villager, with puppet style limbs doing the spider walk *The Exorcist style*, watching these humanoid tarantulas crawl up on ceilings backwards will almost make you want to simply turn off the game and go out in the sun to forget about the horror you have just witnessed. They're without doubt the pinnacle of weirdness in Siren, and have a similar motion to the disjointed girl from The Grudge.
Finally we have the two boss monsters of the game, a retarded police officer with a tree branch impaled through his stomach, the other, a demonic nurse with blood flowing eyes, that pushes around a wheelchair carting around what looks to be a putrid pile of meat. These village locals will constantly stalk our eight survivors during this hellish ordeal. During the first episode, Wright Howard must evade this distorted sargeant by running across the long dirt roads whilst keeping a safe distance from his police vehicle and hiding away in a deserted old house. The cop will shoot the door locks to get in, and inspect the area until you come out of your hiding spot *whether it be inside a cupboard or under the house* Without giving away too much, the crazy police officer is based in alot of the game in some incredibly nerve racking moments. The sick sister nurse is just has horrible, constantly trying to hunt you down to chew off your face and to dig those blood smeared teeth into your throat. The clapping echo of her shoes on the hospital floors and the distant chuckling will give you goosebumps throughout the entire scenario. All the enemies keep you endlessly on edge, there is never a breather moment, you will be scared from start to finish. Thank god you can pause the game, because you will a few times just to put a halt to the constant sense of menacing terror. The fact that the Shibito cannot be killed *they only stay unconscious for a limited amount of time* also forces the player to think quickly and to find a new hiding place, stick around too long and that once prone enemy will awaken and continue the slaughter.
The game definitely aims to disturb, and in this case it does not disappoint. At the very beginning of the game during the intro, the openning sequence is played out in real life video footage *Think Blair Witch Project* of a girl being stabbed to death by a group of cultists, you hear the screams, the agony, the pleas and the cries for help. It is all very depressing and quite unsettling to see this kind of scene in a video game, but this kind of realism really makes Siren Blood Curse what it is. Utterly terrifying. Its not afraid to torment the player and tease the censors, which really sets Siren Blood Curse apart from the rest of the horror mold. The game doesnt mind ladling on the blood and gore either, during the first few episodes upon searching through an old Japanese house i came across a naked corpse lying in a bath full of blood and the corpse of a female villager with her throat slashed, with splatter prints of blood daubed all over the walls. During one of the episodes you will also encounter a Shibito watching disturbing mages on a static TV and come across a hungry cop feeding himself a bowl of steaming guts. Its not a family game, but a game aimed at hardcore horror fans and hardcore horror fans only.
The environments are pretty much shrouded in constant rain and thick black blankets of fog which hides alot of potentially rich atmosphere, but the vision of endless blackness of some areas in the village suit the unsettling mood of the game very well. Rusty run-down tin made houses, dimlit underground mine tunnels, eerie cult chapels, spooky misty woods, rainy rural areas populated by small garden sheds and dirty empty shacks and mountain side forested areas complete with sunless crimson skies and lakes of blood. There is even the haunting hospital to explore in, so fans of Silent Hill wont be disappointed.
Visually, Siren looks brilliant, the grainy filter really adds to the static graphics style wonderfully as if you yourself are apart of a late night Japanese SBS horror film. The characters resemble life like digitalised people, and although the atmosphere is almost too dark to notice any detail, little touches such as static TV's, flickering lanterns, flies buzzing around dead corpses and the realistic blood smattering painted on paper made walls is all very impressive in a bleak, filthy, gritty visual style fit perfectly for a horror game such as Siren Blood Curse. The big applause goes to the Shibito though, their glassy milky eyes, gaping teethless mouths, pallid hues, diseased geisha white skin tones, and trickles of dark blood dripping from their faces makes them the most believable enemy in a game. Animation is just as mind blowing, Shibito villagers casually drag their feet as they scramble towards you baying for your life, the spider humans scatter on their backs across ceilings and down walls, and the evil maiden nurse moves in a static motion and stumbles through the corridoors in a disjointed way, her limbs twitching, jerking and thrashing about as if she is suffering from spasms. It is frightenning to see these guys moving, watching an enemy just wonder around is more scary than when they actually attack you.
Audio wise the game is absolutely perfect! Everything sounds believable vocally. Big ups goes to the voice acting and Shibito sounds, Wright Howard is acted brilliantly, a young, brazen, brave but scared attitude which fits the character extremely well. Bella, the little girl is also voice acted flawlessly. The Shibito's deep breathing, heavy blood curdling gurgles, and croaky moans are a nightmare to the ear drums. There is also quite a bit of swearing and explicit language as well, Wright Howard is the victim of the odd *sh*t and f***k vocabulary* Other characters such as the Japanese folk, Miyako and Seigo speak their native languages. Overall, the ambience is near faultless and the voice acting is as perfectly underplayed as the Silent Hill cast.
Flaws? Siren isnt shy of them thats for sure, the controls can feel very sluggish at times and the camera angles can be painful, bad news is that you only get two views and if you dont like these perspectives than you're stuffed. You get what you're given and that is that. The game can also look VERY dark making walking around and attacking enemies a tiring exercise at times. But alot of these hiccups can be forgiven due to what Siren Blood Curse aims to be, a horror game. The developer wants the player to feel the fear, in a real life situation the individual would panic during combat, hence the awkward fighting. Looking at it in this sense makes alot of these niggles only small minor sins.
Overall, many may be surprised of the 10/10 final score. But im judging Siren Blood Curse as a horror game only, and as far as horror games go, Siren Blood Curse is one of the best money can buy. Unlike most survival horror games these days, Siren breathes new ideas into the genre. The sightjacking feature really sets this game apart from your average zombie shooter, the ability to see the vision from your enemies is a brilliant idea which adds to the intensity of the game as well as the way you approach objectives. The way the story and missions are structured from various characters, times and locations is also superb, if recent history is anything to go by most horror games have average plots, but in Sirens case, it has a story worth paying attention to and one that actually drags you in and gets you involved in the diversity of the characters and their purposes. With ultra realistic graphics, incredibly haunting ambience, engrossing characters and plot, wickedly imaginable monsters and an abundance of unique gameplay concepts all at a bargain price. Noone can argue the value factor. No game is perfect, but as far as the horror genre goes, Siren Blood Curse is as close to filmic horror as it gets and delivers an overall experience that will scare you to death, having said this, their is only one score i can reward for how well it delivers from a horror genre front. Horror fans rejoice! Download immediately!
Submitted by callan5
26/07/2008
674
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