"It's got the scares a horror game needs, but they could have made it more convenient to play."

Jason's Score:

6.5

The first Siren game was a heartbreaker for me. I found it very clunky and repetitive to the point where I thought I had personally offended the developers somehow. Since the game was designed by Keiichiro Toyama, who did Silent Hill (a series I love), this was particularly troubling.

The second Siren game didn't make it to North America (in Japan, the series is popular enough to warrant a film adaptation), so now on the PS3 we have the third game, Blood Curse, a remake of the first. Gameplay wise, Blood Curse offers significant improvements over the issues that made me turn my nose up at the first game, though a new distribution system adds some new quirks of its own.

Gamers play a variety of different characters that have become trapped in a haunted village overrun by creatures called the Shibito. The Shibito aren't your typical videogame zombies. They're reasonably intelligent and will use items, including guns. They're also well-nigh indestructible. One of the game's grim but amusing touches is a reoccurring Shibito who has been killed about 30 times over... but is still going, still reflecting the damage that's been done to him.

Players have to guide their character through dark and blood-spattered environments, collect items, solve the odd puzzle and get them to safety. Occasionally, they will have a second AI character to escort or follow. Players can beat down the Shibito with a variety of weapons found throughout the game, everything from guns to frying pans. Although a few good shots to the head will bring one down, it will get back up again before long. Fortunately, the player can also use stealth tactics: hide in closets, use traps... they can also brace themselves against doors to keep the Shiboto out.

As a horror game, Blood Curse has a fair bit going for it. The Shibito are genuinely creepy. Most are modeled after ordinary citizens who have died, their faces blank or twisted masks of pain. They giggle and taunt you as they pursue you. It's quite clear that the Shiboto enjoy their work.

The environments are suitably messy and bloodstained, though it is a very dark game, even when you crank the gamma. I'm all for darkness and uncertainty in my horror games, but in my opinion, Blood Curse goes a little too far. Thankfully, there are levels set in the daytime. A better variety of mission objectives makes these less repetitive than Siren 1 (it seems like you had to move back and forth through some of those levels three or four times in the first game), plus there are hidden objects that help expand the story in the game's archive.

The game's other gimmick is "sightjacking." The game allows you to see through the eyes of other characters, including the Shibito. It's a very handy ability for players who take the stealthy approach. Now you know for sure that your opponent can't see you, because you're seeing exactly what it sees. It makes knowing when to come out of hiding easier, and it's a godsend against snipers. Yes, the living dead have snipers.

Sightjacking has been improved somewhat from Siren 1. The screen now splits, so you can keep your view and the view of whoever you've sightjacked. Nice, but there's another issue: screen space. I played this game on a non-HD TV (yeah, I know, I'm still in the Stone Age), so a splitscreen means a very limited view. Add the darkness on top of that, and it can be really hard to figure out what's going on.

Siren: Blood Curse is simultaneously a game and an experiment in game distribution, digitally delivering a game that would normally be issued on a disk. In North America, the game is currently available only as a download from the PlayStation Network. There's an initial download, followed by an additional 11 downloadable episodes. Players can buy as much or as little of the game as they'd like, although it's cheaper to pay for the whole bundle.

The distribution side doesn't do the game many favours though. The initial download is quite large, but the amount of playable material is minimal: I breezed through it in about four minutes. Subsequent episodes do have multiple chapters and last much longer, but of course that means more downloading. And, then you have to install each episode. All of this requires you to quit the game environment to manage it. It would have been much better to allow the player to manage it all from within the game. Episodes can be installed in any order though, so you could download episode 12 and play that right away if you wanted.

Blood Curse has a lot going for it: the intriguing story, multiple characters, the unsettling opponents. However, between the downloading of episodes and some of the more demanding mission requirements, it requires the patience of a hardcore horror gamer. Digital delivery for a large scale game of this type is inevitable, but it could have been implemented more conveniently. Perhaps one day Blood Curse will be issued on disk. I'd personally wait until then, unless you're a series fanatic or you have a really good pipe in your house.

Pros

Cons

Bottom Line

Jason's Score:

6.5