Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror is a third-person action game released for the PSP in 2006. In Dark Mirror, players take on the role of Gabe Logan and occasionally Lian Xing, special operatives for a secret government agency. It is the first game to be rated MA15+ and also the first to carry the tagline of 'Infiltrate, Recon, Execute.'
Plot synopsis
The Syphon Filter fiasco is finally over, and Gary Stoneman's assassination of Mara and Elsa ends the conspiracy for good, but the IPCA must solve a new case when paramilitary squads belonging to a group called Red Section attack an oil refinery owned by the corporation KemSynth Petroleum. When Washington calls for a Precision Strike, a mission too sensitive for military forces, Gabe brings his team to Alaska and investigates.
Gabe explores the refinery for the whereabouts of foreman Malcolm Freeman, and soon discovers hints of another project directed by a scientist named William Kreisler. More questions arise when Gabe observes the dead body of NSA agent Jack Miller, a man he knew, and proof of other NSA spying inside the area. He then kills a field commander codenamed Red Jack to advance, after observing that a soldier called Black King is leading the operation.
Once Lian destroys Red Section's transport, Gabe continues to search for data on the project Red Section is seeking. As he looks for Security Section D in hopes that it contains answers, Gabe rescues the genetic engineer Kreisler, only to have him die from what appears to be an exotic plant, without surrending any information. Gabe hurries to Kreisler's botanical garden and takes an optical disc before Red Section can steal it.
Lian and Teresa alert him to Black King's plan to destroy the pipeline, so Gabe engages the forces and learns of the name Project Dark Mirror from graffiti on the wall. Gabe eliminates Black King, but Malcolm Freeman commits suicide, like Kreisler, rather than tell the IPCA anything.
The Agency decodes the disc and learns that Dark Mirror involves plants. KemSynth Botanicals is growing them in Iquitos, but Red Section is using the local Peruvian Revolutionary War Council to attack the location. The mission becomes personal when Gabe learns that an old associate of his, Addison Hargrove, is part of the KemSynth operation, and Gabe must assist her while hiding his feelings.
Their successful mission in Peru takes them to Bosnia, where Goran Zivmovic is attempting to steal nuclear fuel. His men are allies of Red Section, so Gabe must uncover what they know. Along the way, he saves a private named Janzen and cooperates with him to reach the remaining UN forces who are fighting Zivmovic. Gabe soon finds that UN medical officer Richard Kress is a mole, but he is unable to stop Kress from murdering Janzen and an unnamed wounded soldier. Gabe hunts down and kills Kress in revenge before destroying a tank which Zivmovic hijacked.
Gabe is able to turn his attention to Red Section and he seeks another of their allies in Viktor Yavlinski, a Russian criminal operating out of a casino. Other information gleaned from Kress' computer yields the codenames Singularity and Touchstone, the Red Section leaders. Gabe tracks down the source of their finances and eliminates Yavlinski while dodging Touchstone. He escapes from the casino and soon receives word from none other than Addison.
Addison reveals that she left the Agency to have a daughter. Her ten year-old daughter Blake is now a captive of Touchstone, and they are demanding her to trade information. Gabe and his former love travel to the exchange point, but during an argument Touchstone knocks Addison down a cliff. Enraged, Gabe attacks Red Section until he can defeat Touchstone and drop him into the abyss.
Blake is still Red Section's prisoner, but the Agency is able to identify Singularity as an Interpol accountant named Grant Morrill. He copied every piece of classified data he received and used his resources to create Red Section. Gabe brings his team to the group's headquarters to kill Singularity and destroy the remaining traces of Dark Mirror. They rescue Blake, but Singularity taunts Gabe with memories of his past after breaking into Agency records, from the murdering of the cathedral test subjects and the betrayal of Jason Chance to the conspiracy when Gabe was working for Vincent Hadden and Logan's obsession with Mihai Niculescu. Infuriated, Gabe disrupts the special armor worn by Morill and shoves him into the path of a train.
Back at the Agency, Mujari determines that Project Dark Mirror is a chemical nerve agent, and Singularity was trying to release it in the atmosphere. A small amount could have killed millions, but the threat has passed now.
Gabe visits the mausoleum for Addison and reflects on her while the credits roll. In a post-credits cutscene, she suddenly appears behind him, indicating that she had brought a harness to save her from falling. She and Blake have reunited. Gabe also learns that Blake's comments reveal that Addison was lying about her age. Far from ten, she is twelve. Gabe realizes Blake is his daughter, but he cannot say anything. Addison wants her to live away from the world of deception found in the Agency, so the two say goodbye and drive off. Gabe watches them disappear.
Levels
Act I - Fire and Ice | Insertion Point Alpha · Red Jack · Finding Freedom · A Man Without Power · Freeman's Files |
---|---|
Act II - Blood and Oil | Under NORAD's Nose · Security Section D · Kreisler's Garden · Freema's Answer |
Act III - Ancient History | Old Friends · Memories |
Act IV - Saving Private Janzen | Forged Under Fire · Traitor in our Midst · The Ultimate Sacrifice · The Trojan Horse |
Act V - Root of All Evil | Fist Full of Rubles · Blood Money |
Act VI - Touchstone | Meeting with Fate · Into the Abyss |
Act VII - Singularity | Red Section · Drowning · Event Horizon · Matter's End |
Act VIII - Bonus Stages | Goodnight Sweetheart · KemSynth Tower · Sana Yemen · Birds of a Feather · Jimmy Zhou's Army |
Online Shutdown
As of June 27, 2012[1], Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror online feature was shut down, as well as Syphon Filter: Combat Ops and Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow.
Trivia
- This is the first Syphon Filter to be rated MA15+
- This is the only Syphon Filter game that is based off another franchise (Metal Gear Solid) rather than being using real-life enemies as the other games do.
Plot holes
- Mara Aramov is clearly seen sitting on a balcony before Stone shoots her in the post-credits cutscene of Omega Strain, yet in the bonus mission, she is walking inside a house.
- Bodyguards are absent before Stone shoots Mara in the post-credits cutscene of Omega Strain, but they are present in the bonus mission.
- Singularity has literally no motives in his intention to gas Europe with Dark Mirror.
Retcons
- Elsa Weissenger, despite being a perfect character for the storyline, is nonchalantly written into the role of being Mara's secret lover.
- Zohar clearly killed al-Hassan in The Omega Strain, but it is implied in a bonus mission that Stone assassinated the antagonist.
Goofs
- Gabe is clearly carrying an MP5 during the mission 'Traitor in our Midst', but during a cutscene in this level, he kicks a Uzi to Pvt. Janzen. The Uzi is only used during the missions 'Old Friends' and 'Memories'.
- Janzen refers to Gabe as 'Sarge' in 'Forged Under Fire', when in fact Logan would be a lieutenant.
- Stone insists he only needs one bullet to make the kill as evidenced by Omega Strain's Italy mission, yet he is somehow carrying a fully loaded weapon during the assassination of Mara Aramov and Elsa Weissenger. He later does the same during a mission in Yemen.
- Despite the fact that Stone's weapon is unsilenced, Mara's bodyguards somehow do not become alerted if killed in a certain pattern.
Gallery