During the development of Silent Hill 2, Keiichiro Toyama, the director of Silent Hill, left the project, unhappy with the direction the game was going. Two years after Silent Hill 2, this game released, and I'd like to think about it as an alternate version of Silent Hill 2.
Where Silent Hill 2 focuses on the character study elements set up in the first game, Siren focuses on the occult and horror elements set up in Silent Hill.
The first thing to say is that the Signtjacking mechanic is absolute genius. Not only does it help the player create a mental map of the stage, enemy placements and objective placements, but being shown the enemy, ready with their weapon, eager to kill you as soon as they see you, is an incredible horror tool, and works perfectly with the greater stealth focus than from the Silent Hill series, This is one of those mechanics that will go up with the Thing mechanic from The Thing game. I really wish we could see a modern take on this mechanic.
This game isn't perfect though, in fact it's very flawed, it can get really frustrating at times and the non-linear 'link-navigator' setup is a good idea, with the player being able to affect gameplay of other characters with secondary objectives at different times, but it doesn't work as well as it could with how little those secondary objectives affect gameplay or story, and how much unrewarded fuss they are to achieve. Perhaps the biggest issue, though, is the story. Whilst interesting it simply isn't told well, not only is it told in a non-linear fashion, but it barely gives you any of the information, even through supplementary material like notes, I had to resort to the wiki to fully understand what was happening.
But bringing it back is the art design, this is one of the best directed games I have maybe ever played in terms of the moment-to-moment gameplay. A really well made camera that frames everything it needs to brilliantly at all times, eerie environments that set the tone for the whole game, and wonderful enemy designs, with unnerving animation and perfectly hitting the uncanny valley with the face scan heads.
I don't know if I'd ever recommend this one to anyone but I had a good time playing it, and might even revisit it one day.
Where Silent Hill 2 focuses on the character study elements set up in the first game, Siren focuses on the occult and horror elements set up in Silent Hill.
The first thing to say is that the Signtjacking mechanic is absolute genius. Not only does it help the player create a mental map of the stage, enemy placements and objective placements, but being shown the enemy, ready with their weapon, eager to kill you as soon as they see you, is an incredible horror tool, and works perfectly with the greater stealth focus than from the Silent Hill series, This is one of those mechanics that will go up with the Thing mechanic from The Thing game. I really wish we could see a modern take on this mechanic.
This game isn't perfect though, in fact it's very flawed, it can get really frustrating at times and the non-linear 'link-navigator' setup is a good idea, with the player being able to affect gameplay of other characters with secondary objectives at different times, but it doesn't work as well as it could with how little those secondary objectives affect gameplay or story, and how much unrewarded fuss they are to achieve. Perhaps the biggest issue, though, is the story. Whilst interesting it simply isn't told well, not only is it told in a non-linear fashion, but it barely gives you any of the information, even through supplementary material like notes, I had to resort to the wiki to fully understand what was happening.
But bringing it back is the art design, this is one of the best directed games I have maybe ever played in terms of the moment-to-moment gameplay. A really well made camera that frames everything it needs to brilliantly at all times, eerie environments that set the tone for the whole game, and wonderful enemy designs, with unnerving animation and perfectly hitting the uncanny valley with the face scan heads.
I don't know if I'd ever recommend this one to anyone but I had a good time playing it, and might even revisit it one day.