What’s the first game that comes to mind when you think of the original PlayStation? Alien Trilogy? Final Fantasy VII? Metal Gear Solid? Those would all be amongst the top answers. Few, if any, would say Syphon Filter…. and that’s a damn shame, because it’s absolutely spectacular. And no, I’m not talking about 2010’s Logan’s Shadow.

Inspired by then-modern-day action movies, in particular the work of acclaimed action director John Woo, Eidetic’s Syphon Filter aimed to create the ultimate cinematic experience for players – using lock-on camera angles and fast, frenetic gunplay that pushed Sony’s modest grey box to its limits. Yet, at the time of launch, it was impossible to not draw comparisons to Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid, despite being a very different kind of game. Syphon Filter design lead, Richard Ham, recalled the moment he saw MGS in action.

“It was so next-level,” he told Retro Gamer (via GamesRadar) on the Metal Gear Solid reveal, “so many interesting camera angles for everything. It felt so cinematic.” For the Syphon Filter team, “cinematic gameplay was something I was trying very, very hard to achieve… with camera locks and being a fan of John Woo and action cinema.”

Gunplay and Movement: How Syphon Filter Beat Metal Gear Solid

Released back in 1999, Syphon Filter put you in the boots of Gabe Logan who, along with his colleague Lian Xing were tasked with taking down a terrorist group calld Black Baton. The plot is nothing is write home about, rather, it was how the game made the player feel.

What stood about the game, especially the original, was just how well Logan moved. Even Metal Gear’s animation seemed stilted and janky compared to Logan’s free-flowing sprint and ability to dive into a roll. Whereas shooting always felt somewhat secondary to stealth in Kojima’s masterpiece, it was front and center in Syphon Filter – and it delivered it in spades. A clever ‘lock-on’ system allowed you to run and shoot as the camera would pan with you, almost always keeping the enemy in sight.

Even Metal Gear’s animation seemed stilked and janky compared to Logan’s free-flowing sprint and ability to dive into a roll.

While there wasn’t bullet time, or slow motion, players could use Logan’s athleticism to create incredibly visceral gunfights – often seeing you roll throw strategically-placed panes of glass while an enemy was unloading a hailstorm of bullets at you.

Weapons felt heavy and sounded fantastic… and still do now. While machine guns would pepper enemies with then-realistic blood splatters, the shotgun would cause them to recoil violently in the air – all combining to create that epic cinematic feel. A quick button press let you aim for different body parts, and while it wasn’t as sophisticated as, say Medal of Honor’s system (that saw soldiers hop if shot in the leg), you were treated to a subtle ‘Head Shot’ message should you successfully target an enemy’s head.

Then there was the taser, easily the stand-out weapon in the series. Here, you could fire it at an enemy and then set them on fire if you held the button down for long enough. I remember reading Official PlayStation Magazine at the time, with one of the writers shocked at how brutal it was. Oh, how far we’ve come.

An early Max Payne without the bullet time

By the time the second game came around in 2000, Eidetic cranked everything up another notch – with more daring action sequences and larger, more expansive maps. But it was never just mindless action – you always felt bought into the wider mission. There are few games these days that successfully capture what it feels like to be a true action hero. Strangelhold, back in the Xbox 360 days, tried and in some ways succeeded to at least give the player a sense of being the semi-indestructible cop, Tequila.

The Max Payne series has arguably done the most in the genre in making a player feel like they’re in an action Woo movie. But Syphon Filter also played a huge part in this – with its free-flowing action and razer sharp focus on satisfying gunplay. It’s a game that will pass many people by, as the Metal Gear and Final Fantasy remakes continue to roll out… but it’s one that in my view deserves to be re-experienced with today’s technology, bullet time and all.

A remake we deserve

At the time of writing, the games industry is grabbing onto the remake train with an iron grip. Konami’s Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater has sold over a million copies, and Remedy is already hard at work on a combination remake of Max Payne and its sequel, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.

A proper Syphon Filter Remake may require a lot of work. Yes, the original does still play great today, if you can handle its jank, but the needs of a modern audience for smooth gunplay usually exceeds what classic fans would prefer. We need something like Resident Evil 2 Remake, a bold reinterpretation of the original that changes a lot, but never abandons the soul of it.

Will PlayStation ever care enough about Syphon Filter to invest in a shiny new remake? Probably not. Right now, the studio is too busy focusing on cancelling failed multiplayer projects. Nevertheless, it would be fantastic to see the series jump back into the spotlight. It’s either that or SOCOM’s coming back.