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PushSquare Review Golden Oldies: Syphon Filter on PSone.

Syphon Filter is a thrilling third-person shooter that’s greater than the sum of its parts despite having the odd unwieldy level design choice.

Moulding the critical ideas from the likes of the N64’s Goldeneye and the Playstation’s very own Metal Gear Solid, Syphon Filter aims to provide a thrilling action B-movie type experience by placing you in the shoes of Washington’s very own Gabe Logan. Despite some FMV cut-scene sequences, story is pretty light in Syphon Filter and as such you’re pretty much thrown into the action from the off.

Playing from a third-person perspective, Syphon Filter controls pretty well despite a lack of analogue control. The D-Pad control means at times there’s a lack of accuracy in Gabe’s movement but it’s nothing that you can’t get used to. Despite this picking off enemies is fairly accurate in both first-person or third-person. Hitting L1 allows you to enter the first-person where scoring headshots is ultimately satisfying. Alternatively the game provides some decent auto-aim in third-person mode, allowing enemies to be taken out with relative ease, without making the game too simple.

Missions are fairly varied throughout the experience. Sometimes they’ll require you to simply chase down a guy, where at other times you’ll find yourself tagging bombs and holding off the enemies charging it. The game very much achieves its roller-coaster mandate and has some truly excellent pacing throughout the relatively short experience.

The game does occasionally feel blocked-in or linear, but of course this comes down to limitations of the PSone’s hardware and also the developer’s desire to create a game more focused with cinema than anything else.

Despite numerous flaws in design and confusing objectives, Syphon Filter remains an enjoyable experience throughout thanks to its cinematic style and excellent gunplay. It may take a lot of its ideas from elsewhere, but it moulds them into such a cohesive product that it’s hard not to be impressed with the gameplay on offer.

Originally released: July 9th, 1999.
PushSquare review written: June 24th, 2009.