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Gabe Logan is back and is ready to kick more ass in his newest title.
October 10, 2007 | 6:56 PM PSTby: Matt Furtado
AMN's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game's About
Syphon Filter has been one of Sony's premier franchises for the PlayStation line. Despite the series having several rather disappointing titles on the PS2, Sony has proven that the Syphon Filter series is far from dead with the PSP.
Gabe Logan is back and ready for some intense stealth-action in his latest adventure in Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow. Logan's Shadow pins Gabe up against a group of Syrian terrorists who have their eye on a top-secret military weapon and the possibility, that his long time partner, Lian Xing is a double agent. Without those two main problems, the government no longer trusts you and blames you for the weapon being taken by the Syrians.
What's Hot
Gabe Logan is one badass guy and the game really reflects that. With a variety of weapons at your disposal and numerous ways to take care of enemies, the action of this title is simply wonderful. Newly added to this title is the addition of blind firing at enemies to make them fall back into cover. Think Gears of War but not quite as over-dramatic. The enemies will often push forward on your location so blind firing will become a necessity as the game continues. This really makes thing more intense and really shines on the handheld scene where good AI isn't a common thing.
To maintain these dangerous enemies, Gabe has a variety of weapons in his arsenal. Weapons include 9mm rounds, poison darts, explosive darts, sniper rifles, assault weapons, and other types. With all these weapons at your disposal, you can sneak around a level without getting into an intense firefight with the use of a sniper rifle or the darts. Of course, this also gives you the option of getting into battles and using the heavier powered weapons like an assault rifle. Each weapon also has several different modes such as automatic, semi-automatic, or burst shots. Since the game isn't extremely over-the-top with ammo, taking advantage of the different shooting modes is a great feature to have at your own will.
The single-player campaign is also one of the best put together in any game. Spanning over 6 chapters with several sub-sections within each chapter, this is anything but a short game. Each chapter will put Gabe in different locations, which will present new problems to solve and unique obstacle to overcome. The opening mission takes place in several locations such as in a helicopter shooting enemies on the bridge of a battleship and then moves into the ship itself. As the game continues you'll find yourself battling enemies under water in a wet suit and other unique locations. This is a great feeling because you'll never feel like you've been there before or feel like you are replaying the same level over and over again.
New to the title are the interactive moments, which are basically push button sequences. In certain areas of the game you'll be prompted to push a series of buttons to complete a task such as opening a gate or moving underwater mines. This makes the action of doing something a little more satisfying than just hitting the button once and makes it feel more like a console title.
Once you complete the single-player campaign it's time to jump into the multiplayer mode. Dark Mirror featured one of the best multiplayer experiences on the handheld scene at the time. Well fans of the Dark Mirrors multiplayer will be happy to know that it is fully intact but is more refined this time around. The game still features the same quick paced 8-player battles over either Ad/Hoc or Infrastructure mode. With modes such as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Rogue Agent, and the new Retrieval, and Sabotage modes. As you would have guess, Retrieval is a Capture the Flag type game where you and teammates will try to collect a specific item and bring it back to a base. Sabotage, replacing Dark Mirrors Objective Mode, has players performing specific tasks, such as collecting weapons while the opposing team tries to stop you. With seven maps to choose from, some of which return from Dark Mirror, the game offers some variety. The old maps have received some updates to include the new water base combat.
One thing that everyone will notice is that Logan's Shadow is an incredibly beautiful game to look at. The game is remarkable on a technical standpoint and shows off that the PSP truly is a PS2 in pocket form. Gabe's character model is highly detailed and smooth. The environments all look great and the PSP screen really shows off the game well. The underwater segments of the game are remarkable, to say the least. While underwater you'll see a stream of air bubbles appear when a weapon is fired and the lighting underwater is truly gorgeous to look at. This looks identical if not better than some PS2 titles.
The soundtrack is also top-notch. The musical score and voice-acting are among the best ever conducted in a game. The music will bring you into the game and really make you feel like you are in the action. During the more dramatic parts the music picks up and put you in Gabe's place. The voice-acting is also remarkable. Gabe and crew all sound great and the lip-synching is nearly perfect.
What's Not
The game controls exactly the same as Dark Mirror did. The analog stick will control Gabe whereas the face buttons will control where he looks. Even though the controls do take sometime to get use to use fluidly, it is hardly a major problem.
One other minor problem is when trying to take cover against a box or wall you'll need to double-tap the analog stick up for him to get into the cover position. Had the developers used a button to initiate this action it would have made things a little easier but it is a minor problem.
Final Word
Syphon Filter Logan's Shadow improves on nearly aspect of Dark Mirror. The multiplayer is more refined and with two new modes the multiplayer will be used a lot in the future. The single-player experience is deep and very entertaining. This is a game you can pick up and play through again in the future. Logan's Shadow is one, if not the best PSP game released all year. If Halo 3 is the best multiplayer title for consoles then Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow is the Halo 3 of the portable scene.
