Survival horror seems to be making something of a comeback lately. Once a dying breed (sorry) that saw few releases (or at least ones that were any good), we've had Alone in the Dark and the superb Dead Space, with Silent Hill: Homecoming and the much anticipated Resident Evil 5 still to come, not to mention the out of nowhere sure fire Valve hit Left4Dead lurching onto store shelves any day now. Survival horror? It's more like revival horror (sorry). So what better time then to revamp a little-known cult PS2 series that is without doubt one of the most unforgiving, creepy and downright terrifying games ever made?

Siren: Blood Curse is a remake of Forbidden Siren (also known as simply Siren in some regions) that tells the bizarre tale of a disturbing incident in rural Japan. An American tourist and film crew are wandering through a forest in the dead of night when they come across the blood sacrifice ritual of an obscure and seemingly insane cult, only to become caught up in the midst of events far beyond their understanding, when almost the entire local population of a nearby isolated Japanese village are transformed into shambling monstrosities and hideous mutations. Whether the cult brought about the disaster that followed or were trying to prevent it remains to be seen; all you need to worry about for now is survival, plain and simple.

As a huge fan of Forbidden Siren, playing Blood Curse was a initially a mixed experience. The beautiful rendering of the ghostly cut scenes of the original has been replaced by more traditional graphics and the insertion of American characters in place of some of the key Japanese cast of the original feels a little forced, although that probably won't be the case for those unfamiliar with the series. Forbidden Siren was also utterly unforgiving- so much so that you needed an iron will just to persevere through the first level, let alone the rest of the game. Death came often and you were routinely left wondering what to do and how to proceed; this was a game that refused to lead you by the hand, instead biting it off at every opportunity. Nevertheless, it was a supremely satisfying game for those who did soldier on and its atmosphere was mercilessly tense, with moments of sheer terror when the unrelenting Shibito spotted you and you had little choice but to flee and hide. Its story and gameplay were also arranged in a unique and complex system of chapters, viewed and accessed from a grid, many of which you would replay for an alternative objective and ending, to unlock the next section. The grid is gone and the difficulty has been toned down a bit for the remake, and while I miss the chapter grid and begrudge, just a little, being given such clear sub goals to guide me towards my overall objective, I can't deny that most of the changes in Blood Curse are for the better; the game is still very tough and terrifying, but now it's a little more accessible and no longer the exclusive territory of the most hardened gamers.

Blood Curse, like its predecessors, sports several brilliant features, a couple of which are groundbreaking. The first is the concept of playing an entire cast of characters; rather than taking the role of a single protagonist, you play as a range of people, including a defenceless little girl, following their desperate struggle to make sense of the madness that has befallen them as they do their best to survive. Like any good horror movie, you just know that not everyone is going to make it to the end - and as the incidental and playable characters fall one by one, you come up against them further down the line, as some of the most lethal and disgusting foes you face in the game. The psychological impact of seeing what these people, whose plight you have related to and experienced, have degenerated into, taints the horror with tragedy and further heightens the emotional involvement you feel.

The second unique feature, and one that really is a stroke of genius, is the ability to sightjack. After they hear the strange, out of place wail of a wartime siren, the protagonists develop a disconcerting but highly useful ability to tune their minds into the wavelengths of all those around them, allowing them to see and hear through the eyes and ears of friends and foes alike. This feature is a staple of the gameplay and almost every level requires you to tune yourself in to your enemies, so you can get an idea of their locations, patrol patterns and lines of sight. An observant eye is often rewarded and indeed essential, as you will see items that you need to progress through the level, viewed through the eyes of the Shibito as they traverse the environment.

The sightjacking concept has been evolved for Blood Curse; whereas before you could only see through the eyes of one Shibito at a time and had to stand still while doing so, in Blood Curse you can have up to three viewpoints on screen at once, and you can lock one in and move around, the screen splitting vertically between the third person view of your character and the first person view of your foe. This effect is graphically taxing and the PS3 can judder a little at times, but for the most part it pays off brilliantly; and though very disorientating at first, it's a lot easier to sneak past a watchful Shibito when you can see what they see for the whole time, with your position appearing as a blue glint through their eyes, and their position as a red glint through yours, with allies showing up as green. As before, if you are spotted then you get a flash of the Shibito's view, coloured red as the creature charges after you, making for many terrifying moments as you scramble for cover or turn to face the oncoming monster.

