Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow (PSP)
This solid PSP shooter is unfortunately too much of a reflection of last year's Dark Mirror.
1/31/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 2 of 2
What's Hot: Every bit as good as the last game.
What's Not: New water levels are all wet.
The underwater levels are an interesting change of pace, but they require too much poking around looking for whichever doodad you need to advance the level. They even use the game's weakest gimmick: an escort mission where you have to protect some pokey third party while all the bad guys zero in on him. When the bad guys are coming in from all directions, including above and below, and when you're literally suspended in wide-open space, the limitations of this shooter are painfully apparent.
Stealth kills and stabbings are a part of Syphon Filter, but
Logan's Shadow adds human shields to encourage a bit of grappling during firefights. You can grab a victim and fire over his shoulder while his body intercepts any incoming bullets. A grapple bar counts down the time until he'll break free, so if you want to kill him, you have to play a quick
God of War-style button-pressing mini-game before he escapes. There are more of these button-mashing gimmicks during cut scenes or when you want to open a door. They're just as annoying as you'd imagine. The sooner this button-pressing mini-game fad is laid to rest, the better.
The unlockables are tied to achievements, such as getting a certain number of kills with the knife, completing missions without dying, or using the sniper gun's special darts. This is actually just a clever way to get you to replay levels to earn new guns and bonus levels. It's the same great system that gave
Dark Mirror so much replay value. Similarly, the multiplayer support is very much the same as the last game, but with new maps and a ranking system to balance team-based matches. With
Logan's Shadow, this series remains the best way to play online shooters on the PSP.
Logan's Shadow would be a much better game if it weren't so redundant to last year's
Dark Mirror, which raised the bar for shooters for the PSP. But because
Logan's Shadow essentially reiterates that game, it smacks straight into that bar. Still, aping one of the best shooters on the PSP is nothing to be ashamed of. It's just not the ideal way to do a sequel.
This review was based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.
