Siren Remake Stumbles Out of Nowhere…
Siren was a pretty unique little horror game. Released on the PS2, the game had a Ju-On– esque structure and a gameplay dynamic that let you “sight jack”; in other words you could see what other people, or in fact, the monsters roaming around the Japanese landscapes could see. Rather than focusing on combat, the game focused on stealth, so the ability to know exactly what someone else was looking at was pretty useful.
It was a cool, and creepy, central concept and the strong enemies and weak characters you get to play as did add up to some good tension. When you get spotted, the viewpoint would jump to the enemy who had just seen you for a moment as they started speeding towards you. Very unnerving… but unfortunately, bizarre puzzles and terrible voice acting took away from things somewhat.
The game wasn’t quite as visually polished as you’d expect from a Sony first party title either, with some rather sparse environments, some janky animation and a twitchy camera.
It was a game that had a lot of potential, but ended up feeling unpolished and rushed … so the news of a remake for the PlayStation 3 that showed up on Kotaku brings hope that the game’s potential might finally be realized.
The visuals have certainly been improved and the game is coming out soon. This summer, in fact, at least in Japan. Anyone with a PS3 and a Japanese login doesn’t need to wait that long to check out the game, either, with a demo hitting the Japanese store in just over a week.
Needless to say we’ll be checking it out and letting you know how the remake is shaping up compared to the original, and whether Siren is finally taking its place amongst the great survival horror franchises.
Even video games aren’t safe from remakes! Discuss in the Dread Central forums!
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