Forbidden Siren was Sony's answer to Nintendo and Silicon Knights' Eternal Darkness on the Gamecube. Helmed by Kenchiro Toyama who earlier directed Konami's survival horror classic Silent Hill, Siren manages to push the envelope on what can be achieved in the genre even further. Siren shares a lot of similarities to Eternal Darkness but in many ways, it is far better though it failed to achieve the critical success of the former upon release. Like Eternal Darkness, the story of Siren is told through the eyes of ten different survivors over the course of three days though it never feels like a Lucasarts adventure game as the story doesn't transverse across the globe to different characters set centuries apart. The characters looked eerily realistic and the game does a good job of keeping track of the story and events through a simple timeline table.
Siren also relies upon a 'gimmick' of their own in order to set it apart from the rest of the pack but unlike Eternal Darkness, it's so much more than just a gimmick. Sight-jacking allows the players to see the world through the eyes of the predators in the game, where you must learn to plan your move around them to avoid being seen as your characters are usually unarmed. This heightens the sense of danger as you find yourself playing both the stalked and the stalker as well as adding an element of strategy to the game. Later, playing as a 70-year old hunter, Akira you have to use sight-jacking to pick out your targets and play a game of cat-and-mouse using your sniper rifle, i kid you not.
While over the years of playing Resident Evil and Silent Hill has jaded my senses, it's games like Siren that really jolt my senses and get me excited and optimistic about the survival horror genre, Toyama-san you just moved up a couple of notches on my list.
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