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Downloadable, episodic experiment gone horror-ably right.

Real survival horror games have been few and far between as of late. Releases in the genre have slowed up considerably, and Resident Evil, once the most high profile of all survival horror games, has veered into more of "zombie-themed action" direction. For all horror fans, a resurgence of sorts is upon us with the upcoming Silent Hill: Homecoming and Dead Space, but firstly almost of out nowhere, Siren: Blood Curse for the PlayStation 3.

Siren: Blood Curse is a high definition, pseudo-reboot of the PlayStation 2's Siren series. Besides just being redone, Sony has reinvented the game as a downloadable, episodic PlayStation Network game. Siren is clearly an experiment in game making, and after being totally creeped out and enthralled from beginning to end, a very successful one at that.

Released as twelve separate downloadable episodes (purchasable in 3 chapters of 4 episodes for $14.99/chapter, or a whole game for $39.99), Blood Curse tops out at around 9GB, which would actually be too large to fit on a DVD. In that respect, it's certainly not what you'd consider a traditional "downloadable" game. Sony hasn't skimped on the production values or length at all, although it's a little difficult to see where 9GB of data is used. Visually, the game begins in almost complete darkness, and as the game progresses it brightens up considerably (for a short time at least).

Siren is not the best looking next-generation game out there in terms of textures or models, but the strong, stylized art direction and fantastic lighting and effects make up for it. There is a grain filter applied to the entire game to give it more of that dirty, gritty look, and it does the job. Delving deep down into a mine shaft, or rummaging through the basement of an abandoned Hospital with only a flashlight is guaranteed to put you on the edge of your seat. The dynamic, mostly Japanese-themed soundtrack is well composed and fits in with the game's various settings and situations perfectly. There are obvious times where the music takes a back seat to the effects and environmental sounds, and it's absolutely chilling. The voicework is surprisingly good, with a number of accents decently represented. The lip syncing is off a little bit since the animation was originally keyed to the Japanese voices, but it's not really noticed. The entire audio visual package, including the menus, UI and even the title screen, are well designed and very attractive.

The game is presented in the 3rd person, with an optional 1st person view available. The general gameplay controls are fairly straightforward, with a number of realistic weapons and items scattered about to be used to fend off the Shibito. Besides a few guns, weapons consist of everyday objects (about 50 or so) which are located within the environment. A broken pipe from a tunnel, a noodle knife from a restaurant, a pick-axe or hammer from a construction site or garden shed, etc. Not all characters can use weapons, and the game actually rewards stealth over strength in most situations. Even with a weapon, carefully sneaking up to take out a Shibito is preferred, as they will usually go down with a more dramatic one hit finishing move. Even with a good sneaky takedown, many of the Shibito will come back to life after some time and proceed to stalk you.

The game's real gameplay twist comes in the form of "sightjacking" which was introduced in the original PlayStation 2 version. Many of the playable characters suddenly earn the ability to see through the eyes of other characters and the Shibito (split screen style) after visiting the village. Sightjacking is mostly used to help track down and subsequently avoid the locations of your creepy undead foes, or find friendly characters, though there are some interesting puzzle solving elements as well. Seeing the world from the Shibito's perspective, while hearing them shuffle about, ramble to themselves and keep busy is definitely a weird, unnerving experience, especially when they are actually stalking your character. Just as a warning, the effects while sightjacking cause some framerate drops and shaky camera movement which I imagine could give motion sensitive gamers a headache or worse. The game does have a number of options for utilizing the ability along with ways to turn it off when not required.

As mentioned earlier, Siren: Blood Curse is definitely some sort of an experiment. The one questionable issue with the game is how the download and installation of the episodes work. No matter how they are purchased from the PlayStation Store (by chapter or whole game), you are required to download and install the episodes individually. After the first chapter is installed, you can access an in-game download menu and grab every subsequent episode from there, though the behavior is the same. Downloading and installing twelve packages takes some time, so doing it all at once (as I did) is probably not the way to do it. It's nice to have access to all of the episodes on day 1, although I can't help thinking that actually releasing the episodes on a weekly schedule would have made it more interesting for players. In Asian regions the game has also been released on Blu-ray as well, though there are supposedly no plans for such a release in North America. If it were to happen, I'd guess Halloween-time would be the best bet.

Siren: Blood Curse is one of the first great survival horror games to come out of this new generation. Even those gamers who don't care for the genre may actually get drawn in thanks to the serialized, episodic pacing and well-presented mystery waiting to be solved. Hopefully we'll be seeing more of Siren soon.