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Your thoughts on SIREN (PS2)

Mau ®

Member
I've had this game since it came out... I think it was around February 2004? Can't really remember but I was heavily anticipating it a while back.

I woke up this morning and saw it in my collection and decided to play it again. I was surprised I still remembered key plot stuff as this game can get rather confusing due to its "link system" and its been like almost a year since I played it.

Anyway I think I have a newfound love for this game. I love how it all starts connecting if you think about it and check the finished missions outlines. I used to think the stealth based gameplay in this game sucked but now I realised its actually very realistic as you don't have any gadgets you gotta take advantage of your sorroudings. I think I like the stealth here more after I played Fatal Frame 3 which featured some very lame stealth mechanics, now that was terrible stealth...

The enemy A.I. is either very smart or just way too hard, or both. The headjackking system is somewhat hard to use cuz sometimes there are a lot of enemies you gotta keep an eye on at the same time but its pretty nice overall. Hopefully it'll redifined in the upcoming sequel.

The atmosphere reminds me A LOT of the original Silent Hill but it comes to no surprise as the game director also directed SH1.

Anyway I wanna know what you think of this title.

Disscuss :)
 
$8 and sitting in the wrapping on my shelf.
 
I personally loved everything about it, except for the god awful British dub that we got saddled with. SCEA could have given us a new dub, and/or included the Japanese dub but they went the cheap way out and it really effects the overall perception of the game. It could have been the next big survival horror franchise, but at least in America it won't be now. I wonder how they'll treat Siren 2, if it's even gonna be released in the states?
 
If i remember correctly, didn't alot of the gameplay rely upon stealth. I tried to get into but just couldn't, i hate games that use stealth that aren't designed around it. Just becomes a frustrating mess to me.
 
Poor VA, frustratingly difficult. BUT, great cutscenes (they worked better than the similar ones in SH4) and amazing atmosphere. Dark forest + flashlight + weird breathing noises around you > any other horror experience.
 
Alongside Dragon Quarter, stands as one of the most interesting genre innovations of this generation. Unfortunately it ended up a little broken and therefore largely unplayable by most, but I enjoyed the concept and scenario design. Didn't beat it yet, however. Hopefully they fix most of what was broken in Siren 2.

And don't get SCEE to do the voice acting using the Getaway's cast.
 
From what I've played of Siren2 at TGS, it's about a billion times better than the first one. Think it's out in Japan in 3 months of so.
 
I didn't know people had major beefs with the dubbing. It was weird at first but after a while I couldn't care less.

I too wander if we'll ever get Siren 2... this was a flop in America for all I know but I don't know how it fared in Europe and I assume it fared well in Japan.

I haven't really read that much about the sequel but I did notice they were doing some intensive research...
 
Innovative but broken. The sightjacking feature is a very cool new game mechanic. The graphics were also very good. I also liked how the game skipped back and forth between times and characters.

I never finished it though because it was just too damn difficult. A lot of times I don't mind difficult games (Gunvalkyrie, Ninja Gaiden) because those games are basically about refining your skills at them, and playing the levels over and over again serves that purpose. But Siren is about telling a story cinematically, and having to constantly replay levels screws up the pacing beyond repair.
 
marvelharvey said:
From what I've played of Siren2 at TGS, it's about a billion times better than the first one. Think it's out in Japan in 3 months of so.

Really? That's interesting. Can you elaborate more on that?

Thanks in advance.
 
I love the atmosphere and the way of play, but I was too scared to play through it (not joking). I had bought all the versions (JP, US, PAL, Chinese), the original dub (JP) is the best in expressing the atmosphere and emotions, but sadly they don't go for sub-titles.

I had stopped at the 3rd user playing portion (Takeuchi's mission) because of getting too scared, and I didn't want to use Action Replay codes, at the end of the day, they had only became collectibles to me. But I still think I will play through it someday, as I hadn't watched or read any walkthroughs yet. :D
 
marvelharvey said:
From what I've played of Siren2 at TGS, it's about a billion times better than the first one. Think it's out in Japan in 3 months of so.

It better be... because I'm not going anywhere near it if it's like the first one.

Siren was one of the only games since the SNES era that made me want to throw a controller. :(
 
Loved the visuals and the atmosphere, loathed the Mockney dubbing, why the hell couldnt SCEE released the European version with just subtitles, would've added so much more to the overall atmos..
Bastard hard unforgiving gameplay.. not that thats a bad thing.. I will return to you Forbidden siren and you will be my Bitch !!. :D
 
One of those games which I consider SO close to making a perfect entry(in it's genre).

But the whole Vision thing is way too clumsy and after a while, all the horror elements in the game just stop scaring you. The horrible controls..omg. I ended up hating the game.
But the cutscenes, the visuals, the plot. Very AAA.
 
A lot of interesting ideas. All poorly implemented.

If Siren had done 'em right, it would have been the survivor horror game all survivor horror games stole from.

Oh, and excellent art direction.
 
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