Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror Hands-On
Gabe Logan is back in fine style on the PSP
Tags: Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror Categories: PSP Previews, Previews
Posted by Jake McNeill on Jan 18th, 2006
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Sony’s Syphon Filter series has kinda’ been the overlooked middle child in the same family as Metal Gear Solid and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell. While still having a great focus on stealth and high-tech gadgets like those games, the Syphon Filter series has tended to focus less on avoiding enemies and more on the action, resulting in a game that’s far more light and arcadey than its contemporaries. While still fairly well-respected (in Metal Gear Solid 3, Snake even makes a tongue-in-cheek mention of series protagonist Gabe Logan alongside Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher), Syphon Filter hasn’t garnered anywhere near the same amount of attention as Konami’s and UbiSoft’s excellent stealth series, although that may very well change with Syphon Filter’s first mission on the PSP.
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Titled Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, the game makes a number of firsts on the PSP, which may very well bring it back into the limelight. For starters, this marks the first time any PSP title has been announced at the Consumer Electronic show, something remarkable in and of itself considering how few titles are unveiled at CES ever since the game industry split off into its own convention (E3, natch). It’s also one of the first titles to use the PSP headset that came with SOCOM: Fire Team Bravo. Also, this seems to be the first title that Sony has listed as featuring their “Game Sharing” feature, which suggests that the PSP will finally get the ability to play in multiplayer using only one copy of the game, something that DS users have enjoyed since the system launched. But perhaps the most notable first is that Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror will be the first stealth action game on the system, with the PSP Splinter Cell title still under a veil of secrecy and the Metal Gear series present on the PSP only in the strat-RPG Metal Gear Ac!d series.
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This isn’t to say that Syphon Filter deserves attention only in the absence of competition. Quite the contrary, actually, as the game is currently very sleek, and promises an experience that’s unique both to other stealth titles as well as previous titles in the series. To retain its playability on the limited controls of the PSP, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror seems to have had everything refined and streamlined. The analog nub is used for movement as one would expect, but aiming is now done with the face buttons (Square, Circle, etc.). As for the rest of the controls, they are generally context-sensitive. For example, under normal conditions, the D-Pad allows you to crouch and use a few menu shortcuts, but pull out your sniper rifle, and it becomes your zoom. Going into menus, selections are made almost exclusively with the face buttons, selecting from one of four corresponding options. It takes some getting used to, but it works well enough.
One of the other things players are bound to notice is that the game’s graphics are very nice, using impressive lighting effects for Gabe’s flashlight, as well as his heat vision, night vision, and the usual suspects in the genre (we’ve seen ‘em a million times by now, but somehow they’re still impressive to look at). Chraracter models and environments are also pretty nice-looking too, and if the level Sony had to demo was any indication, the areas are fairly large and inventive, too.
To give you an idea, the demo has Gabe infiltrating some sort of military complex under cover of night, with granite walls and chain link fence. As he blasts away enemies, he’ll eventually shoot out a lock on a section of chain link and proceed to climb down into a pit, only to work his way up a series of catwalks surrounding a radio tower inside. Once he’s near the top, he needs to use his high position to snipe enemies to clear a path for his longtime female sidekick, Lian, so she can get to another tower to hack into their system.
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The entire time, the sound was doing an impressive job, with Gabe and Lian trading comments over the comm, and enemies making comments like “He’s on the catwalk!” or “Where’d he go?”. The weapons also sounded quite nice, too, although the music wasn’t particularly memorable.
If I have one complaint about the game, it’s about the sniper rifle. For all the detail that was put into its use, the fact that some other weapons, like SMGs, automatically lock on to enemies makes the slow process of aiming and reloading with the rifle just not worth the effort. In fact, with the ability to lock on to targets, the game’s combat seemed a bit too simplified, but hopefully we’ll see it gain some depth before it releases.
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While not playable at the show, Sony promises Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror’s online mode will have a wealth of features, including the aforementioned headset voice support. In addition, players will be able to participate in a mission-based 2-versus-2 game mode that sounds a lot like Splinter Cell’s Mercs Vs. Spies.
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror was one of the pleasant surprises of the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, and definitely a title to look out for in this year’s PSP lineup. The title has a lot going for it and should please fans of the series, fans of the stealth genre, fans of action games, as well as fans of online titles. Snake and Sam may finally have some worthy competition again.
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Tags: Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
Posted by Jake McNeill on Jan 18th, 2006 and is filed under PSP Previews, Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
