Siren

"Siren: The Unofficial Game of the Year in 2004"

Siren is a Stealth-Survival-Horror game created by Sony and (from what I've heard) the guy who brought us the Silent Hill series. Sony has done well with what I would call one of the most interesting games of the time.

Siren is about a bunch of people at a place at the wrong time. A pagan ritual has gone wrong and now the rain is blood and the towns inhabitants are Shibito's; evil creatures whose minds have gone away. It's up to these 10 or so people to find out what caused this event to happen and escape the town in 3 days. Somehow, the survivors were given the ability to look into other peoples eyes.

The game is set up in missions. So, for one mission you may have to get through a certain door being guarded by a Shibito. Others include finding certain items to further the plot. After a while, you're able to go back to certain areas to do new missions. So, lets say the first mission is to go though a door, the next mission in that level may be to find a artifact or pull a lever.

Let me jack into your mind

Sight-Jacking is a interesting new concept. Being able to sight jack makes you able to see what the enemies are doing. Most enemies follow a certain task, and will never break it if you don't show yourself to them. This is why Sight-Jacking is so cool, you'll be able to see enemy patterns, making it easy for you to get away from enemies without having to deal with them!

Why would I do that when I have a hammer or a gun to kill them with?!

Unlike most survival horror games where you're given some ammo to kill zombies or demons, Shibitos never die. You can beat them with a hammer until they fall over, but after a while they'll come back up; unharmed. Even shooting shibitos won't kill them. It isn't even a good idea to fight a Shibito in teh first place since most of them hold Rifles and Handguns, after being shot once or twice (depends on the character you're controlling) you'll probably die. Hiding and distracting enemies are the true key to success in this game.

Closing
Siren is unlike most Survival-Horror games where your only option is to kill everything that comes up to you, using stealth and certain items to avoid conflict is a novel idea. I'm glad Sony has done something similar, and yet so different.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/05/04