[h3]For all intents and purposes this is a negative review. [/h3]
Sirena is a game that can be completed in one sitting, but it took me three or four sessions to do so. While the game’s campaign is approximately an hour long, I’ve found it boring (story wise) and tedious (with regard to the game’s mechanics) after about the initial 20 minutes.
[h3]Good things first. [/h3]
Both the atmosphere and audiovisuals are solid. Neither of them is groundbreaking nor exceptional, but they are well crafted. The rusty, desolate research facility resting at the bottom of the ocean is a distinctive location and its bleak, claustrophobic environments provide a wonderful setting for a mystery tale. The sound effects are acceptable, and the music bolsters the mood (except for these few moments when it feels out of sync with the events taking place on the screen). Underwater setting also provides a welcome change from the standard platforming. The protagonist’s slow walking pace, long-range jumps and slow plunges afterwards said jumps further contribute to the uniqueness of the experience.
[h3]Trust me, I don’t even know what I’m doing. [/h3]
There are three reasons for my negative review. The first one being the fact that Sirena is painfully bloated by the seemingly endless, winding corridors that the protagonist is forced to cross at her snail-pace, one after another, and for no other reason than prolonging the gameplay time. Additionally, later she is forced to push boxes across these same, lengthy corridors, which slows her down even more.
Another problem is the construction of the puzzles that Sirena puts the player through. They consist of two components – moving boxes and pulling levers. The only reward the player receives for their action is another box that allows them to reach a higher ledge or a lever that opens the path ahead. This routine is mercilessly repeated throughout the entire game.
In the early chapters, Sirena introduces the teleportation mechanics that allow the protagonist to swap places with one of the boxes, which is a key component to her solving the puzzles. This mechanic introduces some variety to the gameplay but is also marred by the fixed camera angles that make picking the correct box unnecessarily irritating at times. Furthermore, at first, introducing such ability sounds like a way to alleviate the problem posed by the protagonist being forced to push boxes across great distances. The problem is, since she swaps places with the box, she still needs to trudge all the way back to where she was – and now the box is – before the teleportation. Consequently, the time saved is minimal and thus many of the game’s sequences tend to greatly test the player’s patience.
My final problem with Sirena is the narration. While the voice actors do impressive work, the writing is weak. The game employs words like frequency or resonance to explain the supernatural events, exactly the way cinema uses terms like quantum or multiverse. Furthermore, the protagonist has an exceptionally annoying habit of explaining the events that have occurred long before her descent into the facility with absolute certainty, even if there are clearly other scenarios possible.
[h3]This is the place where I leave this game with a negative review. [/h3]
[spoiler]
Except, it isn’t.
The reason for this is that just like Sirena, this review has another chapter outside of the main story. I am not going to hide it behind three different sets of codes found in obscure places though.
In Sirena’s case, the word ‘chapter’ may not be the most accurate description, since it matches the original expedition in length. It also makes the player walk all the way through the familiar, lengthy corridors and solve slightly modified variants of the previously encountered puzzles.
While this second expedition does not make the earlier events look any less convoluted, it certainly diminishes the sheer ridiculousness of the previous episode, explores more of the facility’s backstory and explains that bothersome conviction of the first story’s protagonist.
Furthermore, the narration in that second story is superb. The humor present in the conversations is splendid and the way it is entangled into the game’s solemn atmosphere is exceptional. Long story short, it provides a superior experience when compared with the main game. It is a shame that players may miss it by failing to discover the secret codes or noticing the place where they should be used. Still, it may be unlocked by just consulting the guide and entering the combination in the proper location without the need for backtracking to make the protagonist discover each part of the code.
All things considered, yes, I’ve cheated this game a positive review so let this be the moral of this story. [/spoiler]
As always, do with it what you want and as always
[h3]Try to have a wonderful life. [/h3]
