Although I was told that Syphon Filter was going to be the game that would blow Metal Gear Solid out of the water, it so happens that I’m not quite so sure now. The overall graphics and sounds are amazing. The movie sequences, however, leave much to be desired as far as detail of the characters goes. But once you get inside the game, the characters, buildings, and surroundings are fantastic. The sounds of the game are very realistic for everything from talking over the two-way radio to chopper noise in the background. One nice feature of the background music is that when you are about in engage in a fight with one or more enemies, it becomes louder as you draw closer to them. This in conjunction with your radar can help greatly in sneaking up on them. However, this is not always the case in every mission.

The basic idea of the game is that you are Gabe Logan, working for the U.S. Government as a covert operative. Your mission is to stop the spread of the deadly virus known as “Syphon Filter” by the international terrorist, Erich Rhomer. And of course, it has the usual basics of any “I’m the good guy, gotta stop the bad guy” game. You’ll have to work your way through 20 intense missions of stealth and mass killing. But you will receive help via telecommunications from your partner, Lian Xing. However, you’ll never get any physical help from your boss or teammate, who is always in another location other than yours.

The difficulty of Syphon Filter increases as you move from mission to mission. But the style of mission also varies. You could be in one assignment where all you have to do is eliminate anything that moves, while in the next operation, you can’t take a shot that can be heard. Plus, depending on your skill as a sneaky PlayStation player, the weapons at hand and the amount of ammo will decide how difficult the game becomes for you. One thing, however, that did make the game much harder was the fact that you don’t have any of the options of stealth like you do in MGS.

With Syphon Filter, the best you can do is go into a crouch position which they refer to as “Stealth Mode,” as opposed to MGS where you could creep along walls, crawl on your belly under stuff, and even make noises to distract your enemies. One of the very cool moves in the game is the roll move. This comes in very handy when attempting to dodge the enemy’s bullets, as well as a strafe move for “sliding” left to right. The weapons are very impressive. You have a selection totaling 15 different gut splattering, head popping, blowing-the-crap-out-of-anyone-or-anything kick ass weapons. Included in the list are things like sniper rifles (both day and night versions), grenades, tazer, machine guns, and grenade launchers. You also have multiple weapon targeting system consisting of sniper mode, manual, look/aim, and target lock. Basically, you never miss in this game, and if you manage to get a head shot off, all the better. Selecting weapons is a bit of a pain, although you do get a detailed description of each weapon available. Also, by pressing Start, you can access the Command Console, allowing you to change options, view mission briefings, and review your objectives that need to be completed and those that have been completed. Overall, I’d have to say that Syphon Filter is both a challenging and kick-ass game for 1999!