Siren

"The best horror experience!!"

Siren is one of the best survival horror games to come along in a while
Here's my review

Graphics 10/10
Sound 9/10
Gameplay 9/10
Controls 8/10
Story 9/10- pending on the last few levels

Graphics- the graphics in the game are done very well the detail is amazing, the houses, cars, the stores, phone booths, and the mountains everything is drawn superbly. The shibito are nicely detailed as they are creepy and get creepier – also when you sight jack the shibito, the view is bright and clear allowing a more vivid perspective of the surrounding area as well as an amazing view of yourself. The character's facials have a realistic look to them because they are taken from real actors not drawn. (When I die in Res or S.H. doesn't bother me like siren does) an amazing effect! This draws you into feeling strongly for the characters because they look like real people. The lighting and the shading are great when you rotate the flashlight and toggle it on /off you can really see a difference. The overall view of the game has a cloudy/misty feel to it and it works great. Sometime I'd walk right up on a shibito and be like oh s*** he's standing right there! There are some slight issues like seeing inside the npc's head, but it's rare and doesn't take away from the overall experience and it never breaks the fantasy. Camera control works well, although in tight rooms it seems to reverse and throw you off but these instances are also rare. Switching to first person view and zooming takes a while to master, but can help once you learn to use it properly. The cut scenes are horror movie style and grainy which fits well with good lip-syncing (although they're dubbed). The village of hanuda is amazingly done and I felt emerged inside the whole time. 10

Sound- the sounds in the game are haunting and the background music where applicable fits the stages perfectly (karuwari sounds eerie) as they blend in and never distract.
All the sound effects are realistic from the gunshots the hammering and the grunting of the shibito, which can creep you out, are all done well. The voice acting …well the British accents are a little rough- okay very rough, but you get used to it after about 20 stages. 9

Gameplay- gameplay is somewhat of a mixed bag. When I first started playing I concentrated on hiding, learning the controls, and finishing the levels thinking only of escape. By the fifth stage I was thinking I'm dying escaping and that's about it so the rewards of finishing the levels didn't offset the frustration of not knowing what was going on. The linear style I played mixed with link navigator, for which I had no clue, almost made me stop playing the game after a few levels. I vowed to finish this game due to my competitiveness, and this is what led me to read the manual over and over, do research on the net and to ultimately use a faq to get my bearings. After playing assisted for about ten levels and realizing I missed so many archive items and second mission triggers I decided to start from the beginning (a few times I might add) that's when something amazing happened, I started understanding – everything! Suddenly I had an idea of the level layout, the cut scenes started making sense, how to use the map, the shibitos' points of view, how close I could get without being spotted the crouching for stealth aspect, the link navigator, and the one thing that made this game the best for me - fearless exploration! Once these things came together I dropped the faqs, flew solo, and I knew this was a special game. The A.I. of the enemies was excellent when detect you they come after you relentlessly. the various alert modes (warnings that you been detected) help you know when your about to get it, and when you need to haul it. 9

Controls- character movement is very basic walk, run, crouch, flashlight, and weapons. the two things I had to master to survive are 1- the triangle or menu call up. At first hitting triangle three times just to get in and start the car in the mist of terror drove me nuts! Then after a while it became a second nature with me ready to execute menu commands flawlessly with shibitos hot on my trail. 2 the most important and enjoyable control is sight jacking (The ability to see through the eyes of the shibito) sight jacking once mastered, takes the gameplay to another level as it feels so good out smarting the shibito. The control were also diverse depending on who you played with for example: young man is strong, has good stamina, can climb, and take more punishment; young woman is weaker, varying stamina, and cannot take as much punishment; old man tires easily; little girl cant climb, and they wield weapons differently great touch of realism there. 8

Story- at first the story is confusing as hell with the cut scenes jumping around and the link navigator not following the story chronologically. I didn't know what was happening for the first 15 or so levels. It would jump from day one to day 2 back to day one and I'm like is the game spoiling itself? Then the more I played its seemed like a mystery with only the beginning and end so now I had to figure out the middle points which became very intriguing. All the characters have different reasons for why they are involved in this mess and the story for one goes like; boy is in the mountains stumbles across a weird ritual something goes wrong and all hell breaks loose now we need to find out what's happened for who and why. The archive items unlike the endless notes/diaries in R.E. or S.H. actually help you put the pieces together and had me reading them over and over again. The level select feature that's is unlocked after 19 missions allows you to replay levels and view cut scenes as much as you like which helped me make sense of things somewhat, but there are still holes you need to fill in on your own. 9

All in all Siren is one the best horror games ever and one of the best video games ever.
Although it is confusing and challenging, those who stick with will enjoy this game tremendously 10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/27/06