Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
Developer(s)	SCE Bend Studio
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment
Composer(s)	Clint Bajakian Jonathan Mayer Mark Snow Lior Rosner
Series	Syphon Filter
Platform(s)	PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2
Release date(s)	PlayStation Portable NA 20060314March 14, 2006 AUS 20060907September 7, 2006 EU 20060929September 29, 2006 PlayStation 2 NA September 18, 2007 EU November 2, 2007 AUS November 8, 2007
Genre(s)	Third-person shooter, stealth
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Distribution	UMD, DVD-ROM

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror is a third-person shooter stealth video game developed by SCE Bend Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2. It is the sequel to Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain. In Dark Mirror, a mysterious operation at an Alaskan oil reserve has Gabe Logan investigating the cause. He is quickly presented with a deeper operation that has him venturing across the world. The best player in the game has always been known by his screen name, jaekid. jaekid finished ranking as the #2 player in Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, with BART being the #1 player on the leaderboard as the top player. BART was known to use glitches and cheat the game in order to beat jaekid's ranking as the #1 player and subvert the leaderboard. jaekid is known by the beta-testers as being a top player in the game and as playing fairly and beating every player/team with the help of his original beta-tester team to become the top player in Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror for PSP. The team that jaekid was a part of were original beta-testers selected by SONY to test the veracity of the game and vett the game as being up-to-par to release to the general public. jaekid was a part of a team named Fireachi which was and is to-this-day known in the underground gaming community as being one of the best players of a handheld gameplay system as well as being a fair player that finished at the top of this series on multiplayer mode.

Gameplay

Unlike the previous game, the gameplay is a return to the series roots. Players resume the role of Gabe Logan and occasionally Lian Xing, special operatives for a secret government agency. The non-linear, open-ended feel of the previous game has been reverted to the linear gameplay. Several types of rifles and visors are introduced. Players can now hide against walls and shoot around corners. However, the roll ability is noticeably absent.^[1]

Multiplayer

The game is Ad Hoc and Infrastructure compatible, both supporting up to 8 players in a single game. Players can use the PSP Headset online to chat with others in the pre-game lobby, and in-game.

• Deathmatch: Standard deathmatch. The player who reaches the point limit or has the highest score after time runs out is the winner.
• Team Deathmatch: There are three factions, the IPCA, the Akram Brotherhood, and Red Section. Each has its own unique weapon sets. The team who reaches the point limit first or has the highest score after time runs out is the winner.
• Rogue Agent: When the game starts, every player is on the same team. Everyone must rush to a fixed location and run over a kit to become the rogue agent. The rogue agent is then teleported away from all other players and spawns with a new skin and a special weapon. Kills only count for the rogue agent. When the rogue agent is killed, he drops the kit, and whoever runs it over becomes the new rogue agent. Whoever has the highest score after time runs out or reaches the kill limit is the winner.
• Objective: Each team has a set number of lives and they must complete objectives to win. One team must defend while the other team assaults, either trying to destroy something or carry an object back to another location. If a team completes all objectives before time runs out or defends successfully, they will win. If a team's reinforcements are depleted, they lose.

Plot

Following the events of Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain, Gabe sends a note to Mara Aramov. As she reads the note, a cracked scope appears from an adjacent balcony. It is quickly revealed that Gabe has sent Gary "Stone" Stoneman to kill Mara due to her manipulative role in the Syphon Filter conspiracy. Also revealed is a private meeting between Mara and Elsa Weissinger, who was conspiring alongside Mara; the duo being secret lovers.

Two years after Aramov and Weissinger are killed by Stone, Gabe from the International Presidential Consulting Agency (IPCA) is summoned to Kemsynth Petroleum in Alaska. A paramilitary group known only as Red Section has taken the complex. Upon heading into the Kemsynth facility, Gabe comes across and kills Red Section members Red Jack and Black King. Before Gabe could rescue any living hostages, two of them, Kreisler and Freeman, commit suicide, the former using a mysterious flower, the latter having swallowed a cyanide capsule.

A data disc reveals that the attack is connected to Kemsynth's botanical department in Peru in charge of making a new pesticide. The IPCA also learn that a former Agency operative, Addison Hargrove, who was Gabe's first partner romantically and professionally, is in charge of security. Gabe enters Peru to find the revolutionary forces allied with Red Section destroying Kemsynth's laboratories in Iquitos. Upon searching the area, Gabe saves Addison from interrogation by a Red Section member, Black Viper. Prior to their escape, the pair discover and retrieve samples of the rare plants found on Kreisler and Freeman before being ambushed by Red Section member White Scorpion. Gabe and Addison manage to kill White Scorpion and his henchmen, only for Addison to disappear after extraction.

The recently gathered intelligence leads Gabe to a weapons factory in Bosnia. As with Peru, a group of local rebels have been aided by Red Section. Here, Gabe saves a UN soldier, Private Janzen. Gabe tries to reunite Janzen with his squad, only to find they have been slaughtered. The pair meet up with Kress, a Red Section mole posing as a UN medical officer. Janzen and an unnamed soldier are murdered by Kress while Gabe survives an ambush by rebel forces, ostensibly working for the traitor. Logan kills Kress and the rebel leader, Goran Zimovic, the latter having hijacked an M1 Abrams main battle tank. An upload of Kress's files from his laptop reveals the names of Red Section leaders: Touchstone and Singularity.

