Siren

"Japanese culture packed into a survival horror video game. Awesome!"

I am a big fan of survival horror games, ranging in context between the pseudo-real-world-gone-to-Hell Silent Hill, to the raging zombie-filled areas of Resident Evil. I am a Japanese-culture junkie, and when I heard that the video game Siren dealt with historical culture, and it was a survival horror game, I literally had a joygasm.

Let's sightjack!

Story: 8/10

I loved the story in Siren.

Siren is set in a remote, rural Japanese mountain village named Hanuda, which is characterized as being very traditional and particularly xenophobic. Following a ritual ceremony, the village teeters wildly between time and space, with an infinite sea of red water in place of the usual surrounding mountains. The bulk of the story focuses on the efforts of Hisako Yao, the leader of a strange local religion, to resurrect or re-awaken an extra-terrestrial being known as Datatsushi through an occult ceremony. While Datatsushi is indisputably alien, the methods used to resurrect it and the effects of its presence seem to be supernatural in nature. The "siren" of the title is the call of Datatsushi, summoning the residents of Hanuda to immerse themselves in the red water, thus creating an army of subordinates called shibito. (Shibito in Japanese means "corpse.") The shibito then go about building a nest to house the corporal form of Datatsushi once it is summoned, as well as killing and converting any living humans left in Hanuda. The story is told through the perspectives of the ten survivors, some of whom are natives of Hanuda, and is presented out of chronological order over the three days in which the mystery takes place.

Graphics: 8/10

The area in which Siren excels is in its graphics area. Areas look and give off an aura of a typical Japanese setting, which is a breath of fresh air from the research facilities and long roads in most survival horror games today.

One thing that is worth mentioning is that the facial expressions from both the playable characters and shibito is rather than employing traditional face-animations with polygons, as most video game designers do, images of real human facial expressions were captured and superimposed on character models.

Music/Sound/Voices: 6/10

Being published by Sony Europe, all the characters, obviously of Japanese-decent, have a British voice-over. Humorous at times, the voices do an okay job of matching the character's overall feel.

Sounds made from the weapons, shibito, and topography effects are really quite good. The shibito do not sound like traditional zombies, which is always a welcome change.

The music gives Siren a scary, ambient feel. Some levels do not have music at all, instead just the surrounding area effects. (Rain, wind, etc.)

Gameplay: 7/10

Probably the most neat and overlooked aspect of the series is the ability for characters and shibito alike to "sightjack," or look deep into their mind to see what others are doing. This is a side effect of the red water going amuk within Hanuda. By using "sighjack," characters can see the paths shibito walk, and more importantly, key items that help unlock future stages. Being a stealth game, the ability to "sightjack" is an absolute must.

Controls are basically the same from every game. Move with the left anolog stick, etc. However, in Siren, you must tell the character what to do by pressing the triangle button when needed. If you want a character to unlock a door, stand by the door, open the "tell" menu, and select "unlock door." If you want to attract a certain shibito's attention, bring up the "tell" menu and select "yell." Tedious, yes, but it adds a certain level of skill to the gameplay.

Overall score: 8/10

Certainly playable, and certainly playable by characters who love Japan/Japanese culture, this game is sure to make anyone's day, especially when stealth and item-collecting is the "key" (no pun intended) to sucsess.

Buy or Rent?

Fans of the Silent Hill and Resident Evil series may be taken back by the odd use of "sightjacking" and over-all differentialities of Siren. The game isn't terribly long, so a rent is probably suited for weary wanna-be players. Then again, Siren will be in your local video game store's "$9.99 and under" bin, so buying the game wouldn't be too terrible, either.

Special Note!

It is impertinent to say that Keiichiro Toyama, director of the first Silent Hill game for the Playstation, was the director for Siren. With that said, there are many notable connections between the two series. They include: A remote countryside town with a mysterious history, a local cult seeking to summon a supreme deity through ritual ceremony, a gradual shift of the environment from normalcy to darkness and vice versa, a thick pervading fog, strategic considerations in running or using a flashlight, and a "siren" that is heard from time to time.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/02/07

Game Release: Siren (US, 04/20/04)