Although it's plauged by small problems, Siren is still worth a download for horror devotees.
For starters, the camera can be a real nuisance. While the demo took place mainly in fairly enclosed areas, some sections of the game take place in more open spaces. The limited camera control really hampers the enjoyment to be had in those sections. Also, the friendly AI is dirt stupid. In one section early on, the player character is being escorted through a flooded village by an NPC. She told me to go up to the second story of a nearby building and kill a loitering enemy from above while she would wait out front. I went up the stairs and looked out of the second story window, and what do I see? The NPC is just standing idly by as an alerted enemy literally punches its arm through her torso. Game over. In other instances, the friendly AI has failed to lead me along when it was supposed to and stepped into a bear trap that it ordered me to place. Luckily, a lot of the game is spent wandering around without any friendly AI assistance, and even when the AI is around, it often does a decent job of at least staying out of the way. Still, it can really kill the mood in a horror game like this. I dare you to not laugh if and when an NPC gets its foot stuck in its own trap.
Despite these flaws, Siren plays host to a number of unique ideas. In addition to the typical survival horror gameplay, characters will gain a unique ability called sight jacking. This allows you to see through the eyes of any nearby enemies in order to see and hear what they do. This is not only useful when trying to be stealthy, but it's also creepy as heck. Just listening to the irregular breathing and strange moans of a shibito (Siren's equivilant of RE4's villagers) is enough to send shivers up the spine. Unfortunately, even this uniqe feature can cause problems sometimes. When a shibito spots your character and gives chase, the screen will split in half automatically in order to show you both your character and the pursuing shibito. It makes escape very difficult in Siren's over-darkened environments, not to mention the fact that it's a totally unneccesary feature. I know that the shibito is chasing me; I don't need to see it from two different viewpoints.
Siren may not be sounding too good right now, but as mentioned before, there are good ideas buried under the gameplay quirks. The environments are very cool and very rustic in style. They make for an excellent place to get the crap scared out of you. The enemies are also well done. They make strange, almost insect like noises as they go about everyday tasks. Like in RE4, they might seem normal if viewed from a distance, but up close and personal it's clear that they're seriously messed up.
The graphics, while not great when compared to Blu-Ray based games, are impressive for a downloadable game. The entire game is very dark, which serves to simultaneously cover up some graphical rough spots and annoy the player by obscuring most things that aren't directly in front of you.
Finally, while I had heard that the game has a great story, I found that a lot of it was either glossed over or counterintuitive to the character's motives. For example, the game throws you right into the deep end when you start it up, flanked by shibito in the middle of a rainy forest. If you want to get more info on how exactly they ended up there and why, you must unlock the info by performing tasks in game. Occasionally, such as throughout the entire first episode, the objectives make absolutely no sense from the perspective of the characters and only serve to put you in harm's way.
In conclusion, Siren can be a frightening and gripping game, but it can also be frustrating and unintuitive. I often feel as though I'm playing through the game based on a hope for what it could have been or could turn out to be, and not enjoying it based on its own merits. It certainly can be a cool game, but is it worth $40? Maybe not. Many horror afficionados are probably used to putting up with somewhat archaic controls, and it's clear that this game is developing a bit of a fanbase in the Siren forums. If you consider yourself a hardcore horror gamer, it will likely be worth downloading at least the first four episodes in order to see how you like it.
Graphics: 8.5/10
Sound: 9/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Entertainment: 6.75/10