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| .............CONTENT
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| - In 1999, I played
Syphon Filter on the original PlayStation - it's now 2004 and I'm playing
Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain on the PlayStation 2, and, aside from online
play, I'm not noticing much of a difference between the two. As the fourth release
in the series and the first on the PlayStation 2, one would expect the series
to catch up to the times. Catching up shouldn't be hard to do since "blindfire"
- when the player stays behind cover to fire blindly in a general direction -
and more precise shots behind cover, which would seem like basic I-don't-want-to-die
maneuvers, but was only just completely implemented into the genre with Namco's
kill.switch. Such rudimentary actions, seemingly prolific in recent action
titles, are absent in The Omega Strain, as well as even the basic back-to-wall
maneuver, made so popular by the Metal Gear Solid series, which has seemed
to find a home fairly quickly in the genre. It's more running around corners hoping
that the body armor will be enough to survive the next encounter. Since navigation and objectives are against the player, pretty much every | |||||
| level
will have to be replayed just to complete all the objectives the fact that levels
have to be unlocked to be played in multiplayer doesn't hurt, either - 9 out of
the 17 missions can be played with others. However, for those who dig the game,
there are several unlockable goodies and levels for those who complete missions
under the par time. If you are a completest, you have good times ahead; most of
us, however, won't find the forced replay too appealing. Of course, gamers will play through the single campaign to get to the real fun: the multiplayer. Completing missions will gain the player rankings for show and weapons for more practical purposes. When first starting the game, the player gets to customize his character - it's not all that involving, with just a handful of preset options to change gender, body shape, skin tone, hair, eye color, face shape, etc. These characters are taken online where they can be set up to start missions with weapons unlocked in single player. What's cool about multiplayer is that there are team-only objectives. Going through the missions alone would be, except for in a few, tedious because of the large levels and constant flow of enemies, but this also makes online play fun because it gives plenty of ground for multiple players to cover and oodles of terrorists for them to kill. The team maneuvers are pulled off by pressing the action key near certain spots: what was just a van becomes a platform to get onto a roof as one player hops onto the van's roof by using another player as a lift. Even though the game's basic design carries over here - no covering fire or intricate maneuvers - the other player's willingness to make something out of what is not there, by going out of their way to act like a team in the way of completing the objectives and watching each others' backs, really makes the experience worthwhile. The game also keeps track of statistics, like where the player is known to shoot, the general accuracy, and so on. The fun relies mostly on the players making the most out of what is given, so here's hoping that you get in a good squad. Neither mode can escape some design and technical problems, though. Combat is made difficult by an awkward control scheme: a button that makes the player grab a pipe won't be the one that makes them let go; the locking system will choose inopportune targets or be slow, causing shotgun blasts from even a foot away to miss. Even more annoying is that choosing a weapon is done by pressing the select button. Less troublesome is the weird office motif used to give additional info on missions, an option referred to as Zeus Files - it's so cluttered by random objects that it can be difficult to find out what is going on, as opposed to conveying the information in a unique and engrossing way as most likely intended. The graphics are not only aging, but fairly dark, making it difficult to spot some passages and people. The music is decent, but I experienced gunfire sounds being cut out during while on and offline. This is all pretty surprising considering this is a marquee series for the PlayStation. Maybe it speaks of the genre, but even with its problems, The Omega Strain isn't all bad. A few of the missions are particularly fun, even when going solo. The weapons, while often lacking ammo, are varied, with all sorts of fun automatic weapons and the infamous stun gun - rarely is setting someone on fire with one boring. The initial offering of levels is commendably bolstered with all the unlockable sub missions, which require some dedication on the player's part to access. The problem, as I see it, is that this feels like a multiplayer game that had a single player campaign tossed into it. Take a quick story about chemical agents and terrorists, add some illogically-placed timed mission objectives that require tedious backtracking in huge levels, toss in a few barely-useful maps and you've got a game that often feels unfocused and confused. Overall:
6/10 [ top ] |
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