Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow
Encyclopedia
Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow is a third-person shooter
developed by SCE Bend Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment
for the PlayStation Portable
. Logan's Shadow was released on the PSP in North America on October 2, 2007 and in Europe on November 30, 2007. It was ported to the PlayStation 2
on June 1, 2010 only for the United States. The game's story was written by Greg Rucka
and its music composed by Azam Ali
. Being the sixth game in the series, it is the follow-up to Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
. It is also the third game in the series to receive a Teen rating by the ESRB
.
named Robert Cordell. A United States Naval supply ship, the U.S.S. Mt. St. Helens, has been boarded by Somali
"pirates" in the Indian Ocean
and is being led by a Syrian
, Ghassan al-Bitar. Logan is supposed to secure the classified contents of Hold Five. Cordell explains to Gabe that he is the only option because he cannot expect special operations to keep any secrets. Despite Teresa Lipan's protests, Gabe accepts the assignment to tie up loose ends with Bitar.
Upon arrival by helicopter, Gabe's pilot, Alima Haddad, tells Gabe that a distress signal coming from U.S. special operations has been broadcasting for hours. Gabe realizes that Cordell was lying to him. After fighting the pirates on deck, he learns from a dying special operations soldier that the squad's missions failed due to poor intelligence from Cordell. Gabe surmised that the attack was complex enough that Bitar's terrorist group, Al-Jamil, was behind it. Gabe fights his way to the cargo hold, with Alima being killed by anti-aircraft fire. Gabe makes it to Hold Five, only to find the cargo stolen. Gabe attempts to shoot down Bitar but misses. Cruise missiles were fired at the ship, with the missiles impacting before Teresa's warning was finished. Gabe kills Fahid, the commander of the piracy operation and escapes when a cruise missile hits the bridge. Upon returning to headquarters, Gabe finds out that Cordell accused Lian Xing of being a double agent, while presenting photos of her and a man in Cyprus.
Gabe learns of the identity of the man in the photo, a Chinese scientist named Shen Rei, Lian's former husband. Shen was wanted by Cordell, the British and Chinese governments, as well as Bitar for a weaponized device called X-Z-2. Gabe also learns that Lian only went rogue to protect Shen. Gabe finds incriminating evidence on Cordell wanting the weapon and exposes him to the government while neutralizing Bitar and his plans. However, after Gabe destroys the weaponized devices and kills Bitar, Shen commits suicide to avoid capture by Chinese CSS agent Trinidad. After the ordeal, Gabe tells Lian that he is considering retiring due to the nature of their work. However, they find Lawrence Mujari dead and Teresa wounded by Trinidad. While protecting Lian, Gabe is shot four times in the chest by Trinidad. After Gabe kills Trinidad, Lian administers CPR
to him, leaving the fates of Gabe and Teresa unknown.
perspective. With the Havok
physics, enemies and objects will react realistically to gunfire and other means of interaction.
Logan's Shadow features weapons and gameplay mechanics. These include additions to the cover system such as side-to-side movement, leaning, and blind fire around obstacles and corners, an advanced melee system that allows Gabe to use enemies as human shields, underwater combat, and the ability to command other characters.
, Team Deathmatch, and Rogue Agent.
Syphon Filter: Combat Ops is a multiplayer-exclusive game released on the PlayStation Network on November 20, 2007. Logan's Shadow features a playable "sneak preview" from the main menu.
Players can create different "missions" by editing pre-existing maps (by adding their own objects, weapons, objectives, spawn points, factions, etc.) and other information. The missions can be placed online and shared with other players or through Ad-hoc.
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
developed by SCE Bend Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a major video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products & Services Group of Sony...
for the PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
. Logan's Shadow was released on the PSP in North America on October 2, 2007 and in Europe on November 30, 2007. It was ported to the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
on June 1, 2010 only for the United States. The game's story was written by Greg Rucka
Greg Rucka
Gregory "Greg" Rucka is an American comic book writer and novelist, known for his work on such comics as Action Comics, Batwoman: Detective Comics, and the miniseries Superman: World of New Krypton for DC Comics, and for novels such as his Queen & Country series.-Career:Rucka's writing career...
and its music composed by Azam Ali
Azam Ali
-Biography:Born in Tehran, Iran 1970, Ali spent most of her childhood in Panchgani, India. Ali and her mother moved to Los Angeles, California in 1985, after which Ali discovered the santour...
. Being the sixth game in the series, it is the follow-up to Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror is a third-person shooter developed by SCE Bend Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released in North America for the PSP on March 14, 2006 and Europe on October 6, 2006. It is the sequel to Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain. In Dark Mirror, a...
. It is also the third game in the series to receive a Teen rating by the ESRB
Entertainment Software Rating Board
The Entertainment Software Rating Board is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings, enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines, and ensures responsible online privacy principles for computer and video games as well as entertainment software in Canada, Mexico and...
