Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain

"A solid online game worth at least a rent"

I have yet to play the previous Syphon Filter games and heard they were good so I had some high hopes for this one, but upon hearing some negative feedback I had a few doubts, but decided to give it a try, it took a bit getting used to, but afterwards, I enjoyed it except for a few flaws.

Graphics: 8

The graphics are pretty crisp and colorful, the textures don't look drawn in as much, although some of the weapons look a bit bland, they don't look blocky like in some other games. The player animations are smooth and realistic, the special effects (fire, explosion, smoke) look realistic and add to this.

Sound: 9

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the sounds here, the weapons sound realistic and have a nice retort to them, the voice overs and dialogue are well done. The only thing that could have made this better was a good musical score in the intro.

Controls: 7

This is where the game starts to falter a bit, the controls are fine but they are almost COMPLETELY uncustomizable, save for inverting the X and Y axis. They'll take a bit to get used to but I got them down after the training mission, the only problem is the awkwardness of hitting the select button to change weapons, thankfully, you won't be changing weapons too often in the heat of combat and the shoot and aim buttons can be operated exclusively with the right hand (well, except for manual aim to get headshots or shoot objects).

Gameplay: 8

The core of any game, the game is pretty addictive trying to unlock extra weapons and clothing, as well as bettering your stats. The game is pretty action based so expect a lot of running and gunning, but is semi realistic (moving decreases your accuracy, heavy weapons are harder to aim on the run), also, enemies (and you) die in a few shots, so you really have to watch yourself (although outside of CQB you won't get hit a whole lot unless the guy is using a sniper rifle to accurately portray how terrorists don't get a whole lot of training). The gameplay is pretty nonlinear and on most missions you can continue even if you blow a seemingly huge objective (even if you fail the mission, you can still play the next one). You also get to respawn after you die so you don't have to keep going through the same mission only to get slaughtered near the end. The only downside I find in this is that the first time through a level, you can easily spend over an hour looking for things on each level, the occasional respawning of the enemies right behind you (who can easily be outrunned), as well as the way the target system will sometimes make you do a 180 to target an enemy even though there is one right behind you (though this rarely happens).

Replay Value: 7 or 10 (depending if you have online capabilities)

This is where this game really shines, there are tons of weapons and clothing to unlock, to top it off, you get online play, which is fun in it's own right. The only downside is you can't unlock everything offline because of a few team objectives.

Online: 10

This is like single player, but funner, you get to run around with up to three other operatives and cause mayhem throughout the level. The online community for the most part is friendly, some games are purely for fun while others are for getting par times (completing all objectives under a certain time) and will sometimes look down upon newcomers, but if there are three people who know what they're doing, usually they'll be content if you can just provide fire support for them. Unlike many other online games (SOCOM, Counter-Strike), there aren't a whole lot of trash talkers and people who try to ruin games (partially because it's pretty hard to sabotage a game since you can't team kill and only a few objectives you can ruin for people), the reason for this is that this is a cooperative game instead of a competitive game, meaning people must work together and try to cover each other's short comings.

Overall

If you can play online, I suggest getting this game if you like action based shooters that are cooperative. If you don't have online capabilities, rent it first to see if you still want to play it after you beat it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/07/04