When it comes to recovering classic games from the first PlayStation there is always a handful of titles that remain in the collective imagination. There is Ape Escape, Time Crisis, Tombi… But among all of them there is one in front of which, for some reason, there is always a hole of hope: the return of Siphon Filter.
To try to understand what situation the saga is in and to know if there is any possibility of seeing how it returns from the dead, you must first travel to the past to try to understand where its success comes from and how it disappeared from the map until causing the question: What happened to Siphon Filter?
The birth of a genre
At a time when the closest thing we had to a spy game was Nintendo 64’s GoldenEye 007, a Sony producer of the defunct 989 Studios he wanted to try to replicate the success of the big N with his own franchise. He didn’t have in mind what it would be about, but he did write down a general idea of what it would be like with a synopsis that focused on two key aspects: it would be a stealth game heavily focused on gadgets and weapons, and it would be called Syphon Filter
By then 989 Studios came from distributing the infamous Bubsy 3D of Eidetic and, for some strange reason, the poor results of the game did not prevent the project from Syphon Filter fall into your hands. At the head of the project they would put, yes, a John Garvin who had timidly succeeded on PC based on strategy games and graphic adventures.
A considerable concoction that, as expected, was on the tightrope on many occasions. However, the tug-of-war between Garvin’s writing and directing versus the wishes of 989 Studios they ended up bringing the project to fruition until its launch in February 1999.
Bad luck would have it Syphon Filter It wasn’t the first 3D stealth game, an award that Tenchu would have won just a year before, and it wasn’t the cinematic pick-me-up with spies and tactical action that it was meant to be, something that Metal Gear Solid won a few months before. It wouldn’t be the game that would invent a new format, nor would it be the best that this fresh-from-the-oven genre could give. And despite everything, the miracle happened.
The success of Siphon Filter
In addition to garnering some of the best reviews of the time, by the time Syphon Filter It arrived in Europe that same summer and had already sold more than 900,000 units in North America, which obviously caused the studio to get down to work with a second installment that would arrive a year later.
to that one Syphon Filter 2 from 2000 was also followed by a third installment in 2001, but as the games arrived, the reception of the public and critics began to decline. With Eidetic on the verge of becoming Bend Studiothe saga continued to tighten the rope with a release on PS2 that put the franchise in considerable trouble.
The sticks of the press were tremendous, with publications like Edge assuring that there was fog even inside a shopping center, or Eurogamer stating that it was not worth stopping to look at it. Anyone would think that with such a jump to the new generation the saga Syphon Filter she would be mortally wounded, but nothing could be further from the truth.
After the miracle of Bubsy 3D there was the of Syphon Filter Dark Mirrora return to the origins of the saga for PSP that would ensure another additional game on the Sony handheld, their respective versions for PS2, and a title focused on online multiplayer that passed unnoticed by the pocket PlayStation.
What happened to Siphon Filter?
With a generous resurgence of the franchise, by the time the PSP’s batteries began to die, so did the Syphon Filter. It is not that the saga had collapsed, and neither the reception of the public or the press, it was the study itself, with John Garvin at the helm, the one that had finished up to the crown of its star game.
Bend Studio jumped to support other Sony franchises such as the installment of Resistance on PSP or Uncharted on PS Vita, and it would not be until the arrival of Days Gone for PS4 when they would return to the path of triple A showing off their particular jinx and receiving criticism for all tastes and colors.
Faced with the refusal to try again with a sequel to the zombie game, John Garvin packed his bags and Bend Studio got down to business with a new open world IP yet to be revealed. Unfortunately it seems that the return of Syphon Filter has never been on the table.
Luckily, those who want to get nostalgic can now enjoy the first two games in the saga at the highest level of the nuevo PlayStation Plus. It’s not the same as seeing the saga come back to life, of course, but it seems that for now it’s the only thing fans of Syphon Filter.
