Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain

"A look at Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain"

The Syphon Filter series began its life on the Playstation as a revolutionary 3rd person shooter. With the success of the first one, it garnered two sequels and now Sony hopes to bring it up to date in this generation. Does The Omega Strain live up to its predecessors? Read on to find out!
Unlike the Syphon Filters of past, you create your own agent this time around. I was very well pleased with a bevy of options to create your own character, such as face shape, skin tone, facial features and body type to name a few. Once your character is created it is time to get into the game play. Before you start you can pick your gear, up to 5 slots. So you can pick any guns to fit your play style. But as a starting agent your gear is somewhat limited and it will take a few missions to build up an arsenal.
The camera angle is represented in the 3rd person and works quite well. The left analog stick controls character while the right moves the camera. The auto aim feature is back which helps alot when you are surrounded in a firefight. As well as auto-aiming you have the ability to aim in first person, using this in combination works quite with the game.
Combat is fast and furious, mastering how to roll is an essential to keep alive and conserving ammo will prevent you from getting up close and personal. The reticule on your auto-aim goes from red to green, this ranges your probability of hitting the target. Green is being the better chance. You switch weapons by holding the select button and pressing either R2 or L2, this I found somewhat awkward because you have to quit moving to switch weapons and it takes a little time to cycle through to get what you want. But more than likely you will use one weapon most of the mission unless you run out of ammo for that gun. What really surprised me was how much control you can get out of aiming a grenade, which is a good thing.
The A.I. in this game is hit and miss, it shines while they try to strafe around you and, lets me down when they crawl up a ladder just waiting to be tagged in the melon. The enemies' roll and dodge like you, and will take cover behind objects.
The controls takes the biggest dent of the game play, while if you've been a fan of the series you'll take to the controls quite well but some stuff I don't seem to get used that might make newcomers to the series a little frustrated with. My biggest complaints would be not being able to strafe in first person shooting mode, this was made to make the player stay in 3rd person but sitting still and aiming is very dangerous. Also hitting select to switch your weapons is awkward because it requires you to take your hand off of the left analog stick and when you run out of ammo in one gun it won't switch to your next weapon. But the biggest control flaw has to be pressing up to communicate online. During the heat of battle you can't stop and press up to tell your teammates of your situation.
Online play is very fun but it is somewhat lacking with only 9 out of the 17 missions are available in multiplayer. Where are the deathmatch style games like in the previous installments?
The has a good balance with challenge and reward, while you could beat the game fairly quickly, you find yourself spending time going through previous missions to get hidden objectives to get new gear.
The story is very well presented with alot of style and the animations are top notch. Cut scenes before and after every mission will keep entertained while reading the media files to clue you in one the back story if you are not familiar with it.
Overall Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain is good game worth a rental to the average gamer and a buy for the fan of the series. It stays true to the prequels but the controls really hurt it. Alot of time was put into this game a little extra tweaks could of made this an instant classics. But there is always room for improvements in the next installment.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/12/04