SolidSnake777000
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The game surprisingly holds up well for me. Well, as long if it’s not played on an actual N64. Playing it with an Xbox controller made me feel like I was playing it for the first time again.
This review contains spoilers
The game is really below average in my eyes and could have been so much more, it left me pretty irked the more I thought about it. I like the idea of how melee combat works, but not too long, it just becomes a dodging stimulator with not that much strategy other than dodging left and right and beating up the enemy. It kinda reminds me of Punch Out, except with much less substance, and the fact that they are only a handful of enemy types in the entire game makes this issue all the more apparent to me. As a survival horror game, there’s little to no resource management, something I love in other games of its genre and the game is so linear that there’s not even in a game map. I also went into this game knowing that it ends on a cliffhanger and the DLC is even more egregious because it basically ends with the twist that all the events of Transmission are just a dream of a dying Jacob. So with that mind, I can’t even really enjoy the story knowing that it won’t get resolved due to the lukewarm to negative reviews and commercial failure of this game. I only played this because it was a free download for my PS Plus subscription, if I had paid full price for this game, I would have been absolutely livid, it’s highway robbery with what the game offers and other better games to play over this one.
At the end of day, I think Siren is a game I respect and appreciate more than I actually enjoy.
On one hand, the atmosphere and sound design in this game is superb. It’s on par with Silent Hill for me (fitting because both this game and Silent Hill 1 share the same director.) I also really dig the mechanic of sightjacking which allows you to see from the perspective of the Shibito (the main enemies of the game.) It heavily encourages stealth and lead some chilling moments, like imagine if you’re walking around, decided to sightjack and having a Shibito’s sights to your character breathing heavily. I also like the storytelling with how the story is told in a nonlinear fashion, and different events of the story shown from the perspective of 10 different playable characters.
On the other hand, the game is incredibly obtuse on what actions you need to do to make progress. In various levels, the main objective is usually to find an escape route or find and kill a certain Shibito in some cases. While playing through these levels, you have to do some actions or find items that is completely unrelated to your current main objective in order to unlock a second mission for different levels in order to progress through the game, as performing these actions creates a butterfly effect for different characters in a different level. They’re real easy to miss, leading you into a loop sooner or later until that action is fulfilled. The game doesn’t tell you any of that in your first time playing the levels, there’s no checklist on what needed to be done, and when the game does give you hints on what to do the second time you are in the same level, it is either not very well explained or also cryptic. When I am playing a survival horror game, I do not want to have to look up a guide at all times, because it gets to a point where I don’t really feel any thrills or scares, because I know what I have to do step by step in order to progress the game, missing that element of suspense for me. And if I try to play the game without a guide, I’ll get lost on what to do pretty quickly, leading to more confusion and frustration. It takes me out of the immersion for atmosphere at times. I only finished the game because I like the story and general atmosphere enough to wanna see it to its end.
Despite my incredibly mixed feelings on the game, I still wanna try out the sequel because I heard from Nitro Rad’s review that the sequel basically fixed the issues I have with this game.
On one hand, the atmosphere and sound design in this game is superb. It’s on par with Silent Hill for me (fitting because both this game and Silent Hill 1 share the same director.) I also really dig the mechanic of sightjacking which allows you to see from the perspective of the Shibito (the main enemies of the game.) It heavily encourages stealth and lead some chilling moments, like imagine if you’re walking around, decided to sightjack and having a Shibito’s sights to your character breathing heavily. I also like the storytelling with how the story is told in a nonlinear fashion, and different events of the story shown from the perspective of 10 different playable characters.
On the other hand, the game is incredibly obtuse on what actions you need to do to make progress. In various levels, the main objective is usually to find an escape route or find and kill a certain Shibito in some cases. While playing through these levels, you have to do some actions or find items that is completely unrelated to your current main objective in order to unlock a second mission for different levels in order to progress through the game, as performing these actions creates a butterfly effect for different characters in a different level. They’re real easy to miss, leading you into a loop sooner or later until that action is fulfilled. The game doesn’t tell you any of that in your first time playing the levels, there’s no checklist on what needed to be done, and when the game does give you hints on what to do the second time you are in the same level, it is either not very well explained or also cryptic. When I am playing a survival horror game, I do not want to have to look up a guide at all times, because it gets to a point where I don’t really feel any thrills or scares, because I know what I have to do step by step in order to progress the game, missing that element of suspense for me. And if I try to play the game without a guide, I’ll get lost on what to do pretty quickly, leading to more confusion and frustration. It takes me out of the immersion for atmosphere at times. I only finished the game because I like the story and general atmosphere enough to wanna see it to its end.
Despite my incredibly mixed feelings on the game, I still wanna try out the sequel because I heard from Nitro Rad’s review that the sequel basically fixed the issues I have with this game.