Siren: Blood Curse on Playstation 3: Hands-on Preview

Old fashion survival-horror games are almost non-existent on next-generation consoles. Sony hopes to fill in that niche with Siren: Blood Curse. Can this game deliver the scares for a new generation of gamers? Find out in this hands-on preview of Siren: Blood Curse on the Playstation 3.

Story
Despite being a re-imagination of the Playstation 2 version of Siren, Blood Curse features a completely new storyline. A television crew from America came to the village of Hanuda, Japan. Their objective is to investigate why this particular destination is called the "vanished village." As you may expect, something bad will happen to the unsuspecting group.

Graphics
You can tell that some of the people who developed the Silent Hill series are involved in this game. Siren: Blood Curse is dark and grainy. Your vision is limited to only a couple of feet in front of you. Not a good sign, especially with the extremely-detailed Shibito monsters are running after you.

Sound
The background music is eerie while the noise the Shibito monsters are making is downright frightening.

Gameplay
The objective of Siren: Blood Curse is to survive by any means necessary.

Unlike other survival-horror games, this one gives you straightforward missions to complete. Thanks to the handy map system that tells you where you need to go at all times, it is almost impossible to get lost in the village.

That doesn't necessarily mean the game will be a cakewalk though. The Shibito monsters will try to stop you from reaching your destination. These freaky enemies resemble your typical Japanese horror monsters: they are extremely pale and move around awkwardly. To make matters worse, red and blue lights will flash around the screen while your controller will vibrate when you get close to one. Fighting them unarmed will probably lead to death.

It is best to sneak past the Shibito monsters until you acquire a weapon. This can be quite a frightening experience. If you get caught, the enemies will go into alert and chase after you. With a weapon on hand, the Shibito monsters aren't nearly as intimidating since they can only take a couple of hits before falling.