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What followed wasn't far from what I'd expected: Given the much larger storage capability of a DVD and the PS2's processing power, the designers piled on everything and the kitchen sink -- and not surprisingly, not all the pieces are great.

The ability to design your own agent is smart; you can now add a tinge of RPG to the experience by customizing your agent more or less to your specs. More hairstyles would've been nice, though. There are way too many new stock characters -- as another reviewer mentioned, Imani Gray is a pain in the neck which drifts farther down towards the butt the more you have to listen to her. I was glad to see the return of Teresa Lipan, killed in SF2 but apparently revived later; I'd loved voice actress Shannon Tilton's smart-aleck voice for Teresa way back in SF2 and it's telling that she's the only voice actor left from the cast of SF2. The look of the game is good, though I'm peeved by games that concentrate so much on making moody lighting that they forget to make your enemies visible. No amount of noir visuals can compensate for having to fire blindly into the dark, especially in this game, when you have to pull off headshots on targets the size of a pea. The controls took some getting used to -- if you're an old-timer, you have to learn never to touch the directional pad -- but similar enough to the old games that it wasn't a problem. There's a vast array of weapons to be used, a big bonus, though the side effect is that if you pick the wrong weapon, you may find yourself out of ammo quickly. In previous SF games, by killing an enemy whose weapon you don't have, you can pick up new weapons you didn't start out with. This was a useful mechanical device so that the player wouldn't find himself completely defenseless. Now, you can pick up hundreds of rounds for a weapon but never come across that weapon for the ammo to become useful. I had to replay an entire level I'd already finished up to about 75 per cent just because I chose a different gun in the beginning, a gun whose ammo can't be found anywhere in the level. Hello?

The most glaring problem lies in mission design. It is true what the other reviewers said about the missions being repetitive and confusing. I've never been shy about using strategy guides, but even with the Prima guide in hand this time, I wasn't able to avoid bumbling about like a blind bee. You have to enter buildings and areas in exact orders and the designers made so many unnecessary detours, areas that don't do anything to advance your mission, that you'll find yourself going round and round. I'd finished Syphon Filter 2 without a guide and had been able to follow SF1 all through with the help of a guide, but Omega Strain's levels are simply overlarge, the missions overlong. They gave you more checkpoints this time, but you're no longer able to temporarily stop a game and pick it up later with your checkpoints intact, a major flaw in the design. What's wrong with giving us manual game saves?

My least favourite feature in this game is the enemy respawning. When you have to take such a snaky route through the level, revisiting areas multiple times, the last thing you want is to have to fight the exact same enemies all over again. It's also always frustrating to have enemies jump out of a hole above your head and blast you to death with two shots from a combat shotgun, or worse still, come out of the door you'd just exited and cleared of opposition. How about some logic? I've always hated games that respawn enemies indefinitely, and unfortunately Syphon Filter just joined those ranks.

I'm enjoying this game, but it's far more laborious than playing SF1 and SF2. I'm not even trying to meet their par times at this point. You're supposed to be able to finish 10 objectives in Mission 2 in nine minutes. Nine minutes! My time was more like 45. Frankly, given that you have to run back and forth four, five times among three buildings in this level, that's just insulting. I guess if your whole life is playing games, the depth and size of the missions is a good thing. Me? I play games to relax, and this is just too much material, with no way to break it down into chunks because of the save-game system. At a certain point, too much of something just spoils the fun.

14 of 15 found the following review helpful:

WATCH OUT if you plan on buying this gameMay 10, 2004
By Dave
If you were a huge fan of the other games in the Syphon Filter series, you might just go out and instantly buy this game, expecting it to be exactly like the rest.. this is what I did, and I was horribly disappointed.

Unlike the other games in the series, this one is designed ALMOST ENTIRELY around *online play*. If you don't plan on playing this game online, you're probably better off not buying it at all. I bought it and tried playing it offline, and after finishing the first mission, I was thoroughly disgusted with it.

I'm sure it's a great online game, but as far as offline single player goes, it's extremely frustrating and annoying to play.

Some of the reasons for this are:
- Unlike in the previous games, hardly any actions actually pause the game other than pressing the pause button. Checking your map or changing weapons keeps the rest of the game moving.
- The missions have checkpoints that act as quick saves for if you die, but the game isn't actually reset back to that point when you die.. so if you fail a critical objective and then die, you'll go back to the checkpoint with the objective still failed. Any timersthat were counting down will still be counting down.
- Speaking of which, if you fail objectives, the game lets you keep playing. You have to actually quit the mission and go back to the title screen before you can start it over. Very irritating.
- Enemies constantly respawn within seconds of killing them. In the previous games, you could dispatch all the enemies and then move on at your own pace, but with enemies respawning instantly, the only thing that makes sense is to run past everything.

