Dark Mirror is a great achievement on every way, and proves to be one of the best PSP games ever.

User Rating: 9.5 | Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror PSP
By yeah_93 | Review Date:
When i first downloaded the demo, I saw the first FMV and said "Are those PSP graphics?" I felt tricked. But once i passed the long cutscene, and put my fingers on the, I thought I was standing before a great game. But the game then proved me wrong. Not only I was playing the Then-best-looking game on the system, but also one masterpice achievement for the PSP. But it wasn't only that. The game is a complex cross between stealth, action, and a shooter, the most proficient video games genres. It's somewhat a cross between Metal Gear Solid (Without hour-long cutsecenes), and Uncharted (Without having to look for treasures). Dark Mirror features a complex control scheme, that I easily got with, because I had played Medal of Honor on PSP. You have to use every button of the PSP, with Triangle, Circle, Cross and Square to look, the Analog Stick to move, Up button to Recharge and Use, Left to Select weapons, Right to select a complex Catalog of Visors that will be very useful, and Down to, guess what? Crouch! What a surprise. The character you play as, Gabe Logan, can easliy stick to the walls to perform sneaking, and cover parts. Aiming your gun is done with the L button, but in this game, it's easier to target-lock with the same button. Dark Mirror features stealth-based bameplay, as using Silenced Guns, or poisoned darts, or simply, the soldier's last resort, the knife.

When remaining undetected, Gabe can sneak behind an enemy, and snap his neck from behind, or knife him, or to get things easier, aim to the head, and perform a headshot with a silenced gun. Some levels are entirely Stealth missions. But if there is something the Metal Gear Solid has thaught us, apart of free will and nuclear strickes, is that Stealth doesn't live forever. And that's were the game's charm will go on. If you are discovered, things won't get easy if you hide and wait for the patrols to pass. Enemies will be fully awared of you, and you have to suffer that pain for the rest of the level. AI in this game are intelligent, always covering a mate that's trying to reach you, and kill you in point blank range. Hardcore fans will be satisfied of some parts of intense run and gun sequences, long range battles, and fast paced battles. However, you are not Terminator, meaning that you'll have to think twice before going to an unexplored area without seeing it. First of all this isn't Call of Duty on Recruit difficulty, as you don't have an almost interminable life and you can't regenerate. Run into a place with an enemy hiding, at point blank range will almost always mean one thing: You are a dead man. Also the numerous (And very Frustrating) invisible-laser mines, are on almost every level, so you have to either disarm it or shoot it far away to make it explode.

On the graphics part, Dark Mirror is ALMOST perfect at it except from one thing: It's particulary not locked framerate. On high action sequenes, it will slow down a little and make it somewhat frustrating. Also the smoke seems very fake, and could've been done better. Voice acting is top-notch always found in the game. James Arnold Taylor delivers great speechs as Gabe Logan, while TC Carson is found doing a scary voice over of Touchstone. When it comes abut the story, Dark Mirror is a game with a deep plot (Not like Metal Gear Solid 2's mess), features great FMVs and cutscenes, dialogues everywhere.

It also delivers a greatly difficult, but epic, Final Boss fights and finals on a game. Singularity's speech and the music, as well as the fast paced battle, made me replay this mission every time I turned on my PSP. But that mission is cut short to my favorite mission: The Sniping mission on Narborne. I think that little mission was enough to put the M rating to the game. Here you do NOT play as Gabe, but an old soldier: Stone. He is sent in an assassination mission (Score one for rating M!), to kill Gabe's archenemy: Mara Aramov, and Elsa, a doctor friend of hers. When you eliminate all of Mara's guards with headshots (Score 2 rating M), Elsa proceeds to enter Mara's apartment. But it turns out something different. When she came up, both women were in underwear (That's for you rating M!), and inmediately started kissig each other (Bloody hell that was your lucky day rating M). You can't imagine my face when I saw that little scene, I was completedly shocked, as Stone was. Then Mara begins to insult Elsa. So there are different endings. 1st: You headshot both, with a single bullet, and the mission ends, cleanly. 2st: You only kill Elsa and then Mara gets out anf starts shooting you with a Desert Eagle. Then, Stone and Mara begin to start an "explicit interchange of insults" (Long live rating M!) then you kill her. 3rd: You fail your shots and they hide. Mara believes that Elsa sent an Assassin to kill her, so she grabs her gun, shoots her, and goes down with her pistol, shooting at you, the same way as the 2nd way. Or my favorite, the 4th: You only shoot Mara, and Elsa escapes runing back the buildind, as you can't see her. Then a hornet sounds, a car breaking is done, and a crack sound, meaning the car killed Elsa.

However, Dark Mirror, fails to deliver a fairly-long game to the PSP. It's decent lenght makes the player wish that the game had at least 6 missions more. Althought Extras, Challenges, Other levels are great aditions, Dark Mirror could, and should have been a longer game, wich I think with that done, it wouldn't only be the Best PSP game ever, but one of the best handled games ever created. With that said, Dark Mirror is a great achievement on every way, and proves to be one of the best PSP games ever. Don't doubt buying it if you have a PSP

Other Helpful Reviews for Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror

Load Comments (0)