After months of waiting and uncertainty, Syphon Filter finally makes the leap onto the PS2 plateform. We were in right to expect a grandiose conclusion to the mysterious conspiracy which kept the suspense going since the very beginning. Well, mission accomplished! People at Sony Bend (formerly known as Eidetic) succeeded wonderfully in their transition to the new console generation and they offer us a game which will both delight long-time fans and action game lovers in general.

We knew since quite a long time that Gabriel Logan would not be in the box anymore and that we would have in our hands an anonymous agent that we would create ourselves, obviously for allowing players to distinguish themselves when on-line. So in the fallowing of the events which had ended Syphon Filter 3, Gabe has taken the lead of the IPCA, an agency newly formed by the President of the United States himself in order to eradicate terrorist threats and to end the Syphon Filter affair once and for all. Our character finds himself to be a recrute in the Agency who will assist Gabe, Lian, Teresa and the rest of team in their chase for the virus. It just happens that it has spread at a frightening speed in the hands of several terrorist organizations and moreover now appears under a new strain. What is most interesting with the storyline, beside being very complex, is that it calls for many political elements, which give the game even more depth. These elements are brought be numerous documents that can be read before each mission. The plot itself remains rather straigh forward, although it is sometimes possible to choose the order in which to play the few next missions. Each level are once again various and brings us to such places as Yemen, Belarus and Switzerland.

The missions are built the same way as before, meaning in sets you with a list of objectives, among which many will be added as you progress. There are a total of 18 missions, which is close to what we were accustomed to, although their average size is bigger. Amateurs of infiltration missions will be overwhelm, for The Omega Strain offers many and they are much more difficult. Interesting fact: failing an objective or a parameter will not bring about the end of the mission, but will rather change its course and you will have to face the consequences of your failure. Also note that when your character dies, all actions you have done since the last checkpoint are not cancelled, which mean you can't fool around anymore without thinking, or you will have the drag along the consequences for the rest of the mission.

Graphically, we had to expect something totally new, holding on to the performances of the PlayStation 2. The extra waiting was certainly worth it, as the overall graphical quality is excellent. All environments are rich and detailed, character models are realistic, light and shadow effects are great, while limiting the number of glitches -although there are still too many- and without taking away fluidity. We can assess excellent rain, snow and fog effects, whereas the main flaw would be the horizons which sometimes take a long time before they come into sight. As for the FMV sequences, which were never one of the series strong points, they are good, but nothing more. Anyway, most of them are rather short and only show the necessary stuff. One of the biggest restrain in their creation is that we never get to see our character which does not talk either. Probably one of the reasons why the game does not spend a lot of time in videos. The motion capture is once again very good (and for those who were complaining about the characters looking like they were running on slow-motion, well now they run a lot faster!). Yet. if there is one thing that disapointed me is the lack of interactivity with the environment. It looks like the lights got bulletproof, because you can't break them anymore.

Developers had this huge challenge of adapting the controls to a new gameplay that would not dishearten Gabe's fallowers. The result is convincing, although they will have to spend a couple of minutes familiarizing with the few differences. It is important to note that the left joystick is now the only way to move our character around, since the directionnal pad is now used for new commands, such as turning on or off our flashlight or putting on nightvision goggles as well as bringing up the 3D map. The screen display is pretty similar to what we were used to, with obviously a new design. The only major difference concerns the meters which used to be located in the upper left corner of the screen (armor/health, danger and target). The armor/health is now displayed near the ammunition, while the danger will be shown next to the radar. As to the target meter, it has been replaced by a color system: the more close to green the target circling the enemy is, the more chances you have to hit him. The radar I just mentionned works in the same way as it did in the previous games, the only difference being you can now use it to pinpoint the location of certain objectives. The 3D map is also useful and works best in cooperation with the radar. It can also show you some of your objectives or important locations and its tri-demensional perspective is much more accurate than what we have had in the prequels. In terms of neatness however, partially see-through feature of the map is not what works best. It is first made to guide you, not to give all the answers away.

On the sound level, this game is a great success. The voice actors have done a nice job (the foreign languages are in general quite convincing), even though the owner of the prequels will greatly miss some of the original character voices, including Gabe's. The music is now done in a completly new style, but that is not necessarily for the worst. Mark Snow has accomplised a splendid work, providing the gamers with a soundtrack combining quality elctronic sounds which give a result close to what Harry Gregson-Williams did with Metal Gear Solid 2. Music will varie a lot from places to places, filling up with exotic notes that truly dive the gamer into the local atmosphere. The transitions between normal and action music is however less soft than what we had heard in the previous Syphon Filter, but that is a rather unimportant flaw. Finally, the sound atmosphere is still very realistic: each weapon has it's own firing sound, the sound of bullets bouncing of walls is beyond reproach, etc. Only little bug, it may happen that when many characters or enemy are talking, some speeches might not start at all.

The life lenght is very great, because the game overflows with awards, medals, special rankings and more, offering also four bonus missions which can be unlocked by beating the so-called par times from the previous missions. To beat those, you must be not only fast, but you must also manage to get all objectives and parameters in the said mission. A true challenge in sight!

The largest improvment over the past Syphon Filter games is its on-line cooperation mode which allows you to play some of the off-line missions in teams of up to four players. Actually, playing on-line is essential in order to complete some objectives that can not be done in solo. It is also necessary for obtaining all awards. Except for that, the on-line mode doesn't bring many new elements, since you can not play new missions. Obviously, your off-line performances are determining to play on-line, because you will only be able to access weapons previously unlocked and play the missions up to where you are in single player.

In conclusion, the waiting wasn't in vain. For Syphon Filter fans, The Omega Strain is a delight. And newcomers might also be interested in its qualities as an action game. Of course the game is especially attractive for owners of a PS2 Network Adaptor, but I can assure you that the single player mode also offers many hours of enjoyment. In short, Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain certainly is one of the best games to come this year on PlayStation 2, one game that was certainly worthy of all the waiting we had to bear.