Syphon Filter 2
Tags: violence

Plot synopsis:
Gabe, Lian, and a squad of CBDC agents attempt to leave Kazakhstan after gathering Jonathan Phagan's back-up files only to be ambushed by the Agency; consequently, Lian is captured. The SVR arrives to cover Gabe's tracks, as he attempts to swap the data for Lian's vaccine from the Agency.Gabe, along with the CBDC agents, are shot down by fighter aircraft over the Rocky Mountains while en route to Arizona to rendezvous with former Agency operative Teresa Lipan. Gabe and the CBDC agents parachute to the ground. Phagan's data disks remain on the plane, however, and it crashes somewhere in the Rockies. With the aid of Lieutenant Jason Chance, John Ramirez, and other CBDC agents, Gabe locates the crash site containing the information on the Syphon Filter virus on the disks, while fighting off pursuing commandos. Meanwhile, Lian sabotages the Agency's pursuit of Logan, interrogates Thomas Holman, kills Falkan, and flees from McKenzie Air Force Base in Colorado. Having requisitioned a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, Lian regroups with Gabe, transporting him to the crash site. Gabe parachutes over the crash site, attempting to surprise the ground forces. He kills Steven Archer and recovers the disks, learning afterwards that Teresa lost contact with the CBDC agents while flying to Arizona.Despite having the disks, they are useless without the encryption codes. Lian's intelligence from Holman leads them to the Pharcom Exposition Center in New York City. Gabe infiltrates the Expo Center and finds the Agency covering their tracks. After fighting his way through the Expo Center, Logan manages to lock himself up along with Dillon Morgan, who has obtained the codes. Morgan has rigged the center with explosives. Teresa diffuses the explosives, while Logan kills Morgan and retrieves the codes. When the encryption disks are analyzed, it turns out that they only have half of the encryption data, and that the other half was in Uri Gregorov's possession. A meeting is set up in a nightclub in Moscow, with Lian unaware that she was meeting an impostor hired by Mara Aramov. Aramov's thugs instigate a shootout; Lian chases and incapacitates the impostor. However, SVR officials capture him and the protagonists bringing them to SVR headquarters.The main characters learn that the real Gregorov is being held in Aljir Prison, located in a remote region of Siberia, and the background of their Agency, which originally served as an international arms consortium that has sold weapons to a multitude of terrorist groups, with implications surpassing that of the Iran-Contra scandal. The Agency was trying to sell the Syphon Filter virus to a rogue Chinese general named Shi Hao, attempting to lead a rebellion in the Heilongjiang province, a conflict which will provoke the Russian military into action, as this region has been contested by Russia and the People's Republic of China. Lian infiltrates the prison to rescue Gregorov, knowing the layout from her previous imprisonment. She sabotages the electrical system to stop the execution, inadvertently starting a riot. Lian makes her way to the execution chamber and frees Gregorov. They fight their way out of the prison, only for Lian to collapse during extraction. Finally in possession of the complete data, Gabe attempts to negotiate with Lyle Stevens.Gabe arranges a meeting at the Agency's New York laboratory to retrieve the vaccine. He believes that Stevens will double-cross him and eventually the latter does. Elsa Weissenger injects him with a drug to knock him out. After killing the scientist that was about to extract his plasma, Logan is free to move about the facility. He learns that Chance and Ramirez survived in Colorado and were taken by the agency. Gabe frees Chance from his cell and tells him to save Ramirez and run. Gabe eventually locates Weissenger and recovers the vaccine. The security alarm then goes off and allows Weissenger to escape. Logan escapes the lab in a protracted pursuit by Agency operatives.Back on the street, Gabe finds out that SWAT has been deployed in the area because of the shootout in the agency labs. He makes his way to an apartment terrace (while helping a pinned down SWAT team clear 3 snipers from a slum building along the way) where he assists a female SWAT officer in killing 3 more snipers which have pinned down her wounded partner. Shortly after aiding her, Gabe learns that Chance failed to show up at the extraction point, and assumes that he is dead. Stevens then shows up, holding the female officer hostage. He executes the officer and attempts to kill a surrendering Gabe, but Teresa detonates C4 under the floor beneath them to facilitate Gabe's escape.Logan and Teresa fight in the sewer system past Agency operatives, making it to a connected parking garage where they confront Stevens and his men. Stevens is finally cornered at the top floor of the garage and executed. As the pair go to the helicopter, they find Chance, dressed in heavy armor, having been working undercover for the Agency the entire time. He aims a gun at Gabe, but Teresa blocks the bullet, and is seemingly killed. Chance and Logan enter into a shootout, with the latter using a USAS-12 to blast his enemy backwards into the helicopter's rotors.Gabe cures Lian with the vaccine, and mourns the apparent loss of Teresa with Lian and Mujari.After the credits, Secretary of State Vince Hadden and Mara carry out a raid to capture both Gabe and Lian. Instead of following through with the raid, Vince chooses to have them testify before Congress, to blame them for the shootout in New York as well as all of the agency's wrong doings.

