On a plane the other day, I really started kicking myself for not picking up any new PSP titles before I left. I was on a plane with nothing new to play on the Memory Stick. Just some PSone games that I've already played several times over and Echochrome and Wipeout Pure as my companions. This is not to insinuate that there's anything wrong with these titles. It's just that once you've been playing them for a while, you kind of want to take a break from them. Particularly Echochrome.

So after I got home, I was determined that such a situation wouldn't happen again. I logged onto Sony's PlayStation Store on the PC to see what was on the store that I had missed out on. Syphon Filter caught my eye as it had been recommended several times by a friend of mine as a game of high quality on the PSP. Well, first, I noticed that all of the prices on the PlayStation Store have been raised. A lot of first-party Sony games that used to cost $10.99 to download now cost $15.99. I guess it's a sign of the economy and the US dollar not being worth as much as in the past. But even still, $15.99 for a game isn't quite so bad if it's of the quality that the game was supposedly at.

Thus far, I have made it through the training missions of the game and I'm in stage 2-2. I haven't played a Syphon Filter game past the first one way back in the day on the first PlayStation. There's some story elements that I have clearly missed out on, but it's nothing that I would say is crucial to the understanding of the quite basic storyline thus far. Syphon Filter sets itself up in a way somewhat reminiscent of the opening to Metal Gear Solid in that you're in Alaska, sneaking into a military base. It's evident right away that the sneaking mission aspect of the game gives a very generous usage of the word "sneak". Dark Mirror doesn't reward or punish you for playing the game the way you want to play it, but it feels like it should. If you actually try to sneak around, you may find yourself victim to a pre-set event that doesn't announce itself. It just happens. You'll be instantly flooded with soldiers popping out of every vent, car, toilet, and keyhole. Well, it's not such a huge problem aside from the fact that it feels like there's no real way to be stealthy in this game. Metal Gear, it isn't. Maybe that's an unfair comparison, but I feel that it's a pertinent one, especially for a game that bills itself with a covert operations style of story.

When the stealth aspect is taken away, what's left is a very capable third-person action game. Using the face buttons to utilize the camera angles is quite awkward at first, but they're manageable. At its core, Dark Mirror uses the stick to move, the face buttons to rotate the camera angles, and the L button to aim and R button to shoot. It doesn't overtly complicate things, but if you were to see a controller diagram, you would probably give it a strange look, especially for a handheld title. Dark Mirror's reliance on the d-pad for context-sensitve actions is a sore point for me. To climb something, you stand next to it and press up on the d-pad. To flip a switch, you press up on the d-pad. To reload, you press up on the d-pad. On the one hand, it's really nice that to perform an action like that, the only button required is up on the d-pad. However, it is nearly impossible to move fluidly and execute an action at the same time, even though it's possible. The game has not set itself up well to handle it or take it into account, either. Visors are switched by holding the left d-pad button and weapons are managed by pressing the right d-pad button. Crouching and standing are executed with the down d-pad button.

The enemy AI is quite laughable in some respects and very formidable in others. The AI frequently gets itself stuck in a bad situation, leaving only Gabe to put them out of their misery. I have also waited minutes for the AI to do anything at all to expose themselves in a situation where there was no other option but to wait. It's definitely a mixed bag with the AI, but taking them out is far more satisfying than you'd ever anticipate, especially if you're playing stealthily (or trying to).

I get the feeling that Dark Mirror is definitely not going to be anywhere close to the best PSP title I've ever played, but it feels more than formidable so far. I think that as I continue playing it, my feelings on the game could change for the better.