Forbidden Siren didn’t entirely convert me to survival horror. Confession time; I don’t like it because it’s scary. Being fiendishly difficult was a minus for me but the hardcore will love it. Therefore fans of horror games, get your ’pads at the ready.
Our quick take
Overall, the story is strong and it needs to be - the dependence on thought over action means that the plot needs to hold up. I didn’t like the game, I don’t like the genre, but I have to admit that this is scary and hard. It feels like horror, and I don’t think I’m going to sleep for a week. Surprising and good but you’ll only get the most out of it if you’re a fan of the genre. Potential new converts should rent first.
Forbidden Siren - PS2 - 3.5 / 5
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Forbidden Siren is a survival horror game based on Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos novels, and is hugely Japanese, which all horror games seem to be. From the outset, there is a great deal of confusion and I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing - but that’s part of it. As a game, it challenges the norm of easing you in, in favour of mercilessly throwing you in at the deep-end.
The quality of the video is impressive (even for a non-horror fan) and I noticed that the faces of the characters were scanned. In one of the opening story scenes, you see a guy peering through the woodland at a girl with a dog (I was hoping she was the siren, but I had the wrong end of the stick…). The girl’s face looked real, even if the dog was a CGI blob. Graphically the horror classics are here. Things are not what they seem, there is an over-whelming attention to detail. The torch/fog effects are all there so you can’t really see what is coming towards you, and normally you don’t want to.
There are 18 characters to play, all with a unique chapter, providing great variety and extent. Some of these characters are not great fighters, so obviously, the way to win is not to take the gung-ho approach - you do need to think and that’s what makes it a challenge. You can also tune in on other characters senses, so you can see through their eyes and see where they are - it’s a great effect and very scary.
To recap
However aficionados of the genre will probably love it. Everyone else needs to rent it first.