Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain

"Had soo much potential to be a climatic game for the series, but wasn't"

The Syphon Filter series changed gaming for the Playstation Console. So many of its owners will never forget these games. We all thought that the 3rd installment was the end of the series. But we were wrong. What a surprising thrill to so many of its fans when they heard that a fourth would be making a debut on the PS2. I was so excited for this game. After playing it for 3 days, I became very, very disappointed, very quickly. I could not believe what I was seeing.

Graphics-7/10 By any standard, yes, the graphics are wonderful. Pretty topnotch. Why did I give it such an average score than? Because of the vast number of graphical errors found in the game. A few select ones are choppy, slow moving scenery that comes with prolonged play, picking up new weaponry, only to have it be invisible when it is equipped, and horrible weapon fire graphics. It just makes the game look horrible. The graphics are good, but have too many errors, that slow the game down, and bring about disappointment.

Sound and Music-10/10 This is the games strongest point. The music is so catchy, and goes perfectly with each individual level. I found myself humming the subway theme of the first level one day. It is that good. The sound is just as good. The weapons sound so realistic, and the voice acting is top-notch. This is where the game truly shines.

Gameplay-3/10 This is where the game really lost it. First, the fact that online multiplayer, or regular multiplayer is crucial to fully completing the game is absolute crud. The fact that barely half of the objectives can be competed on single player is absolute bull. Some of us don't have a good enough online connection to do online multiplayer. And some of us don't have anybody to play multiplayer with. Because of that, we pretty much have half a game here. Second, with only one player, the game is just to dang hard. I mean, I love a challenge and all, but this game is ridiculous. The difficulty of this game is just staggering. Finally, it gets kinda depressing having your superiors scream at you and tell you what a screw up you are, just because you can't play multiplayer, and do all of the objectives. Its not fun when you get low scores, and can't help it.

Longevity-5/10 This is half a game with a single player, so it has half longevity and playability. There is very little urge to play this game ever again with single player. You won't want to.

Whats so Special- The Syphon Filter virus. What else. And, its a newer, deadlier strain, which is cool.

All in all- This game had so much potential. If not for the cruddy gameplay, you can bet this game would of been a 9 in my eyes. If not for the gameplay, this game would of been a gem among the other three Syphon Filter games.

Final Score 6/10

PhazonInfuser

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/05