Siren

aka: Forbidden Siren, Forbidden Siren: Viviendo la Pesadilla
Moby ID: 12395
PlayStation 2 Specs
Buy on PlayStation 2
$54.08 used, $119.99 new on eBay
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Description official descriptions

Siren is a Japanese survival horror game which takes place in a small town where almost all of the people were killed.

A siren in the small Japanese village of Hanuda suddenly turns its inhabitants into shibito, zombies bent on turning everybody else into shibito.

The player alternates gameplay between ten different characters trying to avoid the shibito. It's like a puzzle. The player has to learn the shibitos' patterns and learn to avoid getting seen, as all of the characters have very low maximum health. The player can also sightjack other characters and shibito to see from their point of view.

Spellings

  • サイレン - Japanese spelling
  • 死魂曲 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

289 People (244 developers, 45 thanks) · View all

Cast
Original Story
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 69% (based on 25 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 25 ratings with 1 reviews)

Great, but it has some flaws.

The Good
Sound. Sound is of utmost importance when it comes to survival-horror games. The sound is perfect in Forbidden Siren. Right from the start when you see the "Project SIREN" intro, you realize that the developers have put a great deal of effort into the sound effects. The sounds that the Shibito (the undead in this game) are making is incredible. This time around the zombie's aren't just moaning, they can also mumble and sometimes talk. They can even laugh.

Another thing that i liked about this game is the new feature. Sight-Jacking. You can view the current situation trough the eyes of everyone who is in close proximity of you. This is truely unique. Not only is this adding to the creepy atmosphere of the game, it can also be handy to predict the moves of the enemy. It's really scary to see yourself through the eyes of a Shibito. I also like the static sound effects of sight-jacking. It sounds really cool to hear a zombie laugh and breath hard when they are following you.

Another thing i was rather fond of, was the fact that this isn't just another survival-horror game with zombies, huge guns and hero as playable character. This game introduces new elements. Not only the sight-jacking, but also the fact that your enemy's aren't just dumb undead monsters. The enemy is smart and unlike many other survival horror games, these zombies can use guns. The fact that the enemy is also smart this time around, means that this makes things even scarier.

The Bad
Controls. The controls can be a pain when you are playing the game for the first time. Especially when you are trying to dodge bullets from the police officer in the first mission. Sometimes they can also be frustrating. When you walk/run into a wall, the main character needs about 3 seconds to recover from his slight collision with the wall. This can be extremely frustrating. Especially when you need to navigate the little blind girl through a zombie ridden level. After a while you get the "Well, why don't you just keep moving b****!" feeling.

This game is extremely hard. The only weapons you get in this game are some melee weapons and a pistol, and even if you acquire this pistol, chances are that you only have a few bullets at your disposal. And not only that. It's easy to die. When a zombie attacks, it's almost certainly "Game Over", and to make things worse, you still have to deal with the hard controls.



The Bottom Line
This is a great game that add's a lot of new features to the survival-horror genre. If this game has a few follow-ups with improvements regarding the controls and the scale of difficulty in the game, we could be in for a massive hit.

Bottom line. If you can see through the lacking controls and almost unfair difficulty, you're in for a treat.

PlayStation 2 · by Goteki45 (323) · 2004

Trivia

Controversy

On November 10, 2003, one of SCE's ads for Siren was pulled in Japan after complaints from parents. The ad featured a young girl knocking on a window from the outside, begging her parents to let her in. The view then switches to the inside and shows the terrified parents, in fear of their daughter, who is revealed to be a bloody zombie. SCE said that the fear factor made people uncomfortable.

References to the game

The game is featured about ten seconds in the 2005 French movie Le temps qui reste (Time to Leave) by François Ozon. One of the characters is playing it casually and it has no influence on the events.

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2004 – Most Inappropriate British Accents (PS2)

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  • MobyGames ID: 12395
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Erwie84.

PlayStation 4 added by Charly2.0. PlayStation 3 added by Sciere.

Additional contributors: Terrence Bosky, Unicorn Lynx, Indra was here, Jeanne, //dbz:, Sciere, Jeffrey Paine, DreinIX, Patrick Bregger, Rik Hideto, Hipolito Pichardo.

Game added March 12, 2004. Last modified January 25, 2024.