It looks like a lot of locations will be reused over the course of the game. A location you visited with one character will be played through later by at least one other character. On one hand, this feels a bit cheap. But on the other hand, an important part of Siren is knowing the environment. This is, after all, a stealth game. Plus, it helps tie together the different characters. Ah, so-and-so was just here! Now it's this character's turn.

Also, so much for fifteen minute episodes. Episode 4 basically consists of two playable chapters, each of which took me several tries. It also demonstrates how the sight jacking is of limited use once the zombies start to range a bit farther than a single room or a short length of corridor. Itinerant zombies are a serious pain in the neck. Fortunately, one of the sight jacking shortcuts is a sort of panic button: "Show me the view of any nearby zombies that have gone aggro. Oh, look, now I'm looking at myself about to be killed!"

You can only determine the bearing of your target, so until you know the area inside and out, seeing through a zombie's eyes is of limited use. I almost wish there was some way to tell distance, such as Snake's threat display in Metal Gear Solid 4. But that might make Siren too easy. As with Resident Evil, a lot of the "horror" is a matter of not being able to interface very smoothly with the world. The second part of episode 4 is particularly trying in this regard, but for details, you'll have to read the spoiler section after the jump.

Seigo Saiga perched in his watchtower is a perfect example of how limited this engine is. What good is a watchtower socked in by fog? Seiga can sight jack zombies that are too far into the fog to shoot, but the sight jacking crosshairs clearly indicate their location. And what's the deal with flying zombies? I can't figure out if their weird/scary or just flat-out ridiculous. Balance-wise, they counter Seigo's powerful rifle. There's nothing like something moving erratically, and vertically to boot, to make a sniper rifle less useful.

I really liked how the household in the second half of this episode spins out a sort of family scenario. The gardener and handyman outside, wielding a sickle and sledgehammer respectively (I love that sledgehammer). The father is in the study with a gun, and the housewife is roaming the house with her kitchen knife, which proves awfully useful when you have to rush to father to take his gun. But who expects the daughter with her alto recorder? And if you fumble everything just right, you might go up against a zombie with a guitar. It's like the early bit of Dead Rising, but in reverse!

I didn't get into the altar in the den, because I was only able to find broken wirecutters. So the only archive bit I unlocked was Seigo Saiga driver's license.

(Click here for the previous Siren game diary.)
(Click here for the next SIren game diary.)