Siren: Blood Curse Demo PS3 Review

Siren: Blood Curse is a new 12 episode survival horror game on the Playstation Network. Siren was originally a Playstation 2 title and now Siren: Blood Curse adds more onto it. You aren’t getting Siren HD either this is a brand new game with seven different characters and over 50 weapons with multiple story lines. This game seems right up my alley with it’s blood soaked story line and horror overtones. The demo that was released on PSN is a piece from the second chapter of the game.

Siren: Blood Curse has a very dark atmosphere, with very little in the way of world lighting forcing your character to use a flashlight to cut through the darkness. And yes this game is dark, I would say to dark at times, adjusting the TV didn’t help all that much. The problem is if you compare this to the world of DooM 3, where you were force to make a choice between flashlight and weapon which ramped up the intensity in darkened corridors. In Siren: Blood Curse the flashlight is always on guiding your way with everything else around you shrouded in darkness with minimal ambient light. The graphics are very detailed with the protagonist reminding me of a cross between Bruce Campbell from Evil Dead and Alec Baldwin from Beetlejuice.

The controls are decent for a third person survival horror game and the demo shows some innovation with the Dual Shock 3, giving you vibration alerts for the proximity of enemies and forcing you to use the six-axis control to defend yourself from the horde of undead. My biggest problem with this game stems from the scare factor, it’s just not there. I played it at night with only enough light in the room to see and still it was missing the “OH SHIT!” moments other games like Resident Evil and Clock Tower bring with them. For some reason this game didn’t suck me in like countless other games have. And this from something that wants you to pony up money to get the whole experience.

I feel the big issue is the way it has been presented, episodic content should be dished out more like a drug, here’s the first episode for free, you want the rest, you better find some way to get the money. This demo is a small portion from the second act of the game, why? It filled in some details but generally I just felt I was a guy busting a few heads and following the prompts. The other problem is this game was released on Blu-Ray in Japan but only released through the Playstation Network so far here in America. So I have no way to see more of the game through something like GameFly without spending some money on episodes; then if I want the full game I have to piece meal it and spend $44.97 even though the full game is $39.99, no discount mentioned for owning the first episode pack.

It’s really hard to justify the purchase of this game, the trailers who crazy amounts of action and blood letting while the demo is some sneaking and some combat. I’ve seen it billed as a sneaking, survival horror game and the demo does play on that successfully but with the drastically dark surroundings and nothing to pull me in I have to give this one a pass on what I’ve experienced. I had really hoped to like this game not only for the subject matter but push publishers to stick to complete episodic content, I’m looking at you Valve.

Pros:

• Rich Detailed Graphics
• Good Controls
• Good Use of the Vibration and Six-Axis Features
• Episodic Content That’s Complete

Cons:

• Darkness Not Used Effectively
• Minimal Scares
• No Hook to Pull You In
• Starting Off On Chapter 2 of a Story Does Not Work

Conclusion: If you play through the demo and enjoy it go ahead and buy it but I didn’t see anything in the demo that excited me. The trailers look like the game I want but there’s no telling how much of that will be in the game. Right now I would say pass until it either hits Blu-Ray to rent or the first episode pack goes on sale on PSN.