Siren

[Blunt]

What about the french dubbed version?
Is the |French version even dubbed?!

Does it have English subtitles?
Im tempted to pick up a local copy, but only if it has English subs with the French voice overs.
Should remove the gratting cockney accents hopefully, but still make it playable.

It is dubbed, but it's not a very good dub either. No english subs.

[MikeF]

I picked up a copy of this yesterday for my PAL machine.

Have to agree the dubbing is bad, why couldn't they just use subtitles.

Now for a quick question. How do you get to replay previous missions. I want to go back and try to do the 2nd mission objectives on some of them.

Does this open up later on in the game or have I missed something really obvious

[Family Fry]

You will unlock a stage select option later on, then you can unlock mission 2 objectives also.

[Ady]

I said I wasn't going to buy this game, but I saw it going cheap and I caved.

I started playing it last night. It's a very creepy game and you NEVER feel safe, which adds to the atmosphere. And the dubbing, isn't quite as bad as I thought it would be.

The command management is incredibly obtuse though. In most games of this type, picking up and object is simply a matter of pressing the action button. In this game, you have to select the appropriate command from a menu, a process that has to be repeated for ever single action you attempt to make. Why such a needlessly overcomplicated system was used is completely beyond me.

The sightjacking system is a ncie idea too (particularly the Ring-esque TV tuning bit), but switching between that and normal movement does feel a bit pat head/rub tummy at times. I can imagine this could get quite frustrating at more hectic moments...

There also appears to be a lot to this game, what with all the different characters, items and story threads, so I'm looking forward to delving deeper.

I guess what I'm trying to say is so far, so good...

[Concept]

I refuse to touch it on the principle Sony ****ed over the atmosphere due to the terrible dub.

This could have been another ICO if they'd handled it right. I don't have faith in SCEE when it comes to localisation anymore.

I dread to think what they'll do with Shadow of the Colossus if the team behind it don't localise the game themselves as they did last time with ICO...

[randombs]

the dubbing is the best i've ever heard in my life ever in a million years

i love the atmosphere, though, and the freaky noises the zombies make. the use of photos for the faces looked naff initially but has grown on me now, and i kinda like the effect, even if the people look like they've had their heads twisted 180'

[Family Fry]

Dont know if it was mentioned in this thread but will put it up anyways Siren 2 is still in dev apparently, see a trailer at

http://www.playstation.jp/scej/title/siren2/

I wont say it looks creepy and cool as i said that about the original and i felt so bad that i actually believed the hype and spent ?30+ on the bugger, methinks i will await and see.

[Zanza]

Siren is such an excellent game, probably one of my favourite this generation, and like someone said above; it could of been the next Ico if they didnt **** up the dub, hell they should of just subbed it

[Ady]

OK, having spent a bit more time with this game, its flaws have become even more apparent and I heartily retract what I said overpage.

Siren is awful.

What we have here is a theoretically sound idea let down by shoddy implementation and what appears to be a total lack of playtesting. One of my initial concerns was that sightjacking could become somewhat problematic, and it is. Like I said overpage, it really does feel like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time.

Controlling yourself and keeping an eye on up to four enemies in the vicinity is incredibly finnicky. What's more, the controls are awful and unresponsive - not quite as bad as old-school Resi, but not far off. Push the stick, and your torpid avatar slowly moves in the direction you face (taking forever to pick up any sort of speed). Should you be unlucky as to shave the scenery by a fraction of an inch, the unforgiving collision detection brings your character to a complete standstill (followed by a slow animation of them steadying themselves), you then have to rotate the stick to get them to face the right way, and yes your character turns s-l-o-w-l-y. Also, there's no 180 degree turn so the manouvre has to be attempted manually and is painfully time consuming.

The command management also seems to have been designed specifically to annoy the player and slow them down. 'X' opens doors and examines itmes, but triangle opens up an interactive command menu. Why 'X' wasn't just used as a general action button is beyond me. Selecting specific commands from a menu seems anachronistic in this day and age.

The 'missions' seem to be little more than going from Point A to an undefined Point B. You have no idea where exactly you're meant to be going or how you're meant to go about it, and have to die several times through trial and error in order to find out. Death can also be incredibly unfair. If you have an unarmed character and you find yourself cornered, you have no means of defending yourself and have to wait until the foes close in and cut you up. Also, if you need to manouvre over an obstacle whilst retreating, you have to endure a slow animation by which time, the enemy has already caught up with you. On occasion, you also have dumb NPCs to ferry around, NPCs who have a tendency of either slowing you down or getting in your way (at one point, I got shot because an NPC blocked my path and prevented me from moving out of the way).

Siren has many neat ideas, but does more things wrong than it does right. I can see how some could forgive it s faults and even enjoy it somewhat, but for me Siren was too frustrating to be fun. Not so much survival horror than a laboured version of hide and seek.

So, Concept, if you're reading this, you've missed nothing, mate.

[Concept]

Sounds clumsy in terms of control, menu and gameplay design.

I've read that it was frustrating before, but I'd put that down to the survival horror school of design whereby the player is put under pressure (i.e. Silent Hill's sloppy mechanics did this). Cheers for the summary though... it looks as if the voice track isn't the only hugely gaping flaw. The difficulty and general unfairness of the trail and error format of play no doubt play a huge factor in this being a game that doesn't feed off discomfort, but creates it for all the wrong reasons.

[S_rank]

I have been going through my backlog of games i decided to play this. Surprising for me as ive never finshed a survival horror game as im basically a big pussycat who dosent like being scared.

what i need to know is how long the game is thanks in advance to anyone who can help me

[Family Fry]

Well for me my total 100% playthrough time was 29 hours and 43 mins.
Had some right frustrating moments in that game, story was cool and well told, the dub doesn't do it any favours though

[Sketcz]

If you like the first, I highly recommend Siren 2. The English version is PAL only, but it's my favourite game on the PS2. Almost perfect. And it removes all of the annoying crap from the first game.

[losersclub]

I'll second that about Siren 2 being the better game, the first one was just too crushingly frustrating for me in places although i really wanted to love it

[S_rank]

Cheers for the replies wasn't sure I would get any for quite a old first play thread. I think I will stick with it it suits me that its really chapter based so i can just do a mission every other night . Not like the game where you would have to remeber a whole mansion and mabye a slight exaggeration but it felt like it 100s of different types of door keys,engraving and other nonsense

Had some good moments though already highlight for me was getting my self into a safe spot just merely enjoying sightjacking and seeing what a shibto was doing. And just as i come out of it some bloody farmer womens making a lunge for me almost lost the contents of my with bowel that one, bloody bint.

I will defiantly pick up the second one seems a lot rarer than the first cant say ive seen it in the wild. Ive got a few other survial horror games ive picked i will have a stab at first though.