Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror (2006) 5/10
This was my first Syphon Filter game. I'd heard in the past this series tried to ape Metal Gear. After playing Dark Mirror, I disagree with that assessment. If this Syphon Filter is indicative of earlier entries, Syphon Filter is much closer to Splinter Cell than Metal Gear. Albeit a poor man's Splinter Cell, with a heavy dose of Rambo in lieu of actual stealth mechanics. (I do admire how cold blooded Gabriel Logan is versus say Sam Fisher or Snake.) So peek around corners, pull off head shots, plant some C4. You know, spook stuff.
When Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror released in 2006, it was met with great fanfare due to its technical accomplishments. Here was a handheld PSP game with console quality graphics and competent controls. Yes, the graphics are impressive for the time and technical limitations, and the controls are very intuitive. (These are the controls Peace Walker should have had.) I guess ten years ago, that was enough to garner universal 9/10s from the gaming press echo chamber. But strip away the shiny veneer and you're left with a rather tepid third person shooter. Play through an hour of Dark Mirror, and you might as well have played the whole game.
Yes the biggest issue here is sheer repetitiveness. Mission objectives are often bland, with uninspired level design, filled with bullet sponge generic bad guys, which you must murder hundreds of. The player is given no real impetus due to an impenetrable plot that makes little sense. And worse yet, often the developers assault the player with punitive scenario designs, that were clearly thought up for challenge alone, with little regard to actually being enjoyable to endure. I've beaten many Metal Gears and nearly every Splinter Cell game, but Dark Mirror was far more difficult than any of those... except not in a sensible way. I could write an essay on how disgustingly dumb many of this game's scenarios' designs are. But let's just skip that, and appreciate I took the hit so you don't have to.
Based on this one series' entry, it's no surprise to me that Sony hasn't produced another Syphon Filter in nearly a decade. The stealth espionage action genre is all but dead now, and Syphon Filter certainly wasn't doing anything to evolve the equation. Besides, only a year prior Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory had already pushed the genre to its apex. Compared to that masterpiece, Dark Mirror is an angry little wannabe. Yet the reflection was just dark enough that most couldn't see the lackluster truth.
