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> Results: Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow
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The ESRB Says
Violence: GamerDad went from battle to battle to really intense battle. Language:The standard shooter fare - plenty of 'hell' and 'damn' and occasionally worse. Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror was the first truly great shooter for the PSP. As has become the trend for PSP hits, the game now has a sequel. Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow manages to improve just about everything from the original - but as it pushes things forward it also bumps up against the limits of the PSP, resulting in a game that is less compelling and interesting than the original. Looking for a compelling story and interesting dialogue? Look elsewhere - this game features lines that would be right at home alongside 80's classically bad Chuck Norris one-liners such as "if I wanted your opinion I'd have beaten it out of you". While the story and characters in the original were pretty thin, they provided enough of a backdrop to frame a solid shooter. This time, the developers try to push the story harder, which only makes its' weakness more apparent. Every time you really get cruising in the game, another lousy cutscene comes along to annoy you. Fortunately the shooter elements are every bit as good as the first game - perhaps even a bit better. Controls are still a challenge that will frustrate you occasionally throughout the game, and in this game they have added more control options that overload the already overburdened buttons even worse than before. But it remains one of the top shooters for the PSP - 'getting used to controls' is just par for the course. Multiplayer returns just as solid as in the original, with some advanced options countered with problematic connections, but overall is every bit as enjoyable and satisfying as in the original. That is the overall impact of the game - for everything that is improved something is worse; the water looks better, but swimming portions are terrible, and so on. When you start playing (after being disappointed by the copy-and-paste of the exact same tutorial from the original) you will get quickly hooked in, thinking this great looking game will be great in every way. But that feeling quickly wears off, and you are left with a game that hits a feature list that should make it 'better', but it isn't - despite making so many incremental improvements to technical elements, Sony forgot to make the game itself better.  
The original PSP game Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror featured violence, content and intensity clearly intended for adults. For the sequel Sony has toned down the content a great deal in order to make it appropriate for a T-rated audience. You are once on a mission against forces bent on destruction and world domination, and are met with opposition at every turn - you are fighting for survival and respond with violence in a modern setting but essentially similar to that of sci-fi and historical war shooters. Enemies show little blood when hit, and the language and other content have also been scaled back to be in line with other typical shooters appropriate for teens.
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