SIREN: Blood Curse (ps3)

[ZombieHorde]

SIREN: Blood Curse (SBC) is a downloadable game on the PSN store.

Genre: Horror. Most horror games focus on Easter Egg hunts (Resident Evil, Fatal Frame, Silent Hill) and/or action (Dead Space, The Suffering, newer Resident Evils) but SBC focuses on stealth.

Story: An American film team goes to Japan to film a haunted village, and they get caught up in a supernatural circle of violence and horror.

Graphics: Somewhere in between ps2 and ps3. The graphics are great for a downloadable game. The style is grainy realism.

Sound: Great music and great effects. Excellent all around.

Controls:

Left Stick - Walk around
Right Stick - A very limited look around

R1 - Attack (same as square)
R2 - Look closer (basically useless)
R3 - First person view (really nice sometimes)
L1 - Aim/Strafe
L2 - Sight Jack (more on this latter)
L3 - Not used

X - Action (open doors, pick up weapons, etc.)
Square - Attack (same as R1)
Triangle - Reload gun (you rarely have guns)
Circle - Toggle Stealth Mode

Select - Map
Start - Pause menu

D-Pad - Yell, Flashlight, give commands, use items

Gameplay: SBC has seven playable characters, but you don't get to choose which character you play. Most of the characters play the same, but one always begins with a gun, and another can never attack or defend herself in anyway because she is a 10-year-old child.

The enemies are called shibito. Shibito are undead, zombie like creatures, except they are smart, fast, and immortal. Some shibito use guns. If you have a weapon, you can knock a shibito out for a short while. You can knock out most shibito in about four hits with an average weapon, and most shibito can kill you in about four hits, so you have to be careful when fighting them. If you sneak up behind a shibito, you can stealth "kill" it in one hit. Since you are unarmed for about half of the game, stealth is absolutely mandatory.

By pressing L2, you enter sight jack mode. In sight jack mode, you can see through the eyes of your allies and the shibito. Seeing through the eyes of the shibito allows you to see where they are at, and you sometimes get handy clues, such as the location of precious weapons.

The vast majority of the missions are very clear and you are given a detailed, 3-D map to help you out. Some missions can only be solved one way, but others allow for more freedom.

Upgrades and Unlockables Almost none. The characters have no upgrades, they can only hold one weapon at a time, and the weapons don't carry over from level to level. The game has a weapon check list (try to find them all) and an "Archive" of story related items. Archives are often hard to find and sometimes require a complex set of unnamed steps. You don't need to collect the Archives, they're just for fun. After you beat the game, you unlock a Challenge mode, where you try to finish a level quickly without being seen, without killing, without sight jacking, and without taking damage.

Overall: I love SBC, but it's not for everyone. Only those who love both stealth games and horror will like this game. The subpar graphics, complete lack of upgrades, and weak unlockables will make this game a no-buy for most people. But those who can overlook those sins, and love being hunted by creepy, relentless killers, will find SBC to be one of the best games on PSN. If you do plan on buying SBC, I would suggest waiting for October, when it usually goes on sale. The normal price is $40 when you buy the bundle, which is too much money for a game this old. I bought this one Halloween for about $25-$30, which is much better. There is a playable demo; check it out.


Mellisa is sight jacking a shibito. The left side of the screen is Melissa's point of view, and the right side is the shibito's point of view. As you can see, Mellisa is unarmed, so she is pretty much fucked. The plus signs on the people's faces allow you see them through walls when sight jacking; you don't see the plus signs when you are just running around without sight jacking.


This character has his own website: http://hw-biker.blog-paradise.com/j/index.html


People either love or hate Bella's missions because she has absolutely no way to defend herself. This player is completely fucked.

[Ohio Joe]

1. I can't play games like this

I have this compulsion to want to kill every monster that I can just never get past. Even when I was playing the first Resident Evil, I would get all pissed that zombies would re-spawn but not ammo... WTF? How do I kill everything without lots of firepower :D