Gabe heads to Kaliningrad where his MI6 counterpart has installed recording devices in a casino serving as a Yavlinsky crime family front. While in Yavlinsky's casino, Gabe discovers that Niculescu formerly laundered weapons and cash to Red Section and that Mara was an assassin hired by Yavlinsky eight years ago. After dealing with Victor Yavlinsky and his security forces, Gabe finds the MI6 recording devices and leaves the casino, killing Red Section elites in the process, the latter having been sent by Touchstone to erase any incriminating evidence due to Yavlinsky's death.

Gabe meets Addison in Warsaw where she tells him the reason she left the agency: she had a daughter whose name was Blake. Gabe tries to find out whether he is her father but Addison lies to him, claiming that she is only ten. Blake was kidnapped recently by Red Section to make Addison give them what they want. The deal is for Addison to meet Touchstone, the second-in-command of Red Section, at TransEuro Tram station in Germany and turn over the disc containing information on Project Dark Mirror, the one she stole from KemSynth office in Iquitos, in exchange for Blake. Addison began having doubts about KemSynth creating a new DDT and tells Gabe she doesn't want to hand over the disc to Red Section. They made a plan: Addison would provoke Touchstone into talking by bargaining with him while Gabe would take Touchstone out. They attempt the exchange, but Addison discovers Touchstone brought snipers with him. After failing to drive Touchstone into a bargain, Addison starts fighting with Touchstone. He pushes her over the railing into the valley, and to her apparent death. Gabe feels guilty and sorry and he fills up with fury and rage. He decides to complete Addison's last wish: save her daughter. He chases after Touchstone and defeats him. Prior to Touchstone's death, Gabe tells him that nobody chooses his death and throws Touchstone into the abyss. After the confrontation, Gabe learns how Red Section was formed, and Singularity's real identity, Grant Morrill, an Interpol accountant who disappeared and started his own company, Aeroscience Integrated Technology (AIT). He stole whatever classified information he encountered to eventually begin his own organisation. Gabe and Lian head to AIT to end Red Section's future operations and save Blake.

Inside AIT, he learns that Singularity developed electromagnetic super-armor which deflect projectiles, except those from electronic weapons. Gabe and Lian succeed in rescuing Blake, while Singularity hacks into IPCA's database. Gabe confronts Singularity in a bullet train station. Singularity has built canisters of the element known only as Project Dark Mirror, a nerve gas that could kill millions by fusing with oxygen molecules. In the battle, Singularity mocks Logan's previous operations, referencing the events of the previous games, and further taunts Gabe that they are equal. After uttering his last words, Logan kicks Singularity in front of a moving train, which kills him. Logan reunites with Blake and Lian.

Gabe heads to Addison's plaque at Arlington National Cemetery a week later and leaves a flower, the same flower Singularity used to genetically engineer the nerve gas Dark Mirror. In a post-credits cutscene, Addison re-appears behind Gabe, telling him that she faked her death. She prepared her death in advance and tied herself with a bungee cord to the railing. Gabe is upset that she once again lied to him. Blake comes inside and greets Gabe. He honors her as the bravest ten-year-old he's ever met. She corrects him, by saying she is twelve, not ten. Addison left him, and the Agency, twelve years ago because she was pregnant with his child and didn't want her involved.

Gabe attempts to tell Blake the truth about himself, but is stopped by Addison, who states that Gabe will never want to leave the Agency, and that he could end up causing indirect harm to Blake. Gabe reluctantly lets them leave.

A bonus level in Bangkok takes place after the AIT assault. Jimmy Zhou, a gang leader tries using the avian bird flu as a weapon against his rivals. Gabe kills the birds and learns that Zhou has taken Lian hostage. Inside his penthouse, Gabe faces an army of Zhou soldiers, including one with a Gatling gun. Gabe manages to rescue Lian and kills Zhou.

Sequel and port

At SCEA Spring Gamer's Day 2007, a sequel was announced for the PSP, Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow. It was released on October 2, 2007.^[2]

A port of Dark Mirror for the PlayStation 2 was released on September 18, 2007 with updated graphics. It includes the roll ability present from the first four games, but much mature content was removed, censoring many bloody details, swearing, alcohol and frightening scenes.^[3]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings (PSP) 87.11%[4] (PS2) 70.87%[5] Metacritic (PSP) 87/100[6] (PS2) 70/100[7]

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror received mixed to positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation Portable version 87.11% and 87/100^[4][6] and the PlayStation 2 version 70.87% and 70/100.^[5][7]

References

Syphon Filter Games Syphon Filter 2 3 The Omega Strain Dark Mirror Logan's Shadow Related Eidetic SCE Bend Studio 989 Studios Sony Computer Entertainment