Syphon Filter infiltrates the PSP @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on December 21, 2005

News: Sony has Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror on tap for March 2006.

In the PSone days, Syphon Filter was one of Sony's major franchises. Sadly, Gabe Logan and his fellow spys have only appeared in one PS2 adventure. But they'll be getting an early jump on the PSP as Sony today announced Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror will be coming to the PSP in March 2006.

The game's storyline will bring Gabe back into contact with a woman from his past as he fights Red Section, a terrorist organization that has obtained Project Dark Mirror, a weapon of mass destruction. Other features include:

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror provides players high tech weaponry to infiltrate including the ability to attack multiple targets at once using tazer darts, gas darts to silently eliminate targets, and explosive darts to eliminate multiple targets.

Vision enhancements allow players to track both AI and energy sources using night vision and infrared to track targets via heat signature, as well as an energy sensor to locate invisible targets and track energy sources.

Enemies use turrets and zip lines, and they will be highly aware of their surroundings, provide backup, cover and perform flanking maneuvers.

Target enhancements allow gamers to seek areas for takedowns, open up pathways by locating and shooting hidden enemies, and eliminate AI by shooting explosive and electrical targets. Players will have the choice between Target Lock or precision aiming.

Hand-to-hand combat moves, deadly contextual knife attacks, vision enhancements and high tech weaponry gives gamers numerous options on how to kill their enemies.

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror's realistic look is attributed to a multitude of technologies, including Rag Doll Physics, highly detailed texture and dirt maps, improved goggle effects and gloss mapping. Character models are built with detail and realism and feature animations for covert moves, knife kills and contextual specific scenarios.

Dark Mirror will also make full use of the PSP's wireless connectivity with six player matches via Ad Hoc play and eight player matches over Infrastructure.

Multiplayer Options

In person-vs.-person (PVP) mode, gamers will have access to 7 unique maps featuring objective-based missions and will be able to play via both Ad Hoc and Infrastructure mode.

Four types of gameplay modes are featured for variety, including Objective, DeathMatch, Team Deathmatch and Rogue Agent.

Players can play as an agent by rising up through the Agency to unlock weapons and other items.

The highest-ranking player can also play as Gabe Logan or an enemy commander and gain access to unique weapons and unlockable secrets.

Special weapons and gadgets, such as Claymore mines, AP mines and the Ripper Pistol Machine gun will be available for players.

Open-ended gameplay combined with various objectives and gadgets allow players to develop deeper strategy to succeed.

We'll look more closely through the Dark Mirror soon.