Anyway, I'm just warning you, watch out if you plan on playing this game offline..

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:

For Really Patient People OnlyApr 01, 2006
By Matt The Man
I have really enjoyed the SF series over the years but this game was extremely frustrating to learn. Gameplay is godawful! You used to be able to start a mission over quickly with a push of a couple of buttons; now you have to quit the mission and then wait for the darn thing to reload. This is progress??? Furthermore, you also used to be able to go back to your last checkpoint and start over again with your previous progress. Not anymore. If you are playing a "stealth" level and lose your stealth you are out of luck! You have to start the level over in order to regain your stealthiness. I cant count the number of times I threw my joystick down in disgust.

Also, some of the level objectives are downright unreasonable. In one mission you have to carry a fallen comrade a very long distance on your back at literally a snails pace while under fire and not being able to defend yourself without dropping the body. All of this while under time constraints to "properly" finish the level. Also, many of the levels are "maze-like" with many "avenues" not contributing to the outcome of the game. Throw in enemies that often times cant miss when they are shooting at you,(not to mention they have weapons that kill you twice as fast as you can kill them with similar or identical weapons), and you have a very frustrating experience in my opinion.

THE GOOD NEWS: If you are a patient person there is considerable replay value in this game. It may take you many hours to master it. Perhaps thats what the gamemakers were going for but in my opinion they went overboard. WAY OVERBOARD!! Ive been playing for a month now and I'm just about ready to hit the "cheat" sites to figure out the last remaining obstacles for me. Admittedly, there is a sense of reward if you stick with it and master it, but geez it takes a long time and a lot of cussing to do so :)~. Good luck!

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:

Omega Stain - Gabe Has Left the BuildingOct 11, 2004
By Stewart J. Gaddy
I thought I wasted my time writing a review on this crap, but apparently not. I played it for about an hour and wanted to get rid of it the same day. Syphon Filter used to be a sure thing, but now it's up the creak without a paddle. The controls suck, the mission objectives are unclear, and the map is hard to read. I'd swear the developers that made the previous Syphon Filter editions enjoyable retired and passed on the torch to the makers of "No One Lives Forever." That game is as fun as having your your legs broken twice a year, every year, for 10 years straight. I'd give this game 1/2 star if it were possible.

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:

Great potential but falls very short.Jul 04, 2004

I've never played any of the original Syphon Filter games so I don't know what the genera is like or what the game used to be like but I heard good things about them so when I picked up Omega Strain I was very disappointed to find the game very flawed, and needing a lot of work. First thing lets start with the good, lets start with the reason I didn't give this game zero stars. The graphics and character models look very good which is the least we could have hoped for. The story for the most part is farley average, at times it will pick up but at other times it falls very short. Pretty much the one thing that keeps the game from being total crap is the fact of being able to customize your own agent, and earn many different awards which gives you new stuff(weapons,gear,clothing) When the game starts you get to customize your very own agent. You get to pick if the agent is male or female, what the agent wears, and what the agent looks like. As you play through the game you will be able to unlock new things like clothes, tattoos ,and body armor to add to your agent. Through out the game you will also be able to unlock new weapons to equip to your agent in a mission like the FA-MAS, Riot Shotgun,UNP45,and an asortment of other weapons. This sound pretty cool but a lot of the weapons suck and the ones that are good run out of ammo fast. In terms of game play the game falls short to. The target lock tends to piss me off because it always targets the enemy closest to you instead of the enemy in front of you. This may sound good and it is when you are out in the open but when you are in close quarters instead of targeting the enemy shooting at you directly in front of you it will target an enemy taking cover behind a wall which can really screw you up. The missions don't seem that interesting and youll feel like your doing a lot of back tracking and running around, which could be, because of the crappy level design and confusing radar. The multiplay for Omega Strain is both a godsend and a curse. Overall its pretty cool to play the game with two of your budies, and when you play with some one else you will be able to unlock specal weapons and gear which you couldent get in single player, but can now use in single player. What makes the multiplayer a curse is the fact that in order to talk to the other players you have to hit up on the D-pad which means youll have to stand still to talk. Over all Omega Strain single player and multiplayer fall short in many areas and the only reason im giving it three stars is because I want it to be good, it has potential, but some where along the line it got screwed up.

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