The Shibito are horrifying foes for many reasons. At the start, they aren't your regular shambling zombies, or indeed your super fast 28 Day Later zombies; no, the Shibito are horrifying because they still retain a shred of their former humanity. Though they shuffle around inhumanly, often with their limbs distorted and twisted at odd angles, they can still think for themselves, speak (with an eerie metallic tinge to their voices) and run, pursuing you until you manage to lose them, even climbing up ledges and onto the rooftops if you try to evade them by leaving the ground. Their faces are drained of all colour; ghastly white with thick streaks of dried blood upon their faces, which leaked from their mouths and eyes. With maniacal leers and wide-eyed, crazed stares, they take delight in hacking at you with whatever implement they can lay their hands on, and most characters can withstand only a few hits before they go down, your last sight that of your own death at their hands, viewed through the eyes of your killer. And this is just the beginning - as the game progresses, the Shibito begin to evolve, their mutations taking a range of extremely twisted and unpleasant forms, the nature of which is only hinted at for a while, building up the tension until each monstrosity is unveiled in a disturbing cut scene. I wish I could share some of them with you, but I don't want to spoil any surprises; suffice it to say, these creatures would strike fear into most of the nasties from Resident Evil and Silent Hill, with the various Shibito Brains taking on particularly gruesome forms - just wait until you're searching for the Ancient Book, I guarantee you'll be totally freaked out by what you encounter.

A typical chapter of Blood Curse charges you with escaping from your current location, which involves working your way across an often complex map, tuning in to nearby Shibito and then avoiding them, or creeping up behind them and taking them by surprise, which is a far more effective way of neutralising them. However, another fairly unusual quirk of the gameplay is that your foes are immortal; no matter how many times you take them down, they'll be back up again a couple of minutes later, ready to attack you once more. They really are the Weebles of the survival horror world (anyone remember those or is it just me?).

Sometimes you'll find a locked door that you need to access or there will be a particular item that you need, or location to reach, in order to achieve a sub-goal that gets you one step closer to your objective. Unlike its predecessors, Blood Curse is happy to spell out what you need to do, step by step, although doing it is still a challenge, especially given that a lot of the time you have no weapon, without which you have no chance of surviving in a fight; you have to run, or better yet, don't get spotted at all. These parts of the game are real heart in your mouth stuff; you will jump when you are spotted and you will panic as you run, the torchlight bouncing as you move, eerie shadows leaping up all around you. There's a palpable sense of relief when you do happen across a weapon, although you can only carry one at a time and there's no lock-on function; turning around so that you're directly facing an enemy can be fiddly due to the slightly unwieldy controls, but while you will sometimes be swishing at air as someone stabs you from the side or behind, you will adjust to this soon enough.

There are fifty weapons to find throughout the game, varying in speed and strength, from fairly useless items like a hot water pot, scalpel, frying pan and crutch through to the supremely satisfying sledgehammer, various axes and garden implements, and the occasional gun, often with a decent amount of ammo. Pistols, shotguns and hunting rifles are the order of the day here, with the latter two used on occasion to pick off attacking enemies to save allied characters. Sometimes you're not alone in the dark, although when you do have a companion you have two lives to protect, making your task that much tougher. Fortunately you can command your cohort to wait, or hide if there's a cupboard, wardrobe or pile of furniture nearby, and you can yell if you want to get the attention of a Shibito, too. Flares that attract Shibito and fill enclosed spaces with smoke, and hunting traps that hinder foes for a few seconds, allowing you to move in for the takedown, are also a real boon when they're available.

Probably the biggest change in Blood Curse is the presentation; the graphics are a huge leap forwards from the PS2 series, with extremely realistic and detail rendering upon the fluidly animated Shibito, allies and playable characters. The textures are consistently detailed, too; never do you happen across a lazy or poorly rendered surface, with dilapidated buildings of wood and mortar, the surrounding foliage of the forest, and the blood red water that floods some levels, constructed with a meticulous attention to detail. The only thing that can pull you out of the illusion are the invisible barriers that you so often walk into, preventing you from delving beyond the playing area or walking right up to furniture and through some bushes; it's not too bad, but it is a little jarring at times. Most of the game is set at night and the torchlight effect, along with the real-time shadows cast by virtually every object, is one of the most convincing I've ever seen. Even in daylight everything is shrouded in fog and those levels set to the eerie red glow of the phenomenon happening out at sea, are just as unsettling despite the raised visibility.

