Archive for September, 2008

Pros

• Engaging Story The story is very engaging and fun to follow. I love the way that the player plays all of the different characters in the game and gets to experience the story through different perspectives. The cut scenes are quick and entertaining and never too long or slow
• Variety The levels are all fun to play and the objectives and play mechanics are well varied.
• Sight-Jacking The split-screen aspect of this feature is somewhat annoying, but throughout the game this feature is used in some creative and interesting ways to make it very worthwhile.
• Silent Hill Like Much of the monsters and horror elements reminded me of the Silent Hill series. After playing, I read that much of the Siren dev team came from Team Silent behind Silent Hill, including the lead designer, so the similarities are very understandable.
• TV-Series-Style Trailers Each level (or “episode”) begins with a “previously on Siren…” video montage and ends with a similar “next time on Siren…” video. These really made it easier to ease into and out of a play session.
• Great Tech I’m used to playing horror games like this on PS2 (Silent Hill, Manhunt, Resident Evil), so it’s a major jump and a pleasant surprise to see this kind of game done with current technology.

Cons

• Hard to get into When I first sat down to play this, it failed to grab my interest. There wasn’t any glaring flaw, but as a whole, it just didn’t grab me. Luckily, I gave it a second chance, and played this enough to get hooked.
• Episodic Installation The user has to go through a separate download and install process for each of the twelve episodes. This really doesn’t detract from the game, but it is a noteworthy nitpick.
• Story is hard to follow The story is overall very fun, but it is confusing. The same characters keep dying and reappearing, which is obviously part of the story, but nonetheless, I feel lost trying to follow it. I suspect that in order to really understand what’s going on, you need to read the collectible trinkets and knick-knacks you find in the game, but I don’t have the patience for that.

Bottom Line

This is a really fun, well designed horror game. This game is more of an adventure-horror game rather than an action-horror title (more like Silent Hill than Resident Evil), so if you want a game where you battle off waves of zombies, this isn’t for you. This game also does take a little bit of patience to get into, but once you get into it, the game keeps up a quick pace and holds the player’s interest very well.

No Build Up?

I’m surprised this game got almost no prerelease buzz or build-up. Most games of this size get extensive buzz and build-up for a year or more before anyone actually plays them. This game just seems to have quietly dropped out of nowhere.

I wonder how this will compare to the new Silent Hill game. Siren is a similar type of game with several key staff from the old Team Silent, while the new Silent Hill is being developed by a completely new development team with the Silent Hill license.