.
Story
Some time after the events of Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, Gabriel Logan receives an assignment from a bureaucratBureaucrat
A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can comprise the administration of any organization of any size, though the term usually connotes someone within an institution of a government or corporation...
named Robert Cordell. A United States Naval supply ship, the U.S.S. Mt. St. Helens, has been boarded by Somali
Somali people
Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...
"pirates" in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
and is being led by a Syrian
Demographics of Syria
Syrians today are an overall indigenous Levantine people. While modern-day Syrians are commonly described as Arabs by virtue of their modern-day language and bonds to Arab culture and history...
, Ghassan al-Bitar. Logan is supposed to secure the classified contents of Hold Five. Cordell explains to Gabe that he is the only option because he cannot expect special operations to keep any secrets. Despite Teresa Lipan's protests, Gabe accepts the assignment to tie up loose ends with Bitar.
Upon arrival by helicopter, Gabe's pilot, Alima Haddad, tells Gabe that a distress signal coming from U.S. special operations has been broadcasting for hours. Gabe realizes that Cordell was lying to him. After fighting the pirates on deck, he learns from a dying special operations soldier that the squad's missions failed due to poor intelligence from Cordell. Gabe surmised that the attack was complex enough that Bitar's terrorist group, Al-Jamil, was behind it. Gabe fights his way to the cargo hold, with Alima being killed by anti-aircraft fire. Gabe makes it to Hold Five, only to find the cargo stolen. Gabe attempts to shoot down Bitar but misses. Cruise missiles were fired at the ship, with the missiles impacting before Teresa's warning was finished. Gabe kills Fahid, the commander of the piracy operation and escapes when a cruise missile hits the bridge. Upon returning to headquarters, Gabe finds out that Cordell accused Lian Xing of being a double agent, while presenting photos of her and a man in Cyprus.
Gabe learns of the identity of the man in the photo, a Chinese scientist named Shen Rei, Lian's former husband. Shen was wanted by Cordell, the British and Chinese governments, as well as Bitar for a weaponized device called X-Z-2. Gabe also learns that Lian only went rogue to protect Shen. Gabe finds incriminating evidence on Cordell wanting the weapon and exposes him to the government while neutralizing Bitar and his plans. However, after Gabe destroys the weaponized devices and kills Bitar, Shen commits suicide to avoid capture by Chinese CSS agent Trinidad. After the ordeal, Gabe tells Lian that he is considering retiring due to the nature of their work. However, they find Lawrence Mujari dead and Teresa wounded by Trinidad. While protecting Lian, Gabe is shot four times in the chest by Trinidad. After Gabe kills Trinidad, Lian administers CPR
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is an emergency procedure which is performed in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person in cardiac arrest. It is indicated in those who are unresponsive...
to him, leaving the fates of Gabe and Teresa unknown.
Gameplay
Logan's Shadow is played from a third-personVirtual camera system
A virtual camera system aims at controlling a camera or a set of cameras to display a view of a 3D virtual world. Camera systems are used in videogames where their purpose is to show the action at the best possible angle; more generally, they are used in 3D virtual worlds when a third person view...
perspective. With the Havok
Havok (software)
Havok Physics is a physics engine developed by Irish company Havok. It is designed primarily for video games, and allows for real-time collision and dynamics of rigid bodies in three dimensions. It provides multiple types of dynamic constraints between rigid bodies , and has a highly optimized...
physics, enemies and objects will react realistically to gunfire and other means of interaction.
Logan's Shadow features weapons and gameplay mechanics. These include additions to the cover system such as side-to-side movement, leaning, and blind fire around obstacles and corners, an advanced melee system that allows Gabe to use enemies as human shields, underwater combat, and the ability to command other characters.
Multiplayer
Players can now play as new factions in five game modes, two of which are new to the franchise. The new modes revealed are Sabotage and Retrieval. Sabotage pits two teams against each other as they try to locate bomb codes and arm the other team's nuclear warhead and guard it to prevent them from disarming their bomb until the timer runs out, while Retrieval has players trying to retrieve a beacon from the enemy's base and return it to their own base to score a point. Returning modes are DeathmatchDeathmatch (gaming)
Deathmatch or Player vs All is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy computer games...
, Team Deathmatch, and Rogue Agent.
Combat Ops Demo
Players can create different "missions" by editing pre-existing maps (by adding their own objects, weapons, objectives, spawn points, factions, etc.) and other information. The missions can be placed online and shared with other players or through Ad-hoc.
Reception
IGN called Logan's Shadow "a worthy successor to Dark Mirror" and that it has "a deeper experience that surpasses Dark Mirror in every way", and also refers to it as one of the best PSP games of the year. GameSpy gives credit to Greg Rucka for writing an immersive and complex storyline.External links
- Official Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow Web site
- Gameplay videos provided by 1UP.com1UP.com1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
.