Forbidden Siren

Siren, also known as Forbidden Siren in the PAL regions, is a survival horror stealth game developed by Project Siren and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2 in 2003.

Plot
The story of Siren is told through the alternating perspectives of ten survivors of a supernatural disaster in the (fictional) rural Japanese town of Hanuda (Hanyūda in the Japanese version) in 2003 (Shōwa year 78). These events are presented outside of chronological order and deal primarily with the efforts of the viewpoint characters to both escape the town and find answers to what has happened in the three days immediately following the disaster.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) You play as 10 different characters, each with their own struggles to survive.
 * 2) Innovative "sightjack" mode in which you can see through the eyes of your enemies and other characters, which can be used as a strategy to complete missions safely.
 * 3) Scary zombie-like monsters called Shibito, which are smarter than the average zombie. The Shibito can open doors, use weapons like guns, or melee weapons, climb, and so on.
 * 4) *There are also different types of Shibito:
 * 5) **Fly Shibito: Shibito that evolve into insect like creatures that are given wings, which allow them to well, fly.
 * 6) **Dog Shibito: They have higher health than other Shibito, move quickly across the ground, and have a strong jumping ability, able to launch themselves onto the roof of an abandoned house in a single leap.
 * 7) **Spider Shibito: They crawl on all fours and can freely move across walls and ceilings and can sneak up on people from blind spots. They have sharper senses than other Shibito, and react strongly to presences in the dark and faint sounds even through walls. Their recovery rate is the fastest of any Shibito, reviving after a mere 10 seconds.
 * 8) **Shibito Brain: These Shibito act like the leader of the Shibito that are in the general area. If you take down this Shibito not only will he be down, but every other Shibito acting as like that of a hive mind.
 * 9) Really creepy designs for the Shibito types above.
 * 10) Unlike other horror games of the time, the game encourages you to not fight the Shibito, but to avoid and at times hide from them.
 * 11) One of the scariest survival horror experiences for the PS2.
 * 12) Interesting story about a cursed village and how each survivor struggling to survive and find a way to lift the curse.
 * 13) Dark environments and blood-like water add for an unnerving and terrifying effect.
 * 14) Great atmosphere that's eerie and creepy.
 * 15) Lots of likable characters like Akira and Miyako.
 * 16) Despite their absurdity, the puzzles are really good and it's a great concept.
 * 17) There's a spreadsheet so you know where you're at in the story.
 * 18) Great graphics that uses an early implementation of motion capture for the character models. Rather than employ traditional facial animation methods with polygonal transformation, images of real human faces were captured from eight different angles and superimposed onto the character models.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Poor English dub.
 * 2) You will have to return to the same level every time to complete a second objective instead of being able to do both at the same time and you can only unlock the second objective after you've already completed the level.
 * 3) Majority of the time, the level you continue to next isn't chronological and can make it confusing when playing through the story. Fortunately, there's a spreadsheet that helps with this.
 * 4) The main problem with the game is the puzzles. They themselves are not bad, but the way they're implemented is bad. Everything below was the main reason why Western audiences despised the game.
 * 5) *There are times where you have to do something in an area as a certain character so another character (sometimes in the same area, sometimes not) can complete their second objective. The problem is that the game doesn't really give you a hint as to what you have to do and these things are so out of your way.
 * 6) **For example, on one of the levels where you play as Shiro you have to acquire a student ID from the cafeteria, but the police Shibito is sitting in front of it, so you have to break a piggy bank in order to draw his attention, but when you break it the door behind you opens and the police Shibito sees you and you'll die before you get it. What you're actually suppose to do is to go back when you play as Kei in the same area and find a towel, soak it in water, and put it in the freezer, so you can put the frozen towel under the piggy bank between two boxes and go outside the cafeteria and wait for the towel to defrost so you can go get the ID by going through the front. HOW IS ANYONE SUPPOSE TO FIGURE THAT OUT?
 * 7) *If that wasn't enough, you have to also use a method to get the family sword of the Kajiro family: Homuranagi
 * 8) **To get this, four stone markers must be pushed and their seal pressed, which are each in four different levels. You must then light the 4 lanterns in Karuwari as Reiko in the correct order.

Game Tips

 * 1) Shibito can't die, but they can go down for certain amount of time before getting back up.
 * 2) It is highly recommended that you use a walkthrough.

Reception
The game received mixed to positive reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. Reviewers praised the originality of the concept, the use of Sightjacking, the graphics and the storyline.

GameSpy gave the game 4 out of 5, with Bryan Stratton following other reviewers in praising the storyline and atmosphere.