Official Score
Overall - 30%
30%
Siren Head: Awakening might feature a new urban legend, but the gameplay is something horror junkies have seen countless times before. It simply doesn't do justice to the horrific creature.
For horror fans, Slenderman is so 2009 – the new horror legend is Trevor Henderson’s Siren Head. Prisma Games puts this icon in the spotlight with their new steam title Siren Head: Awakening. Should players dive into its world, or is this game frighteningly bad?
Siren Head: Awakening Review
Things are rough right from the get-go in Siren Head: Awakening – your car has broken down in the middle of nowhere. Not one to take things lying down, players set out into the wintery wilderness in search of a gas canister, a battery, an oil canister, and a spark plug. However, this proves to be far easier said than done.
This would be challenging enough in the dead of night where you can barely see in front of you, but an evil creature known as Siren Head roams the woods, killing anybody that stands in his way. The moment you pick up your first item, the hunt is on. Players must be mindful of the Emergency Broadcast System alarm, hiding and running as much as their stamina meter will allow until the coast is clear.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s been done to death countless times before. While there is tension from an ever-imposing threat, the only difference here is the creature that is after you. If anything, one could mistake this title as an entry from the Slenderman series if one did not know any better. Even the control scheme is similar, with players interacting with the environment and making use of a flashlight to light their way. As a result, this game feels tired from the get-go.
The world found here doesn’t fare much better. Everything is rendered in a low-poly style, and stumbling around in the dark is an exercise in patience. While players can discover notes along the way, most of the surroundings are trees with the occasional shed, bus, or gas station. It can take upwards of a minute to find anything of note, and it can be easy to get lost due to the lack of detail. This lack of personality means that its world could have just as well fit in dozens of other games that are out on the market today.
After much stumbling around, finding all of the parts and escaping Siren Head: Awakening’s nightmare takes about 30 minutes on its normal difficulty setting. A custom difficulty setting can be unlocked, along with a number of achievements for playing on certain difficulty settings and collecting notes.
Siren Head: Awakening might feature a new urban legend, but the gameplay is something horror junkies have seen countless times before. It simply doesn’t do justice to the horrific creature.
