To anyone making any progress on this but not necessarily feeling it, I have one thing to say: Make sure you get through episode 6.
Uhh…oh my…
-TomDoes the guy with the glasses kill his brow-beating, bitch of an ex-wife? While I don’t support the murder of people simply because they’re assholes, she’s so over the top mean, I think I would have some sick glee if she died in a particularly nasty way, preferably in the middle of one of her bitchtastic rants.
The presentation and structure of this game are fantastic. I hope we get many more great low-mid budget games like this on PSN.
Siren hasn’t been commented on in awhile, so I don’t know if anyone else is even playing this game or not, but I have got to say, I love episode gaming. More please! With less time available to game, and more people vying for the living room, it is awesome to be able to get through an episode, or even just a mission casually without a huge time/brain commitment. I am hoping we see more episodes rather then less!
I like complicated game experiences and epic quests as much as the next guy, but there is definitely room in gaming for both experiences. I also really liked the purchasing model for this game. It was a great idea to be able to either buy the whole thing, or get it in small doses. I hope we see more episodes with the same engine later in life. Season two anyone?
The game also happens to be a lot of fun, which also helps =)
Playing it? I’m pretty much blogging it, starting here at episode 1 and working up through each episode.
I’m not sold on the gameplay, but I love the story, and the episodic narrative works wonderfully. However, I have to say the basic structure of Siren – multiple characters and their, um, varied perspectives on a rather strange situation that I shouldn’t mention because it’s a huge spoiler – is a key element. I’m not sure how many traditional games could get away with this. See Alone in the Dark for exactly the wrong way to do it.
Did you finish it, Fozzle? No spoilers, please, as I’m still in the middle of the game (I just hit episode 8).
-Tom
Nope, not done yet. I have too many game irons in the fire atm. I’m done with Episode 7. I’d have to agree with most of your comments. The story has been a whole lot of fun. There have been a couple interesting twists so far, and I love the format of the delivery of this game. Also, it has to be mentioned that the creepy voices and effects are spot on for this genre of game.
As for game play, there are good and bad things about it. Some of the mechanics can be pretty unforgiving, and there are a few things I may have changed. The one that bothered me the most was when you get to the first episode where you really need to rely on the spirit sight thing, they throw shinobi’s at you that are walking upside down on the ceiling. Now, how the hell are you supposed to get used to this mechanic of figuring out what’s going on, when the view is upside down and backwards? At least give me an Episode or so to get used to the idea first.
On the other hand, one of the things I like about the game are the scarcity of resources. Finding a weapon, or a place to hide is a challenge most of the time. You feel rewarded once you actually hide successfully, find the noodle knife, or god forbid a shotgun. I wish your characters would keep the last weapon they had used when you played them, but considering the episodic nature of the game, I can see why they don’t.
Also, I would like to speak against the current trend of sexual discrimination in movies and games. Why are there no creepy boys in games today? They all have to have their creepy little girls, and the boys get left in the lurch. Someone should look into this.
Hm, I am intrigued. I’ve been waffling back and forth on whether to get this game since survival horror isn’t my favorite genre… And also the story has to be WAY good if the controls are going to be lacking. Sometimes I think I’m the only person alive that hated RE4.
Anyway, I think I’m going to have to get Siren.
In the midst of Soul Calibur craziness, I totally missed out on this game until tonight. I absolutely adore it, even having only finished chapter 1 so far.
Have any of you finished yet? I’m just checking to see how the whole 12 episodes panned out because so far it’s hooked me.
Yeah, I just finished it. Sort of. I’ve been writing up an episode a day on Fidgit.com and just today posted the final episode. On the whole, I don’t recommend bothering with it.
-TomYou seemed (somewhat) reservedly enthusiastic before. Did the final few episodes leave you cold?
You know, you could always check the site where I actually wrote about the game… :)
But, yeah, the whole thing falls apart with a handful of FUs to the player at the end. The only thing that sustained it for me through the last, I dunno, four episodes, was the atmosphere. Because it sure wasn’t the gameplay, the recycled locations, or the sinking feeling that the story was spinning its wheels and going nowhere.
