grimmig Review of Siren

Siren (2003 Video Game)

Forbidden Siren is really good, though may appear not at first.

[9/10 · 14 January 2005]

At first Forbidden Siren looked to me like a sort of Silent Hill rip-off, but appeared to be far better than I expected. It is definitely NOT a rip-off, it's only in the same genre. The setting of the whole game is in a Japanese village. This is very original, because most of the horror-action games are placed in the U.S. The village is suddenly in a state of doom. Things that were gone for 30 years are suddenly back, and dead people reappear...Also the still living turn slowly in Shibito, which are some sort of monsters. First thing that is very annoying, is the dubbing. Luckily, you can't let the bad English-dubbed voices make the game suck in my opinion. The game is difficult, that without a doubt. You die easily, but that happens mainly because the game plays so much differently than the ones we're used to in this horror-action genre. The "sight-jacking" for example, is very important. With it, you can see through the eyes of the enemies. That way, you know where they are, and what they're doing. It has one of the most original ways of telling the story I've ever seen. Throughout the story, you play about 10 characters. You play with levels, which I thought at first sucked. I like one big area the most with this sort of games. But, they did this to be able to tell the story better. After every level, you see a list of all characters, with a timeline underneath each name. Every level you play, has a place on a timeline. This may sound complicated, but once you see it, it's quite clear. In most levels you can get 2 endings, which result in 2 different new levels. To actually get the second ending, you must do something in another level first. Example:If character A goes through street X on Day1,12:00, and that character opens a locked door he comes across, thanks to that, character B can go through that door when he goes through the same street on Day2,01:00. This may seem difficult, but they made it easy to find out what you must do the second time you play a level. There's still more to it, but it has already been much to explain. All I want to make clear, is that Forbidden Siren is a terrific game, once you get it. The story is also really, really good. Real Japanese horror-style story. Not too ultra-happy-ending and so, but really grim and dark.