Retro Review - Syphon Filter
There is no doubt that the old but dear PlayStation 1 brought with it a large number of titles that today are considered the best of that era. After the departure of the mythical Metal Gear Solid, the famous spy game that revolutionized the videogame industry and inspired a large number of people around the world, not much later would come another game very similar to Metal Gear Solid, although playable quite a difference, however it is a good game of espionage and action.
Syphon Filter has an argument very similar to any agent 007 movie, full of action and shots everywhere, however it is an argument that is very well taken throughout the duration of the game.
Here we embody Gabriel Logan, a member of an agency of secret agents who are responsible for saving the world, each of these agents are very well trained in the art of fighting and the use of firearms. And very much in the style of Agent 007 movies, Gabriel Logan is the best member of this company. But for the history of this game to develop there must always be a villain to defeat. In this case the villain is named: Erich Rhoemer, this man is an internationally known terrorist and his plan is to spread the most deadly virus in the world, the virus is called Syphon Filter and has the characteristic that it can be manipulated so that it can only affect certain types of people, therefore besides being a highly deadly virus, it is dangerous due to its manipulable characteristics.
Therefore the agency sends Gabriel Logan, its best member to stop the plans of propagation of said virus and to end the villain. As I said before, the plot of this game resembles pretty much any agent 007 movie, but the story develops well, as we know other secondary villains, as well as we know characters that will help us during much of the game .
Because Syphon Filter has certain similarities in terms of gender with Metal Gear Solid, it is logical to be compared in many aspects, especially in its graphic section. In Metal Gear Solid we can see a great graphic quality in all its scenarios, a game that knew how to push the PlayStation 1 limit, however Siphon Filter is not far behind, in this game we can see an excellent graphic quality (by the standards of the date) that has nothing to envy his "rival" (Metal Gear Solid). The Siphon Filter scenarios are wide and have great details around them.
It also has character modeling quite adequate for the type of game it is, maintaining a level of realism quite acceptable for the year that came out this game. The animations of the characters at the time of running, shooting or attacking are fluid and denote naturalness, although this game has a graphic detail that is quite obvious to the eye, is that when approaching the camera to a certain place or character , it shows the loss of quality in the textures, although it is understandable in a certain sense, because this is a trick that was used to improve the performance of any game that needs to show on screen a large number of objects or characters, all this is so that the playable experience is not compromised due to possible slowdowns or drops of fps.
Again I must compare Syphon Filter with Metal Gear Solid, in fact in the next aspect, which is its playability I will also compare it, but in this case I will talk about the sound section. In Syphon Filter we find a good quality in their melodies, they are catchy and fit perfectly to the world that wants to present us this game, melodies that help set the stage and that they know how to create from moments of tension to moments of pure action, but it does not have a soundtrack from the other world either, because if we compare it with the excellent melodies that we can hear in Metal Gear Solid, they are unfortunately quite generic, but that does not mean they are good enough and help the player to immerse this game. The best aspect of the sound of this game are the sound effects on the weapons, since they are heard quite realistically.
Syphon Filter is an espionage game, but above all it is an action game and we must clarify that it is very different from Metal Gear Solid in many aspects, but above all in its playable aspect. Siphon Filter unlike Metal Gear Solid, is full of action, that is, many times in Metal Gear Solid, we must cross scenarios with the utmost caution possible or alerting the least amount of enemies, although we can also go through areas firing at every enemy that hits us, but in Metal Gear Solid we are always directed to go with caution, instead in Siphon Filter we can go by zones eliminating any enemy that comes up without any problem, firing and eliminating each enemy in the best way we can think of, simply by fulfilling our mission.
This is a pretty fun game, we have a lot of freedom of movement in the scenarios, running, shooting are the actions we will perform throughout the duration of the game, always alert to the large number of enemies that appear in each scenario and that any false movement, resulted in the death of our character, therefore we should learn to control our character well, in the same way the weapons that we have at our disposal to be able to fulfill our mission.
Syphon Filter is a game with its own personality, and compare it with Metal Gear Solid is understandable because in terms of gender are similar, but it is unfair because the way in which this game poses a world where our job is to be spies and we must comply with missions imposed by some agency, it is totally different. Siphon Filter goes more towards the direction of movies like agent 007, but with more action. It is a highly recommended game even today and a jewel of the old but dear PlayStation 1.
