I love the PS1. I still buy and play games for it, and I think many PS1 releases have aged well. Has Syphon Filter? After finishing the game for the first time, that’s the question I’m struggling with. It’s an interesting game in a genre I love, but the clunky controls are at odds with the demanding action, which can result in an uneven and frustrating experience.
Upon release, Syphon Filter was often compared to Metal Gear Solid, due to being on the same platform and sharing similar aesthetics. But to me, SF always felt closer to James Bond games: at its best, Goldeneye on N64 and at its worst, Tomorrow Never Dies on PS1.
Aesthetically, Syphon Filter is quintessentially PS1. The pulsating electronic soundtrack and warped, wobbly polygons are exactly how you remember video games in 1999. But the era nostalgia may wear off quickly once you start playing.
Despite some stealth-esque sections, this is essentially a third-person shooter. Enemies often come in waves from above, below, and behind and will hit you from off-screen before you’re even aware of their presence. This results in a lot of trial and error through sections, which wouldn’t be so bad if the controls were a bit more smooth and responsive.
Syphon Filter’s protagonist, Gabe Logan, doesn’t control quite as stiffly as Lara Croft in the PS1 Tomb Raider games, but it’s close. And while Lara’s adventures were designed around her rigid, grid-based movement, Syphon Filter is full of intense firefights that demand precise positioning and aiming. Checkpoints are few and far between, and even with save states and rewind on the PS4/PS5 versions, the game can be incredibly frustrating.
The developers (Eidetic, developers of Bubsy 3D who would later become Bend Studio) do give you some useful tools for combat, like a radar. There are also rudimentary auto-aim and lock-on features. However, later in the game, most enemies will be wearing flak jackets which make those two features essentially useless. During these shootouts you’re expected to aim manually in order to get headshots, which do become somewhat easier with practice (and are immensely satisfying).
This is a fairly story-heavy game, but it doesn’t fare very well in that department. The overall plot is full of the types of geopolitical cliches that you’d find in a Tom Clancy or Call of Duty game. There’s a foreign terrorist, a bioweapon, and an elite American soldier to stop them. While Metal Gear Solid (and to a lesser degree, Bond and Mission Impossible) twists and subverts these cliches, Syphon Filter plays it straight.
While the story may not be memorable, the locations are. From climbing atop a dinosaur exhibit in a museum to shooting out stained glass windows in an abandoned cathedral, the game’s environments may not make a lot of logical sense, but are quite inspired. It’s a shame that the last quarter of the game is mostly spent in dark, dingy caves.
The CG cutscenes are solid for the era, but the voice acting is as stiff as the controls. It’s not quite the B-movie vibes of Resident Evil, but releasing post-Metal Gear Solid didn’t do Syphon Filter any favors in this department. Gabe and Lian sound good at least.
One last thing about Gabe: he’s kind of a son of a bitch. He can be weirdly brutal at times, and one mission stands out in particular. When infiltrating the villain’s stronghold, there are scientists experimenting on people with the virus. When you encounter the scientists, most are unarmed and will surrender, but one of your objectives for the mission is to kill all of them, so you have to do a whole lot of executing defenseless men who are pleading to be spared.
Like Goldeneye, the mission objectives are non-negotiable. Get to the end of the level, but you’ve only killed 7 out of 8 scientists? You’re not leaving. More than once I got to the exit, only to have to truck it back to the beginning in search of something I missed, oftentimes a 20+ minute process. At least enemies don’t respawn.
Despite my criticisms, I’m a sucker for spy thrillers in any medium. I love everything from le Carré to Bond, and Syphon Filter certainly falls close to the latter. While it feels dated in some ways, I still enjoyed Syphon Filter enough to see it through. Plus, it lays the groundwork for two truly excellent PSP games down the road (more on those to come). Has Syphon Filter aged well? No. Is it worth playing? If you’re a fan of the genres (third person shooters and spy fiction), absolutely.
All screenshots and gameplay here were captured from the PS5 digital version of the game.
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