Review: Please, someone let these people make a movie!. The original Syphon Filter was an undeniably flawed bit of fine gaming. Put somewhat in the shadows by the mighty Metal Gear Solid, it struggled to find the attention it deserved. It was a game that rewarded perseverence with a combination of realistic violence, dense plot and challenging gameplay. SF2 takes all that was good in SF and runs with it, creating a monster of a good game. Quite daring for a sequel, SF2 takes place only a few hours from the end of the first game, making numerous references back to events from the last few days. This does somewhat alienate new gamers, but the rewards from playing the two games back to back just can't be denied.When I first completed SF2 after a few days playing, I was almost tempted to think it was too easy. But remembering the zillions of times I'd been swiss cheesed for not thinking something through enough I realised that it was a tough game, but one so well plotted that it's almost impossible to put down until you've worked the story through to it's conclusion. What stands out are the little details that have somehow been crammed into the game. Soldiers who would be drones in most action games (Tomb Raider anyone?) are given character by simple dialogue. As you sneak around, nearly all of them are chatting away, complaining about the cold, making radio reports, even joking with each other. It's a simple touch that goes a long way to enhancing the atmosphere of the game, lending what at heart is a guns blazing gung ho actioner the feel of a well plotted adventure game. Of course the action is paramount, and fans of the sneak-em-up genre will not be disappointed as you blast a blazing trail across Colorado, Russia and New York in some of the most heart pounding shoot outs yet seen on the Playstation. All in all, this is an unmissable stretch of the old Playstations capabilities, from a programming studio that clearly has a movie in them somewhere.. Makes SF3 look like a complete waste of time. This was not my first Syphon Filter game, but it was my OFFICIAL first Syphon Filter game. I played SF1, but I never beat it, nor did I bother to try to. I borrowed SF2 from someone back in the summer of 2001, and I immediately got into it. Let's break down why:GRAPHICS: Certainly not the BEST graphics ever seen on a PS1 game, but you have to admit, this game looks a lot better than most other PS1 games. Even the explosion effects are nice to look at. No complaints here. However, the only complaint I have is the character models. For some reason, most of the characters don't seem to have faces, and in one cutscene, Gabe and Lian's pictures are on a news broadcast, and both of them look like a faceless Bonnie and Clyde. The problem with the faceless character models was remedied in SF3, though, but if you're like me, you won't care about the missing faces.GAMEPLAY: The physics engine is not a legendary make-up, but you won't find yourself complaining, either. Since this is 2004, people expect better from a game's physics engine, but this game was made during the PS1's final breaths, so of course it might feel a little...off. I haven't played the newest SF game "The Omega Strain," but that game may prove these physics obsolete. Also, the targetting system of SF2 is perfect. You have two target modes...manual and auto fix target. Holding L1 down will switch you to 1st-Person View, and fix the green target reticle on what you want to shoot.Hold down R1 to automatically fix your target to nearby enemies. You will find that auto fix will be THE most commonly-used function. You also get an enormous selection of weapons to choose from. You'll only run across certain weapons at certain points, but if you access all weapons into your inventory at once, you will see there's enough guns to do your secret agent bidding. Even when you pick out a target, a small info tab will point to them, telling you what's happening with them. So, if you aim the target reticle at someone's head, the info tab will tell you you're about to make a headshot. Info tabs will also tell you if the enemy is wearing a Flak Jacket. This will force you to perform a headshot. There's also a multiplayer mode, but don't expect an iteration of GoldenEye or TimeSplitters. You and a friend are chucked into the playing field, and are forced to shoot each other for points. That's basically all the multiplayer is about, but you still might have a LITTLE fun doing it.SOUND: The sound is probably the best ear party you can possibly have. Shooting un-silenced .45s as others fire back practically sounds like a war.And don't complain about the music...at least it sounds better than SF3's quiet and unexciting tunes.STORY: Simply put, the Syphon Filter virus runs rampant for the second time around, and it's Gabe Logan's and Lian Xing's job to contain it. The game is long enough...it'll probably last you quite a few hours if you die a lot, but if you know what you're doing, it will certainly be no problem. There's also a lot of agent/spy talk, which contradicts how the actual CIA would work. Gamers who just play something to shoot something will probably be turned off by the dialogue in this game, but if you actually like listening to secret agents talk about shipments provided by the NSSOAA after NASDAQ collapsed in 2007, and the CIA requested a peace treaty with the Taliban (by the way, none of that ever happened in the game), then you'll be engulfed into the storyline and dialogue.BOTTOM LINE: If you're looking for a good PS1 Syphon Filter game, get this instead. Don't be a fool like me and blow $45 on SF3 when it wasn't that great...take your time now and spend $20 or $30 on a far more superior secret agent adventure. Though the game does not put a candle to the James Bond games (the GOOD ones, anyway), it's still enough to keep you gun-totting CIA-style for a few hours.