Mitchell Dyer

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror

Syphon Filter is a long running Playstation series where players undertake the role of Gabe Logan, super-agent for “The Agency”. Gabe’s job is to take out any international threats via brute force… He’s a less smoothe talking James Bond, with a hard on for intense action. He makes his PSP debut in Dark Mirror.

The Good

To start, this is easily the best looking game on the PSP. Not necessarily when compared to the artistic puzzle games, but it nails human likenesses with formidable merit. Character models look fantastic, Gabe, and his enemies alike. Not one character is toned down because they are generic; all look just as good as the main characters. Environments as well, ranging from desert habitat, to snowy plains, also have a very heavy aesthetic feel to them, and really comfort your gaming experience. Cinematics are done as if someone was with them, holding a camera. A shakey camera makes for a more life-like effect, as you gaze wondrously into the PSP screen during the glorious cinemas.

How on earth can a third-person-shooter work with the PSP’s single analog nub? Wonderfully, in fact! Move forward, back, and strafe with the nub, and aim with the face buttons, or Vice-Versa, depending on your preference. R shoots, L aims/locks on, depending on the gun, as well as your settings. The D-Pad serves as the weapons hub, so weapon access is quick, and easy. These controls work astoundingly well in both the moderate length single player campaign, as well as online.

Single player has you blaze your guns in over 30 missions, as well as some bonus ones, as you find out more and more about a mysterious terrorist cell known as RED SECTION. The generic “terrorists seeking world domination” serves well here, and some added drama between Gabe and a new character adds to the intensity of the story. Recovering “Hidden Evidence” unlocks features, such as level and character art, behind the scenes, and music; doing well in missions will unlock more weapons for single player, and even more bonus missions, so there’s a ton to do. The score itself is fantastic, helmed by Mark Snow of X-Files fame, you’ll be happily gunning down foes to some orchestral sonatas, of wide variety. Voice overs are great, as expected, and there’s a lot of them, so they really push the story and realism on you.

Online play is loads of fun, with tons of weapons to find, as well as unlock as you rank up. Levels are memorable, and huge, so there’s lots of hiding places, and iconic points for epic gun fights with allies and enemies in 4 different modes, including deathmatch, objective, and the highly original Rogue Agent. You can form cells of your own to keep a tight knit group in tact, and annihilate others over both ad-hoc, and infrastructure.

The Not-So-Good

The only bad things to mention here are the lack of levels online… although the maps are great, there are very few (5) maps… they don’t get repetitious very fast though, considering their size, and different modes they offer.

Another thing is some of the online. Starting off is tough, as you get the worst possible weapons, and need to bust your ass to rank up, and get better ones. On top of that, this game has been out for some time, so it’s hard to find beginners to play with… Stacking is a problem, but mostly because you’ll be playing against cells. Only 8 to a room isn’t a huge problem, but more would have been nice. People online aren’t nice a lot of the time either… they whore grenades, and sawed off shotguns, making for a frustrating experience.

Conclusion

If you’re up for a great single player game, this is a great shooter. Find some friends online, and you can almost certainly avoid the minuscule problems that the online mode has. Tons of replay value is offered through unlockable missions and weapons, as well as a great online mode. This is a must have for any PSP owner.

9.5/10

The oldest of my PSPTribune pieces. I recall writing this one about a year and a half ago or so. It was a lot of fun.

Mitch