#syphon filter

'Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain'

[PS2] [AUSTRALIA] [MAGAZINE] [2004]

"Ever since the first title, it was immediately clear that the Syphon Filter series largely lived in the shadow of Metal Gear Solid despite its best efforts, and it had lost much of its luster by the time The Omega Strain released. The production is unconvincing, the gameplay is weighed down by the uninspired AI, and the scenario references too much from the previous titles, making it alienating for new players. In hindsight, it's clear that this entry in the series marked the beginning of the end. At least the online multiplayer has the merit of adding a little freshness top the experience." ~PlayStation 2 Anthology (Vol. 03)

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I've recently found myself playing through the Syphon Filter games on the original Playstation. I knew about the series beforehand, but I wasn't particularly familiar with them. My experience with the Playstation as a kid was mostly occupied with more family friendly alternatives – often of the animal mascot variety. My mom (bless her) kept an eye on my playing habits and wouldn't even get me Final Fantasy VII because of the gruff guy with a gun for an arm. The most gratuitous violence I ever saw on the machine at the time was probably Bomberman exploding into nothingness. A gruesome way to go for sure, but harmless cartoon shenanigans nonetheless.

It's safe to say that Syphon Filter (1999) is decidedly more violent than anything I ever got my hands on as a tiny toddler child. As secret agent Gabe Logan you get to blow the heads off of terrorists with your handy arsenal of weapons, while pixelated blood splatters all over the place. A true American in other words. I would've been 8 years old at the time, so you can bet your behind that my dear mother would've made sure I never so much as saw a glimpse of Gabe's adventures in our household. But I am an adult now, and she can't stop me anymore even if she tried!

It's a good thing she can't, because Syphon Filter turned out to be exactly the kind of uncompromising I love to see while digging through the Playstation library. As a pioneer among the stealth action genre it carved its own uncertain path and inevitably ended up somewhat rough around the edges. A quality I can appreciate. It has a scrappy, albeit clunky personality that charms me like few modern games can. There's just something special about its relentless difficulty spikes and lack of conveyance that you rarely find in video games these days. It's the kind of game that will drive some players up the metaphorical walls – it certainly got me a few times. The gosh darn Catacombs, man. If you know you know.

I'd like to say that I had a thoroughly good time throughout, but it did take me a little while to really 'get it' so to speak. Syphon Filter demands your full attention and a single mistake is all it takes to be thrown back to a previous checkpoint. It has a nasty habit of spawning enemies behind your back, lots of them require headshots to effectively go down and once your armour is depleted you're pretty much done for. The precision and quick reflexes expected of you can be infuriating, once you've died from the same grenade-throwing enemy ten times in a row you're going to be on the verge of screaming. And I freaking love it.

Having persevered the numerous challenges is such a satisfying accomplishment. The game lingered in my mind, the more I thought about it the more I ended up liking it. By the time I started playing Syphon Filter 2 (2000) I was finally in tune with the developers' sense of brutal, yet rewarding, difficulty. I understood that the game kicking my ass wasn't merely an accident born from limitations and aged design sensibilities – it was the intention. There's a certain rawness to an old game that doesn't pull any punches without being so unfair as to make it impossible to beat. I commend them for believing in the player enough to figure the game out on their own, even if it might drive some to tears.

For those who end up vibing with Syphon Filter though there's a lot of fun to be had. The first three games are filled to the brim with varied locations to explore and interesting scenarios to participate in. The gothic cathedral, the burning subway station and the expo center are all memorable places that will be stuck in my brain for a long time. I often found myself pushing through the challenges to be able to see where the espionage adventure would take me next. There's always something exciting to see around every corner.

When I originally wrote about the first game over on Backloggd I lightly criticised it for its nasty difficulty spikes and conveyance issues. There is admittedly a lot of trial and error in these games, and you often find yourself roaming around unsure what to do. Syphon Filter 3 (2001) on the other hand surprised me with its easier difficulty and willingness to point the player in the right direction. That isn't necessarily a bad development, if anything it shows that the series was moving forward. However, after becoming fairly proficient at the first two's bullshit I couldn't help but feel like something was missing. Don't get me wrong it's still a great game with plenty of challenging sections, but perhaps the first two beat me so hard that I became some kind of weird, involuntary Syphon Filter purist.

Whether that is true or not I do think there is something to be said for the entertainment value of being destroyed by and eventually conquering a really good video game. I've started to play Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror (2006) on the PSP, which obviously has a modern polish that these dinky PS1 games simply lack. It's certainly more playable, but that also means that it has lost some of the immaculate grit that defined the original. It's easy to dismiss an old relic like Syphon Filter based entirely on its harsh indifference to the player, the way it causes us grief in ways that most Sony published games rarely do anymore. But that's also part of its identity, what makes it special and in some sense also fun.