Syphon Filter: Combat Ops

by Darren Arquette - 2008/02/03 11:58am

Once believed to be a dead franchise, Syphon Filter came back with a vengeance in early 2006 in the PSP exclusive game Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, which is now on the PS2. Although the PSP maybe missing a second analogue stick, the game played perfectly, with the movement assigned to the only analogue stick and the targeting to triangle, square, circle and X.
Although feeling a little odd, without the second analogue stick, it does feel perfect with it mapped to those buttons, and this has been the same with all the PSP Syphon Filter games, with nothing different here.

Now unlike Warhawk, Syphon Filter: Combat Ops is only available on the PSN Store for the PC, however the game is only 60MB, which isn’t a bad size compared to the PS1 versions of Syphon Filter which are close to 300MB a piece. By being only 60MB in size you wouldn’t think there was a lot of content in the game... wrong. Once starting the game and creating your own profile, you’ll notice two main game play options ‘Play Combat Ops’ and ‘Mission Modifier’.

With Mission Modifier, you can create your own map, load another user’s created map or load an official map by the developers. From the create your own option, you can choose to edit from five maps. However you can then add extra bits onto this map, therefore expanding the maps to create a huge battlefield. To further add to the customisation of these maps, you can place what teams will be playing on the map (such as random soldiers or mercenaries, with even more to unlock within the game) and even weather effects, such as snow, dust and rain, as well as many others. You can even set the time, night or day. Once inside you can begin to take a look around your newly created map, stating which mission types it can be used for, as well as adding weapons, zip lines, crates, explosive barrels, ladders, as well as spawn points.

With the other option, 'Play Combat Ops', you can play either through Infrastructure or Ad Hoc, and once in you’ll see a screen which is once again similar to Warhawk's, just without the customise option. The game types you can play are Team Deathmatch (a standard within multiplayer games), Retrieval (basically Capture The Flag), Deathmatch, Sabotage and Rogue Agent. Two of these modes you’ve probably never played or heard of before, so please allow us to explain.

Rogue Agent is an every man for himself match, where you must remain the Rogue Agent as long as possible, kind of like King Of The Hill, however you also get points for killing other players. Sabotage is not as simple as it sounds - you must find activation codes, which both teams can see on the map, and then you must make it to your enemies' base and activate the bomb. All you have to do is press up and repeatedly press whatever button is flashing on screen. It’s similar to a quick time event but if you do it wrong it doesn’t mean death.

The game has little bits added here and there that help make co-op with this game a great experience, such as when you’ve been killed, you can be revived by a buddy, as you wait for your time to respawn. However that only helps if you were shot to death rather than blown up or shot right between the eyes (BOOM headshot!).

The game also supports microphones, however these aren’t on sale yet. I suspect these will be released once Go!Messenger and the PSP Skype is fully released sometime in February.

The game is fun to play and there is a vast ranking system, which once you get to a certain level you unlock new objects within the Mission Modifier mode, as well new character skins, such as the hero of the franchise, Gabe Logan. If it had a few other maps it could be a lot more entertaining. Hopefully there will eventually be some download content with a few maps, maybe maps from past Syphon Filter games.

This title is really fun to play especially if you’re into teaming up to kick ass. Although the game is only £6.99 there is a lot of content. We think we'd have liked to see a UMD version, with possibly more content, other tidbits and especially a headset. However maybe that's just us.