Disclaimer: I didn’t technically finish the game, so maybe it’s all great in the end, once you get all 50 archive items.
-TomWell, I haven’t actually played the game, so I didn’t want to read your blog. I was just fishing for very general information, along the lines of “The story breaks down,” or “They introduce a new mechanic in later chapters where I have to put the controller in my butt in order to save,” or whatever.
:)
Each of the entries has general comments about the episode, with spoilers behind the jump. It’s written to be safe for people who haven’t actually played Siren.
-Tom
Oh. Well-- WHAT’STHATOVERTHERE!!!
runs out the door
Yea, I read your entire blog(minus spoiler jumps) this morning. I’m DYING to see what happens in Episode 6, seems like that was a major Fatal Frame 3-ish moment of love for you. Looking forward to the final writeup as well as going back to discuss spoiler comments as I complete each section.
Shame the combat pans out poorly. I’ve only fought the police officer in Act 1 and the melee felt a bit smarter with slight auto-tracking without the whiffs and stilted animations of a Silent Hill game.
I also like how the game seems to just push you along a series of scripted linear obstacles rather than dump the player into a large arena of locked doors and zombies to guess through.
How do you access the map and archive in-game though? Does the map only show up later on? It would have helped in Act 1 since the flashlight effect really blows in outdoor environments and I didn’t know there was even a forest path to escape the police officer in the first minute of the game until I got tired of trying to punch the obviously-immortal zombie to death with repeated failure.
And I couldn’t seem to access the archive outside of the main menu, would have been nice to look stuff up as I discovered them…is it possible?
I think you’re locked out of the map until episode 2. It might be the same with the archives as well. Episode 1 is sort of a prologue and episode 2 is the real tutorial.
At any rate, you can’t read archive items for episodes you’re not playing when you’re in an episode, so be sure to take the time out to go over archive items between episodes. Also, note that some archive items will update over the course of the game. I was surprised to find archive entries that I thought were “old” getting important new info.
Finally, yeah, it’s worth sticking out for some of the cool moments as long as you’re aware that it’s probably going to break your heart in the end. :)
-TomOk thanks. Shame it falls apart, but so far it’s a nifty experiment in the horror genre.
Just cleared Chapter 2. I almost hate to even bother with sight jacking as the framerate collapses and the split-screen stuff makes an already difficult game to manipulate that much moreso. Decent for scouting, but moving with it is a mess.
I also missed like every archive possible in the chapter, which burned me given how thorough I was in searching. Gamefaqs clued me into some really obscure stuff I need to accomplish to discover them. I think I may just use the faq to collect them the first time rather than replay each segment again, especially since some of them can be missed if you didn’t do stuff with previously playable characters…ugh.
Oh and I am also thinking of spreading out the episode playthrough. The bite-sized chunks allow you to not get too frustrated with any one mechanic as well as digest the craziness. I like the setup.
Would you suggest getting the first two packs and skipping the last? You diary had me quite interested in the game until you threw up your hands near the end. There’s no need for it to break my heart if I can opt out of buying the heart breaking portion.
I’m afraid I’d recommend just skipping it entirely and instead playing a better horror game. :)
A lot of what I liked was the mystery of what was coming and how certain situations might play out. The episode 6 bit was certainly memorable, but not worth the 12-15 hours it takes to play the game. And mostly, the gameplay simply isn’t there. It’s not much of an action game, it’s not much of a puzzler/adventure game, it’s not much of a stealth game, and it’s certainly not much of a zombie killing game. The graphics aren’t particularly good, and there are too many re-used locations. And I can’t imagine the story comes together very well based on what I’ve seen.
Granted, I missed probably half of the archive entries, which is how the story is told. I guess BDGE has the right idea to use some sort of guide to make sure you get all the archives on the first play-through.
That’s the tricky part about writing Siren up as a “game diary” instead of a straight-up review. It’s pretty easy to get caught up in the specific moments of a game before you’ve experienced the whole thing. If I were reviewing Siren, my enthusiasm would have been a lot more guarded.
-Tom