Siren: Blood Curse - Chapters 1-3 Review

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Graphically, the game is nothing short of stunning. Eschewing the clean, crisp look that many other HD games - including present PS3 poster boy MGS4 - have opted for, Blood Curse demonstrates ably how to achieve the gritty, murky look that works so well for survival-horror. The ruined village and its forested surrounds are full of dark, moving shadows, every texture is corroded and rough, and the air is full of swirling mists which add flavour to the environment, rather than obscuring your vision. Indoors, the use of light and shadow is brilliant - on occasion, your first heart-stopping indicator of an impending threat will be a shadow in the light from a doorway.

The characters themselves look great, nowhere close to the incredible detail of MGS4's faces but still nicely crafted and all brought to life with a unique visual style. It's the monsters who really stand out - in the first three-chapter chunk, you'll only meet standard undead humans, but these are brimming with malevolent personality as they go about their sinister business, each still attired and acting according to their role when they were alive. Best of all, their sound samples are magnificent - burbling, shrieking phrases in rural Japanese, the men harsh and guttural, the women like nails being drawn down a blackboard, and all punctuated by high, cackling laughter.

Playing as the little girl gives the game some of its most tense, nerve-wracking moments.

As to the American characters, you'll quickly get used to them - although fans of the original will probably pine for the reintroduction of Kyoya and pals all the same. The bulk of the American cast is introduced by a film crew who turn up to make a special about the "lost village". Several other characters are still Japanese, although there are a few other Americans floating around for no readily explained reason - some chap called Howard who appears to be an American schoolboy and just happens to be in the area (great explanation, guys), and a mysterious woman in a red cloak who lives among the villagers.

The storyline thus far has stuck relatively closely to the tale of the original game, although it threatens to diverge in a few key areas. This is no bad thing. Siren's story was fantastic, and won't have been experienced by many players since the game itself was so utterly impenetrable - while the changes in Blood Curse give fans of the original plenty of reason to play through this vastly improved version of the game.

Of course, the real question is whether Blood Curse is actually worth spending your money on. When we originally received these chapters for review, we were expecting them to be charged at a few pounds per chapter - and we were particularly wide-eyed about the first chapter, which is really just the prologue and doesn't boast more than about 15 minutes of actual gameplay. Later chapters improve this significantly, and you'll get easily 40 minutes apiece out of them - and much, much more if you subsequently replay on the game's very challenging harder modes.

We, uh... We haven't got to this bit. It's probably in a later chapter, but there's a big part of our brains that hopes it isn't in any chapter at all, ever.

However, with the chapters being bundled in threes for a fiver each, the value is undeniable - even taking into account the brevity of the first instalment. The Siren team is, arguably, the most talented team working on this style of survival-horror at the moment, and Siren: Blood Curse is the best thing to appear in the genre in a very long time.