What the Game's About
Syphon Filter has been one of Sony's premier franchises for the PlayStation line. Despite the series having several rather disappointing titles on the PS2, Sony has proven that the Syphon Filter series is far from dead with the PSP.
Gabe Logan is back and ready for some intense stealth-action in his latest adventure in Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow. Logan's Shadow pins Gabe up against a group of Syrian terrorists who have their eye on a top-secret military weapon and the possibility, that his long time partner, Lian Xing is a double agent. Without those two main problems, the government no longer trusts you and blames you for the weapon being taken by the Syrians.
What's Hot
Gabe Logan is one badass guy and the game really reflects that. With a variety of weapons at your disposal and numerous ways to take care of enemies, the action of this title is simply wonderful. Newly added to this title is the addition of blind firing at enemies to make them fall back into cover. Think Gears of War but not quite as over-dramatic. The enemies will often push forward on your location so blind firing will become a necessity as the game continues. This really makes thing more intense and really shines on the handheld scene where good AI isn't a common thing.
To maintain these dangerous enemies, Gabe has a variety of weapons in his arsenal. Weapons include 9mm rounds, poison darts, explosive darts, sniper rifles, assault weapons, and other types. With all these weapons at your disposal, you can sneak around a level without getting into an intense firefight with the use of a sniper rifle or the darts. Of course, this also gives you the option of getting into battles and using the heavier powered weapons like an assault rifle. Each weapon also has several different modes such as automatic, semi-automatic, or burst shots. Since the game isn't extremely over-the-top with ammo, taking advantage of the different shooting modes is a great feature to have at your own will.
The single-player campaign is also one of the best put together in any game. Spanning over 6 chapters with several sub-sections within each chapter, this is anything but a short game. Each chapter will put Gabe in different locations, which will present new problems to solve and unique obstacle to overcome. The opening mission takes place in several locations such as in a helicopter shooting enemies on the bridge of a battleship and then moves into the ship itself. As the game continues you'll find yourself battling enemies under water in a wet suit and other unique locations. This is a great feeling because you'll never feel like you've been there before or feel like you are replaying the same level over and over again.
New to the title are the interactive moments, which are basically push button sequences. In certain areas of the game you'll be prompted to push a series of buttons to complete a task such as opening a gate or moving underwater mines. This makes the action of doing something a little more satisfying than just hitting the button once and makes it feel more like a console title.
Once you complete the single-player campaign it's time to jump into the multiplayer mode. Dark Mirror featured one of the best multiplayer experiences on the handheld scene at the time. Well fans of the Dark Mirrors multiplayer will be happy to know that it is fully intact but is more refined this time around. The game still features the same quick paced 8-player battles over either Ad/Hoc or Infrastructure mode. With modes such as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Rogue Agent, and the new Retrieval, and Sabotage modes. As you would have guess, Retrieval is a Capture the Flag type game where you and teammates will try to collect a specific item and bring it back to a base. Sabotage, replacing Dark Mirrors Objective Mode, has players performing specific tasks, such as collecting weapons while the opposing team tries to stop you. With seven maps to choose from, some of which return from Dark Mirror, the game offers some variety. The old maps have received some updates to include the new water base combat.
One thing that everyone will notice is that Logan's Shadow is an incredibly beautiful game to look at. The game is remarkable on a technical standpoint and shows off that the PSP truly is a PS2 in pocket form. Gabe's character model is highly detailed and smooth. The environments all look great and the PSP screen really shows off the game well. The underwater segments of the game are remarkable, to say the least. While underwater you'll see a stream of air bubbles appear when a weapon is fired and the lighting underwater is truly gorgeous to look at. This looks identical if not better than some PS2 titles.
The soundtrack is also top-notch. The musical score and voice-acting are among the best ever conducted in a game. The music will bring you into the game and really make you feel like you are in the action. During the more dramatic parts the music picks up and put you in Gabe's place. The voice-acting is also remarkable. Gabe and crew all sound great and the lip-synching is nearly perfect.
What's Not
The game controls exactly the same as Dark Mirror did. The analog stick will control Gabe whereas the face buttons will control where he looks. Even though the controls do take sometime to get use to use fluidly, it is hardly a major problem.
One other minor problem is when trying to take cover against a box or wall you'll need to double-tap the analog stick up for him to get into the cover position. Had the developers used a button to initiate this action it would have made things a little easier but it is a minor problem.
Final Word
Syphon Filter Logan's Shadow improves on nearly aspect of Dark Mirror. The multiplayer is more refined and with two new modes the multiplayer will be used a lot in the future. The single-player experience is deep and very entertaining. This is a game you can pick up and play through again in the future. Logan's Shadow is one, if not the best PSP game released all year. If Halo 3 is the best multiplayer title for consoles then Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow is the Halo 3 of the portable scene.
November 20, 2009
