Games I Played in 2025 - The Sirena Expedition

 

Console: Steam, Switch

Developer: Giraffe Cat

Release Date: October 26, 2023

The Sirena Expedition is a short and sweet atmospheric horror-themed puzzle platformer that takes place fully underwater and can be finished in about an hour. Made almost completely by David Thatcher, with Amy Greir contributing to the soundtrack and voicing the main character, The Sirena Expedition was borne from a Game Jam and made over two years following it.

The Sirena Expedition is styled (and marketed as) a game with PSX-style graphics, and while I don't have the expertise to say how well it truly emulates the console, for me it was effective enough that I chose to play the game using its forced 4:3 aspect ratio option to further sell the illusion that this was an old retro game. The textures are appropriately blurry and crunchy, and the models low-poly in a charming way. At the same time, even though this takes place fully underwater, I rarely felt my thalassophobia get the best of me.

It's worth noting that despite being a horror game, The Sirena Expedition isn't exactly scary, and instead more unnerving with some cosmic/Lovecraftian horror touches. While it's a puzzle platformer, it's far more of a puzzle game than a platforming game, and there is no tangible danger, combat or stressful situations. It's a more chilled out experience that will sometimes startle or creep you out, but it's almost more meditative than truly scary. Though it has 3D graphics (as you'd expect from a PSX-styled horror game), the game plays as a sidescroller within a 3D environment. Think Klonoa, Ganbare Goemon, or Kirby 64.

As a game, The Sirena Expedition is slow-paced despite its short length, which makes sense considering its underwater setting. The main character, the Aquanaut, moves slowly and has a floaty jump, and puzzles are all based on pushing crates (slowly) and activating levers. Yet, I found that this slow, deliberate pace helps the game's fantastic atmosphere creep in and settle in your mind. The game's voice acting surprised me, not because I thought it'd be bad, but because I didn't realise there'd be any. It greatly helps get the story across, and both Thatcher and Greir do a great job delivering their lines, with the latter especially makes the Aquanaut an intriguing character and enhances the narrative. There's some subtle emotional beats that Greir hits that also impressed me; without knowing the Aquanaut's backstory or identity, it's easy to tell how she's feeling even when she's not being straightforward with her statements.

The game's structure is very linear, but features a fair amount of hidden rooms for extra lore, spooks or secrets. The one thing that stood out to me is that, as someone who is prone to always try to go where I'm not supposed to so I can see all the extra things a game has to offer, I often ended up going to the end of an unsolved puzzle early due to assuming I was finding some side content rather than going the way I was supposed to, just early. With the game's slow movement, this could lead to people starting to find the game tedious if they need to backtrack constantly if they play games like I do (and I know I'm not alone in playing like that!).

The game's slower pace is a positive for me (for the most part), but it's also a pretty clear downside if it doesn't jive with the player, since the game's secrets often require going out of your way while exploring or backtracking. And for the latter, it's almost always a significant amount of tedious backtracking. Paired with the fact you need to explore quite thoroughly and have a sharp eye for some of these secrets, and the slow speed can get annoying pretty quick. It's a shame too, because even though I'd consider the game's ending to be satisfying, the game's main secret unlocks a second campaign that answers a lot of questions.

This second campaign is essentially a sort of New Game+, which might sound weird since the game barely even has any mechanics, but it's another run through the game with a different character with harder/more complex puzzles. As a result, anyone that isn't a fan of the slower pace and the fiddly nature of the crate puzzles won't get much out of this second campaign in the first place, but I do think it's worth seeking out and playing if you end up enjoying the main game.

Something else I consider a positive that could potentially be a negative is that this second campaign is decidedly quirkier than the main game, with some jokes added in and the like in the dialogue. Make no mistake, it still answers a lot of questions from the base game and implies more things, but it's done in a bit of a sillier way despite the gameplay being the same outside of the puzzles being more involved. It's a positive to me because it reminds me of something I love about horror games of the past, like Resident Evil, Silent Hill and even games like Clock Tower 3 where, once the game is completed, you're encouraged to play it again with silly things like overpowered weapons, out-of-place weapons, and goofy costumes since they're not that scary after playing through them. It's nothing as in-depth as the examples I mentioned, but it's along those lines and I just think it's cool.

The Sirena Expedition's soundtrack was handled by beee girlll and Giraffe Cat... which just so happen to be Greir and Thatcher! They do a great job with the soundtrack, with it being mostly centered around an echoey piano. Similarly to the second campaign, I found myself drawing some slight comparisons to Akira Yamaoka's works in some of the tracks, namely due to the way the percussions are handled. I wouldn't say any of the tracks have stuck in my mind after playing, though, because I think the main audio takeaway is the sound design. A lot of the game's sound design is fantastic, with bubbles, an underwater droning noise, static, and more. It just really stands out for me and makes it so much more immersive and creepy, yet meditative and contemplative.

 

PROS AND CONS

PROS

• Solid story with great voice acting and a good lovecraftian mystery.

• Immaculate ambiance that shifts between creepy and oddly meditative.

• Really good facsimile of PSX graphics that I think adds to the atmosphere.

• Good soundtrack and great sound design.

• Pretty good puzzles.

• Satisfying secrets that are fun to look for, including a really good second campaign.

• There's a checkpoint system to make secret hunting less tedious.

CONS

• Slow pace is definitely not for everyone.

• Secret hunting involves a lot of fiddling and backtracking, and potentially replaying parts of the game despite the checkpoints.

• Puzzles can be too fiddly and slow at times.

• Short length will leave some people wanting more.

• Not actually that scary, which will bother some.

 

WORTH PLAYING?

The Sirena Expedition is a niche experience, all things considered. It's short, it's simple, it's effective, and though it's got flaws, they didn't actually matter to me nor did they hamper my time with it. It won't be for everyone, but if it looks or sounds cool to you and you know what you're getting into, it's worth it for the price. For me, it's exactly what I want to see from smaller indie devs, and I loved it.