Syphon Filter Dark Mirror

“Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror” (PSP) Game Review « Brentiverse ...

WHAT I LOVED:

- The enjoyable stealth action gameplay can be approached however the player chooses, especially with a healthy variety of tools at your disposal!

- The production value is quite considerable, with loads of slick-looking cutscenes and great voice acting!

- The thrilling campaign takes you across the world and into a variety of intense situations, making it consistently interesting and fun.

- The online multiplayer is a blast, and provides an unusually impressive early-era multiplayer suite for the PSP!

- The controls actually aren’t too bad, despite the somewhat limited PSP button scheme compared to the PlayStation consoles.

- Some of the possible deaths are hilariously gruesome, especially when you can push enemies into environmental hazards. The fact that you can taser enemies until they burst into flames is ridiculous and amazing at the same time too!

WHAT I DIDN’T SO MUCH:

- Enemy AI can be rather suspect at times, since some enemies intelligently use cover and flank tactics, while others dumbly stand in the open and charge right into your gunfire (and they’re lousy shots much of the time to boot).

- The guns aren’t very satisfying to shoot, since they sound weak and underwhelming.

- Gabe Logan’s cover controls can be too sticky and stiff during chaotic gunfights, especially when enemies try and charge you.

AND HERE’S THE FULL REVIEW:

When I was a really stubbornly narrow-minded gamer back in my first year of high school (I know, I’m not proud of that dark time either), I mainly stuck to my flagship genres of RPGs, platformers and action-adventures (whenever I wasn’t dragged to a Halo LAN party anyway, something I enjoy much more as an adult than I ever did as a teenager). Despite that, I had to incessantly hear my PlayStation fanboy friends continually talk about a particular series of shooters on the original PlayStation (even though the PS2 was well on the market at that point, and most of the cool kids were playing SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals on it). I remember rolling my eyes at these stories every time I heard them, because I wasn’t a shooter guy back then (unlike now, where I play them almost as much as my favourite genres). This series was Syphon Filter, and my friends never shut up about it. I couldn’t tell you the various canonical bits that they continually spewed, but I remember being denounced repeatedly for refusing to track down copies of the PSX trilogy of Syphon Filter games (which are thankfully downloadable off of the PlayStation Store now for PSP and PS3 at my convenience). After graduating and going into the adult world, it seems that fate’s hand was at work when I accompanied my mother shopping for some Christmas gifts. We were in HMV, and she got a DVD for one of my siblings that was in the 2 for $20 section. Since there was a PSP game in that same section (oddly by its lonesome), she picked it up, brought it to me, and asked if I’d heard of “Syphon Filter”. Oh, you bet I’d heard of Syphon Filter, Mom! She said that I could get the game along with the DVD so that she would save some money, so I did so, deciding to give it a go while my family enjoys the sights of Paris and I’m at home pet-sitting. I popped the tiny disc into my PSP and expected an action-packed shooter experience that would do justice to those incessant tales of Syphon Filter glory that my high school buddies were so proud of. Honestly, after having beaten the game on Normal difficulty and sitting through the ending and credit roll… that is what I got. I have to hand it to my old high school pals, they were right about this series. It is a lot of fun, and I actually am a bit ashamed that I never got into it sooner. Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, the first of two Syphon Filter games released for the PSP (both of which also having received noticeably inferior and forced PS2 ports as well), is actually one of the most impressive shooters that I’ve ever experienced on the system. Granted, most of my PSP shooter experience is relegated to the Metal Gear Solid titles, but hey, those aren’t easy acts to follow, especially not the excellent Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker! In terms of its single-player campaign and its surprisingly impressive online multiplayer, SFDM is an excellent PSP game that any hardcore gaming owner of Sony’s handheld platform would do well to add to their collection, especially considering the low, low price (my copy was $10 with that DVD, even though my mother paid for it, so I ultimately got it for free). There’s the odd nitpick, since the controls, while effective, take some getting used to, and many of the enemies are surprisingly idiotic for a game that’s so otherwise polished to a sheen, but as a thrilling, fully-featured package, SFDM represents one of the best bargains that any shooter fan could track down for their PSP!

Syphon Filter, List of Characters in the Syphon Filter Series, Syphon Filter, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain

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The Book of Games Volume 2, The Ultimate Reference on PC & Video Games

Characters in the Syphon Filter Series