Our lead designer back then was pretty heavily influenced by Nintendo’s GoldenEye, which was probably the closest you could come to finding a game like Syphon in those days.” Our goal was to make the player feel like a super spy. From the beginning it was to be a “stealth action” game (in the days before there was such a genre) that focused heavily on weapons, gadgets and stealth. there was no plot, no character, and no story, just an idea for settings, mechanics and gameplay. “The idea originally came from a producer at Sony’s (then) 989 Studios who had written a one page synopsis that he called “Syphon Filter” which had zero meaning, i.e. John Garvin explains more in an interview with PlayStation Blog: It also doesn’t help that the original concept for the game came from a one-page synopsis. This was the first third-person stealth action game they’d developed, so of course there was plenty to learn along the way. Basically, it’s a bit of a mix between Splinter Cell (but before Splinter Cell) and James Bond.Īccording to John Garvin, who was hired as a writer and director for the game, Syphon Filter was a difficult development process for Eidetic, in no small part because the game was nothing like Bubsy 3D.
Syphoner demo series#
Talk about a legacy.įor the most part, the series follows the impeccably manly sounding Gabe Logan as he travels around the world dealing with the titular Syphon Filter, an intelligent virus capable of being programmed and targeting specific groups of people. A third-person stealth game was a bit of departure for Eidetic, considering their previous effort was the universally lampooned Bubsy 3D. The game was developed by Eidetic and published by Sony’s 989 Studios, a division of Sony Computer Entertainment America. Syphon Filter was a stealth action game that launched in 1999 for the PS1. The question is: will we ever see a new Syphon Filter game? A Sony exclusive series, Syphon Filter hasn’t been seen properly since 2007, with developers Bend Studio going on to develop other projects. However, Syphon Filter has had a hiatus longer than most games. Aside from a VR game, it’s been even longer since the last Splinter Cell game too. Sure, Metal Gear was active a few years back with that awful Survive game, but the main stealth-focused series hasn’t been revisited since 2015’s MGS V: The Phantom Pain. Unrelated note, all three of those games have been dormant for a long damn time. The stealth action genre has had three major stalwarts over the years, those being Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell and today’s subject, Syphon Filter.