14 DAY TRIAL // 
Slept too well this summer? In case you were wondering how to stay up at night, being too afraid to sleep we have an answer for you: Forbidden Siren 2. The first game, Siren (Forbidden Siren for Europe) came out in 2004, with the promise to battle the kings of survival horror: Resident Evil and Silent Hill. The game was well received and gained fans rapidly, although it had some gameplay problems. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe planned to frighten the public again by making a sequel and they gathered the best men to do that: the producers of Silent Hill and Project Siren, Keiichiro Toyama and Takafumi Fujisawa.
Story Stranded on the island of Yamijima (the Island of Darkness), close to Japan, a group of characters have to battle their way out after their ship was destroyed by a red tsunami. Little do they know that the island hosted a strange tragedy 29 years ago: an underwater power cable was cut and the inhabitants of Yamijima disappeared in the blackout. The time of the action jumps back and forth as you acquire new pieces of the deadly puzzle you are about to complete. The unlucky heroes of this horrifying tale are Mamoru Itsuki (magazine editor), Yorito Nagai and Takeaki Misawa (soldiers), Soji Abe (murderer), Akiko Kiyota (clairvoyant), Shu Mikami (fiction writer) and many more.
Concept Many fans complained that the first Forbidden Siren was way too difficult, making it impossible for the player to get out alive even from the first missions. This new title changes that, thanks to the tutorials and the many abilities that the characters have. Initial missions will countdown to a moment zero in time, and the next missions will sometimes send you back on the timeline in search of something you've missed. The innovative Link Navigator system allows you to align your missions like the pieces of a puzzle in order to complete the game. You can set traps or attract your enemies by yelling at them. The map will be very helpful and so will the menu that allows you to switch weapons or analyze your items.
You'll stroll to perdition in a large number of places like schools, a harbor, a military base, villages etc. Moving the left analog stick quickly from left to right allows you to shake your enemy off when you've been bit by the gruesome zombie. By pressing L2 you'll get some static which will clear as your press some combinations of buttons. That's how the brilliant Slight-Jacking system will start working. The game has a pretty long lifespan as each level has 2 missions, each with different outcomes.
Gameplay Control is usually a problem in console games, this genre in particular. It'll be challenging, to say the least to control Shu's dog, Tsukasa with the "Slight-Jack" system. As the character can't use his eyes, you'll have to use the dog's vision to get though the mission. Wondered what Slight-Jack is? It is the character's ability to "tune" into anyone's vision, enabling him/her to see what the other sees. And by "anyone" I mean anyone! Even the monsters that are out to get you can have their vision tuned into. The numerous tutorials and help files will leave no question unanswered. It is very hard to master the entire set of abilities that each character has, given the fact that all the buttons are used. The control of the character relies very much on the analog stick, that being a slight disadvantage, as sudden camera angle rotations will confuse you.
You can use practically any item you find as a weapon, ranging from an umbrella to a metal pipe or a machine gun. The problem is that the character can carry only two weapons at a time. Having to face monsters that are sensitive to light, you'll quite hurry to find a flashlight if you want to dispose of these angry demons quickly. Now the characters can fight barehanded, drive cars and pick up the weapons of their enemies. There are over 10 playable characters and you can experience first-person view, third person view and over the shoulder view with all of them.
The AI can get you frustrated at times, as even if you selected an easy level of difficulty, you can get killed once of twice by the Shibitos (living dead) or Yamibitos (people of the dark). A positive aspect is the range of choices the players have to finish a level. Playing as a schoolgirl, you'll have to sneak around demons, while as a soldier, you'll shoot your way through the jungle of this frightening island. A flaw of this game is the fact that aiming works against the player...literally. Zombies can fire at you from any position, while you can only try to shoot them and I won't promise you'll hit them especially when the joystick starts vibrating.
Being more difficult makes it seem more real and more challenging at the same time, but it's a fine line between challenging and frustrating. Thank God for Sniper Mode, that comes in handy when you use certain machine guns or other firearms. The list of items surpasses 100 as you'll need to solve the quests by using newspapers, scrolls, letters, diaries and artefacts. You have an archive filled with audio and video samples to help you solve all the puzzles and they will be saved once you save the game. The map is very well designed and gives information about your position, the roads you can follow and points certain directions that help you in completing each task.
Video Since the beginning of the game you'll notice that the characters are, in fact, actors. At least, that's what we can say about their faces, as the rest of the body is only animation. The fog, rain and old-movie look of the cutscenes complete the nightmare scenery as you take a deep plunge in this adventure. The background is kind of disappointing however, because the environment seems to be the same as you progress through the mission. Throughout the missions, the heavy atmosphere is powered by the dark colors, lots of shades of gray and the lack of light in some places, the excess of it in others. The game uses the same engine as the first title of the series with better lighting and better cutscenes.
Sound As it happens in almost every horror survival game, the sound gives the chills needed to get the maximum out of this gaming experience. Heart beats accompany the vibration of your analog joystick, as enemies get closer and closer. Footstep sounds are the ingredient we've all needed to get a decent scare. Breaths, coughs, sighs, it's all there and very realistic! The voices are well done, expressing the emotions of the characters and having the genuine Japanese accent we've missed in the first game. A strange fact is that the subtitles don't match what it is said sometimes.
Of course you'll hear the siren, announcing nothing good, not good at all in fact, let's say only death... It's unbelievably frightening to hear the thoughts of zombies, characters or even your dog as you Slight-Jack them. There is not much music in the game, except for cutscenes, where superb orchestral works kick in.
Conclusion In 2005, Hollywood bought the rights to make a movie out of the game Siren. As the production is yet to appear, good news are coming from Sony because we'll see a Forbidden Siren, part 3 on Playstation 3. Overall, the game is better than its predecessor but still, it doesn't match the rivals of the same genre, like Resident Evil 4. However, completing it is not a walk in the park, as it can take days, if not weeks to end this nightmarish adventure. Forbidden Siren 2 is a good game, not to be missed, not even by the ones that roll their eyes when they hear about survival horror.
