Syphon Filter 2

''Syphon Filter 2'' is a third-person shooter stealth video game developed by Eidetic and published by 989 Studios for PlayStation. It is the second installment in the Syphon Filter franchise and a sequel to 1999's Syphon Filter. In 2022, it was added to the premium collection for PlayStation Plus.

Gameplay

''Syphon Filter 2'' added multiplayer which features some characters to select from (including deceased characters from ''Syphon Filter''), as well as new maps not found in single player mode.

Plot

Hours after the events of the first game, Gabriel Logan and Lian Xing are enemies of the state to the Agency after uncovering its connection to Syphon Filter, labeled as terrorists to the general public. Agency operative Dillon Morgan captures Lian at the PharCom warehouses, forcing Gabe and the CBDC soldiers to rendezvous with ex-Agency operative Teresa Lipan in Arizona. Simultaneously, the Agency scrambles a squadron of F-22 Raptors to intercept their transport over the Colorado Rockies, so Gabe and CBDC Lieutenant Jason Chance head down the mountain in search of their plane and a box of PharCom data disks. Agency operative Steven Archer attempts to stop them at all costs.

A group of conspirators, including Mara Aramov and Agency director Lyle Stevens, make a deal to deliver the virus to a rogue Chinese general named Shi-Hao. Meanwhile, Lian recovers in a U.S. Air Force base where Morgan, Derek Falkan, and Thomas Holman are working with Dr. Elsa Weissinger of PharCom to extract infected plasma from test subjects. Lian learns that the other subject was PharCom CEO Jonathan Phagan, who survived his gunshot wound long enough for the Agency to take the plasma. Weissinger protests that Phagan is useful and should be kept alive for further research, but Morgan, not intending that the U.S. government find Pharcom's CEO infected with an unknown virus, deactivates his life support, tying up a loose end.

Lian escapes the medical building and interrogates Holman to learn that Morgan is planning another operation to the PharCom Expo Center to find an encryption disk. She leaves the base in a helicopter after killing Falkan and teams up with Gabe to battle Archer's forces. Gabe shoots Archer during his escape, and recovers the PharCom data.

The protagonists follow Holman's lead to the Expo Center and kill Morgan before he can recover the disk he sought. After decrypting the PharCom data, Teresa realises that some information is missing. The other half must be with Russian SVR director Uri Gregorov, who appeared at the warehouses before Gabe left. Since Lian and Uri know each other, they agree to meet in Moscow.

Aramov instigates a gunfight while they meet and Lian pursues Gregorov. Lian later learns he is an impostor working for Mara and trying to find the other half of the data. The man admits that the ''real'' Gregorov is in a Russian gulag, Aljir Prison, which once held Lian captive. Gregorov uncovered a plot to sell the virus to Shi-Hao, so Aramov intervened. Lian stops Gregorov's execution, but is almost killed by the virus and collapses. Gabe takes her back to the States, while Gregorov promises to handle Shi-Hao.

Gabe and Teresa arrive back at the Virginia safehouse overseen by Lawrence Mujari, a freelance pathologist. They decide to trade the PharCom data to the Agency for Lian's vaccine. Director Stevens double-crosses Gabe in the Agency's New York City labs, but Logan escapes and forces Dr. Weissinger to give him the vaccine. Gabe also finds out that Chance survived the mission in Colorado, and sets him free.

Pursued by NYPD SWAT cops and Agency personnel, Gabe hurries back to their helicopter. Along the way, Logan is forced to provide cover for a SWAT officer whose partner is wounded. He does so, but Stevens, who later takes the cop hostage, orders him to drop his weapons. Despite Logan complying in surrender, Stevens kills the officer anyway. Before he can get shot, Gabe is thrown into the sewers by an explosion that Teresa sets off. Gabe assumes that Chance was killed in the labs since Teresa says he never made it to the helicopter. Gabe and Teresa eventually corner Stevens and Gabe shoots him in cold blood.

Gabe and Teresa reach the helicopter to find Chance waiting in impenetrable Agency-issued body armor. He was really working for them, and he shoots Teresa. Gabe suspected it since the Agency always knew where he was in Colorado. Both men fight, and Gabe kills the man he trusted with an assault shotgun that drives Chance into the helicopter blades, decapitating him.

A news report reveals that the Agency's existence is now public, and U.S. Secretary of State Vincent Hadden promises that the government will investigate. Gabe cures Lian and demarcates a grave for Teresa. He, Lian, and Lawrence hold a small memorial and promise to keep fighting, while soldiers watch them from a distance. In a post-credits scene, Hadden and Aramov emerge from a helicopter, with Aramov saying that the Administration will soon fall allowing Hadden to become President. Although a team of soldiers requests for permission to kill Gabe and his team, Hadden calls off the operation, telling Mara he has other plans for Gabe. Aramov laughs as the screen fades to black.

Development

John Garvin stated that, unlike development of the first game, he and co-creator Richard Ham had a complete vision of what the game would be like prior to the development process: "I think I spent a weekend and wrote the entire screenplay. Rich and I got together and he helped revise the second half of the game, introducing all the Moscow stuff, making the end of the story more espionage-like and exciting. When the evelopment teamcame back, we spent the next year building exactly what we had written. That was the first time that we had a vision up front, which we followed until the end". Garvin has expressed pride in his inclusion of a diverse cast of characters, such as the American-Indian Teresa Lipan, African-American Lawrence Mujari and Chinese Lian Xing.

''Syphon Filter 2'' was added as a part of the premium collection for PlayStation Plus in 2022, with Trophy support added to the game. It is also the first PlayStation Plus Premium game with both 50Hz and 60Hz modes.

Reception

''Syphon Filter 2'' was released to generally positive reviews. The game received an average score of 81.47% at GameRankings, based on an aggregate of 29 reviews.

Many reviewers stated that the game differed little from the original in terms of gameplay and graphics. Game Revolution rated the game 4 out of 5, noting that the fans of the original game would pick up this title. Doug Perry of IGN rated the game 8.9 out of 10, praising the two-player mode and favourably comparing it to similar features in '' Medal of Honor''.

A less positive review came from Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot, who rated the game 6.6 out of 10, criticising level design and the game's story as convoluted.

While most reviewers praised the game, the voice-acting was panned. Gerstmann stated that some of Gabe's lines and vocal inflection don't fit in some parts of the game. Perry called the voice acting "truly awful", while Patrick Klepek of Gaming Age called the voice acting "sub-par".

Jeff Lundrigan reviewed the PlayStation version of the game for ''Next Generation'', rating it four stars out of five, with praise of graphics, story and gameplay.

As of 2007, ''Syphon Filter 2'' had sold 1.32 million copies, earning platinum status.

References

External links

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{{Syphon Filter series

2000 video games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
PlayStation (console) games
PlayStation Network games
Stealth video games
Syphon Filter
Third-person shooters
Video games developed in the United States
Video games featuring female protagonists
Video games set in 1999
Video games set in Colorado
Video games set in Moscow
Video games set in New York City
Video games set in Russia
Video games about terrorism