Siren

When this game came out, I jumped on it. I was a huge fan of the Silent Hill series and when I heard that part of its team had worked on this game, I thought good things were in store. Well, after playing it...I was kind of right, but then not quite.

Let's start with the first and foremost problem anyone is going to have with this game: Its Hard.
Now, normally when you hear someone say that a game is hard, you think, "Oh...they must not be very good at it" or "Gawd...whut a newb" or the like. Siren on the other hand, is INSANELY difficult. Expect to die a LOT before you see its ending sequence, and even more if you try for its best ending.

Now, with that out of the way, the game itself is a very unique concept built from more cliche ones. You play from a third person view, not unlike that of the Silent Hill games. However, Siren revolves around you avoiding enemies rather than confronting them. You're unarmed for a good part of the game, so contact with the enemies (the game calls them shibito, which roughly translates to dead people) usually ends in your death, or a long stint of running like hell because they will chase your ass down. The advantage you have though, is the ability to "sightjack", or see through the eyes of enemies in a certain vicinity of you. Get used to using it, you'll be constantly checking to see where you can go and where you should stay away from.

The controls of this game are well done, the sightjacking ability makes use of the right analog stick and you use it almost like a radio dial to "tune in" to the surrounding shibito/characters. Otherwise, its your basic third person survival horror fare.

The graphics are strange, the faces are made by superimposing live action faces onto the 3D models of the game's characters, which creates a strange (and quite creepy) effect. Most of the world is covered in a thick fog, another homage to Silent Hill, but what you can see looks good.

The sound production on this game would be the highlight if not for one thing, all the characters are asian. Its an asian village that the story happens in, the look asian, the use asian words, they have british accents. I'm not saying that they should talk in the engrish we've all come to know and love, but the british thing seems very out of place.

All things aside, Siren is a good game. It has a good story (reguarding the invasion of a small village by the shibito creatures created after the ocean surrounding it turned red), decent gameplay, and scary as hell atmosphere (this game WILL scare you). Its only brought down by its high level of difficulty and out of place voice acting. There's a lot of game here, but if you're not the patient type, this isn't the game for you.

3.5 star(s) out of 5

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