Under the crimson sky...

There’s a nice, interesting little demo of Siren: New Translation available on PS Network Japan. I believe the European and American title will be Siren: Blood Curse. I must say, it impressed the hell out of me.

I wasn’t a big fan of the previous parts of the Siren (Forbidden Siren in Europe) franchise. Frankly speaking, I never finished the first game and didn’t even try the second one. Why? Well, the game had simply too many “revolutionary ideas” – some were great, the others... Not. The sight-jack (the trademark ability to see through other characters’/enemies’ eyes) was fun enough, but wasn’t really helpful in making your way through the areas crawling with the undead, since it was difficult to tell who was exactly where. The game was all about stealth and most of the time you didn’t even have any decent weapon, so confusion quickly led to frustration. The game’s segmental storytelling surely didn’t make things any clearer. You were given a character at a certain location, at a certain time, with a certain task to accomplish. You do that, there’s a cutscene and then another person, another place, etc. The paths do converge eventually, but sometimes it gets really chaotic, especially with that annoying timetable chart. Moreover, you had to replay certain stages and do additional side-quests so that some other characters may proceed through the area somewhere in the future.

But you know what? I’m willing to forgive Sony, even if they include all of the above features in Blood Curse. The game’s graphics are just phenomenal – not in a technical way, since the textures’ quality could have been a little better – but in terms of atmosphere. The colors are largely reduced to something resembling sepia which, combined with the lighting effects, gives a very realistic (as well as scary) impression; and there’s that ominous red sky looming over the horizon, which is an absolute highlight. The controls are a little jerky (I suppose due to that crappy Sixaxis), but nowhere near as stiff as they used to be. Moreover, the horrible action menu has been replaced with a more intuitive trigger-based system. All-in-all, it’s a decent, fabulous-looking survival horror and I’m genuinely looking forward to it, even if it will be released in a bunch of short episodes, as Sony stated.

Wait a second, Silent Hill goes to hell while Forbidden Siren gets actually decent? Jesus Christ almighty, the end is near...