The visuals are effective in creating a truly gripping atmosphere, one that is further enhanced by superb audio. Every aspect of the sound is perfect; the usually foreboding background music will creep you out most of the time, instilling panic when it changes in tempo during certain key sequences as you fall under attack. The heavy breathing and crazed chattering and laughter of the Shibito is unnerving to say the least, especially when heard through the deformed monstrosities' own ears, and every weapon makes a satisfying sound when it connects with flesh, blood spurting out as you beat your enemies down until they stop moving - at least for a little while. The voice acting is also excellent; whereas in the original there were some very inappropriate British accents (at least in the UK version) that didn't fit the authentic looking Japanese characters at all, here this has been rectified. Only the Americans speak in English, the rest using their native tongue with subtitles displayed - the way it should be - save for one character, whose heavily-accented, broken English is the most convincing I've ever heard in a game. Even the Shibito speak in Japanese.

The only real downside to Blood Curse, despite being so much more forgiving than the original and giving you invaluable guidance on exactly what you need to do, is its lack of accessibility. Even as a veteran of the series, I struggled my way through the first couple of levels, disorientated and frightened, and it took a bit of willpower to persevere. What I will say is that the learning curve this time around is swift; you will quickly get the hang of the controls, which do feel still a bit clumsy, and adjust to the camera view, which can be jerky when you run and turn, if you just keep going. The 3D map is just as useful as always, not only giving you a clear picture of the level layout but also showing the location of most sub goals and main objectives. By the time you reach the end of the third episode (of twelve), the chances are that you'll be hooked, drawn in by the compelling if disjointed narrative and the utterly gripping atmosphere.

The cut scenes are well directed but they leap from one place, character, and time, to the next, often leaving you scratching your head as to how someone survived their last ordeal or ended up at their current location. There's also a big twist midway through the game that completely changes where the story is headed; just when all seems lost and you wonder how anyone is going to make it through the torment alive, an initially confusing event occurs that turns everything on its head. I can't say more without spoiling the surprise; let's just say when you reach the utterly disturbing family reunion, which is truly the stuff of nightmares, the snake eats its own tail and the past branches off in an alternative direction. Cryptic, I know, but it will all become clear when you get there! Despite being hard to understand at times, the story is engaging, if not told as well as it could have been, and the items and documents you can find through a thorough search of each level (if you're brave enough!) shine further light on the exact cause behind the abominable occurrence; be sure to study every archive item you discover, as they serve to illuminate the full nature of the calamity.

Blood Curse originally hit the PlayStation Network in the form of a episodic content that took a long time to download and ate up your hard disk space, but thankfully, the powers that be have wisely decided to give this game the retail release it deserves - and at only £20 it's an absolute bargain (it's available in the UK now but no news yet on a release date for the US). Even if you only have the download option, it's undoubtedly worth the hassle. I believe that the second episode is available as a free taster but it really doesn't do the game justice; Blood Curse just gets better and better as the stakes get higher, the characters drop like flies, the enemies get nastier and the story slowly unfolds (only to collapse in on itself and then unfold again with a ripple effect that changes everything), the experience further enhanced when you fully come to grips with the controls and the strategic use of sightjacking.

Siren: Blood Curse is a triumphant remake of a sublimely brilliant survival horror game. Previously only for the most patient and toughened gamers, this new version of Siren is slightly less difficult, although still somewhat inaccessible. Newcomers to the genre will find themselves thrown in the deep end but should still be able to learn to swim (in blood), while survival horror veterans will quickly find themselves in their element; either way, and whether you played the original or not, Blood Curse is close to being a must have game at its bargain price and it's also a completely unique experience on PS3 at present. Nothing else comes close in terms of chills, disturbing moments and pure, outright terror; load up the game late at night, switch the lights off, try escaping from the darkened and dilapidated hospital in the dead of the night, playing as a defenceless little girl who cannot afford to be spotted, even once, by the shambling monstrosities that haunt her waking nightmare, and tell me that it didn't get your pulse racing and your heart thumping - I dare you!

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).