Has its flaws, but it still fun.
User Rating: 7 | Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror PS2
I love the Syphon Filter series. The PSX games were just the right mix of stealth and gunplay, requiring you to be half Sam Fischer and half Arnold Schwarzenegger. In my book, it's second in stealth action only to Metal Gear Solid. Dark Mirror is designed for the PSP, and it shows. Levels are short and sweet, as is the entire game, which I can complete in under 2 hours (not counting loading screens). While I can appreciate not changing the level design for the transfer to PS2, what bothers me is the graphics. Character models look fine, and Gabe Logan himself looks quite well done but all the attention to this model does is bring out the muddy textures and so-so enemy models and effects that look they should still be on the portable. The story also bothered me at times, ranging from unimportant to convoluted to difficult to follow. especially the constant use and swapping of acronyms my the characters. Also Gabe still has his lazy, emotionless voice annoying me and giving the character no depth whatsoever, but I suppose with so many games with this voice, there's no point in changing it. I was hoping they'd do away with it after changing the voice actor for Omega Strain, but oh well. Gunplay is just as fun as the PSX counterparts, and using the Dpad to switch weapons and goggles works very well. The thing that surprised me the most about this game is the escort missions, which weren't near as much of a bother as I expected. While you don't have very robust commands to give your companion, you don't really need them. It basically equates to "come here" "hide" "cover me" and "stop being a retard you UN poopmuncher", and all of them work as advertised with little problem (except the retard one. it'll keep him alive, but he'll do something stupid later). Only thing that really bothered me is constantly having to stop gameplay to change my goggles to look for mines or the like. I would have liked a cycle option so I don't have to bring everything to a screeching halt to change goggles or weapons. And the ending. SPOILERSPOILERSPOILER Turns out this Syphon Filter game has nothing to do with Syphon Filter at all, just some really nasty nerve gas that can take out half of Europe SPOILER IS OVER oh also the game is way too easy, even on the highest difficulty. Playing through once on easy will give you all the skill you need to finish the game on hard, provided you keep your wits about you and don't do too many incredibly stupid things (like thinking for even a second you can outrun a train for instance). One nice thing that can be credited to this being designed as a portable is Mission Mode, which allows you to play any mission by itself with a custom loadout, which can be added to by going back and scoring things like kills with your dart gun, headshots, and so forth. There's also extra missions which are either damn hard to unlock or just pointless. All in all though, it's well worth the time, money, and energy I've put into it, and it gave me the motivation to re-buy the PSX games.
