Let’s face it, the current generation has been a barren wasteland when it comes to horror games. Sure, there’s the Condemned series out there, but little else in the spirit of the Silent Hill games. But Siren: Blood Curse has now landed on PSN, a reboot of the first PS2 game, which was applauded for bringing certain original elements to the genre, but was also panned for being too archaic and unforgiving. So what does this new part bring?

The first thing you’ll notice is the installation of the game, which was covered in our First Look. Some people might have patience with the procedure, but since this game is the first console-centric episodic release, it also exposes the weakness in the PSN infrastructure. We definitely hope Sony will refine their way of installing games, especially ones of this size. Also, a big bullet point is the aforementioned episodic structure; instead of buying the whole game, you can also buy them in smaller bite-sized packs. The first two-three episodes are very short when compared to the later ones, so don’t worry if you manage to finish them fast.

Anyway, back to the game itself. Helmed by the Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, you can expect similar craziness out of this game. The game takes place in a secluded Japanese village named Hanuda that acts as the narrative’s central point, and it’s very obvious something’s not right with the village. The game begins with an American TV team investigating the location after rumors of supernatural things happening there reach them. Here, several different characters – both the American characters and other Japanese ones – end up and have to sneak and fight to survive. When it comes to the atmosphere, this game is almost unparalleled, and Japan Studio certainly has captured the feel of being alone among twisted enemies in dark environments. Compared to other horror games, the switching between several key characters help flesh out the story and provide different gameplay challenges. For example, you get to play as an American student named Howard Wright, a young girl named Bella Monroe and her father, Sam Monroe. There are several other characters you get to control, and this works surprisingly well, variation-wise.

These switches force you to take on the challenges in different ways; some episodes are all-out action, and other episodes require you to sneak around, hide in closets and drawers and avoid all enemies by using the sightjacking ability, which lets you observe through the eyes of the enemies (and the various NPC’s you get to escort in several chapters). This ability is a key part of the game, but unfortunately, the sightjacking causes the frame-rate to severely drop, and combined with the extremely dark environments, you sometimes end up seeing nothing. But thankfully you’re not forced to use this ability all the time, since you often can outrun the various enemies, or beat them down.

Each episode has a list of mission objectives the player have to fulfill. On one hand, this streamlined approach lessens the backtracking and the frustration by telling you what to do in most cases (in a vague way), but on the other hand this hand-holding sometimes makes the game a bit too easy. The later episodes do not have such obvious objectives, and that in turn lets the player approach challenges in different ways. Several of the environments are created so that you can finish them in various ways, which is great for repeated playthroughs.

The character-switching reveals the biggest flaw of the game: the convoluted and incoherent narrative. Without spoiling too much, the cutscenes in the game barely provides the player with answers, and will more often confuse him or her even more. But like in most survival horror games, you can pick up archive items that further add to the lore behind the story (there are 50 such items), but there’s no excuse that many of the cutscenes are badly edited and end abruptly, providing little insight to what’s happening in the village. Also, the archive items can’t fully explain some of the absurd things that happen near the end, but at the same time, some late-game scenarios are so out of this world they almost feel refreshing. It’s a good thing the archive items are so well-made: unlike other horror games, not all archive items are text-only. Many of them also provide the player with videos (with real actors) and voice recordings that adds to the story and the characters. Also, it’s worth pointing out that certain cutscenes border on being campy, and might be off-putting depending on your taste.

Unfortunately, the character switching also forces you to replay certain environments several times. The lack of additional areas does hurt the game a bit, but on the plus side, each time you revisit an area, other, previously locked areas are opened and the mission objectives force you to use a different approach.

A survival horror game also relies on its enemies, and if you’ve played the Silent Hill games, you’ll have an idea on what to expect. Unlike the zombies found in other games, the ones in this game, named “shibitos” (the “living dead”) are smart and will pursue you fiercely if discovered. They utilize melee weapons and even firearms which is enough to differentiate them from the regular kind of zombies. Since the game often doesn’t provide the player with a weapon, more times than not the player needs to avoid the enemy altogether. The game has 50 different weapons with various stats, and the further you get in the game, the more you get to use the weapons.

Thankfully, the human shibitos aren’t the only enemies in the game. As you’d expect from the creator of Silent Hill, the game truly is twisted and often puts you in very graphic scenarios. The art direction in general is of high quality, with freaky, well-designed environments and some late-game enemies that are extremely gross. But like Silent Hill 2, the game doesn’t rely on cheap in-your-face scares, but rather relies on more psychological horror that builds on tension and stress. But of course, there are a couple of scares that ought to scare the living hell out you, with one notable moment that truly is horrific (and in a level set in broad daylight aswell!). Also, since almost all the enemies resurrect after a certain amount of time, you are never fully safe in the game which is a great decision and adds to the tension. One addition to the Siren series is that you can complete the game entirely from a first person perspective. It truly adds to the immersion in many cases, but may also annoy the player in narrow areas thanks to the sometimes slow controls.

The game is not a showcase of the PS3’s power, but the graphics certainly get the job done. All of the environments are detailed and well-realized, and the character models are of high quality. The lighting effects are some of the best in a horror game so far; the player can (and must!) use flashlights to illuminate the surroundings, and every single object in the game casts realistic shadows. Some levels are set during rainy nights, with flashes of lightning casting shadows all over the place creating some really pretty imagery. The texture work in the game is unfortunately the biggest graphical weakspot. Many of them are low-res and since the game can be played from first person, they are easy to spot and detract a bit from the experience. Also, all the lighting effects causes the framerate to occasionaly drop, and some of the animation blending is weak as well, especially when characters immediately start to run after having stood still. Depending on your preference, the very dark nature of the game also hides many of the environmental details, but increases the tension at the same time. Thankfully, there’s no tearing and aliasing to speak of.

The voice acting is surprisingly decent for a horror game, and the sound effects are generally very nice. The monsters have distinct grunts that are sure to stress you out. A special nod goes to the wonderful music in the game that really helps setting the mood.

The game provides around 10 hours of game play the first time around which isn’t bad at all considering it’s half the price of a full retail game. The game encourages the player to replay the episodes to grab all the archive items, since you most likely won’t get them all in your first session. By the end, you are also scored in different areas, like time taken to beat the chapter or if you managed to finish the episode without being spotted. The episodic structure and the intuitive interface lets you replay your favorite scenarios at your heart’s content, which is a great plus.

If you’ve been craving for a new horror game, can stand some outlandish plot elements and have the HD space and patience to install it, then don’t hesitate and jump in. Even if it’s not perfect, the game has plenty of strong points that makes it a great game.