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Aside from earning top scores, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror did what developers everywhere were claiming couldn't be done on the PlayStation Portable in March 2006. It put a third-person shooter on the platform with a strong 3D engine, full-featured cover mechanic, very good weapon variety, and a nearly perfect control scheme featuring the analog nub for aiming, the face buttons for movement, and a context-sensitive d-pad for climbing, using ziplines at specific points, swapping weapons with what was in the environment, manging inventory, and switching between night vision and other goggle types to help Gabe Logan take on tough terrorists around the world. All this with the L and R shoulder buttons kept free to aim and fire. Technologically it is an impressive game just on single-player side of things and the online game broke the mold with a full 3D shooter with voice support, several game modes, and online profiles including clan support that tracked your stats and rewarded you with new weaponry.

I've played through the entirety of the single-player portion of Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow, which is the sequel to Dark Mirror and I have to say Sony Bend has improved on their previous game rather impressively. It's even better balanced than the first game, features water levels for Gabe to swim through and fight from, and generally avoids ridiculously difficult encounters that mar other portable games and remind you that you only have one analog stick to work with. The engine runs faster and looks better and while the story is still generic and disposable I'm-tough-as-nails-grr-dammit special agent bunk, this time it hews a little closer to reality without losing its prime focus as an excuse for some great shooter action. The signature cover-based shooter gameplay is augmented by the IR and EDS goggles. The rich environments are designed with ample cover, occasional environmental items like exploding cannisters, and the EDSU goggles can always highlight interactive items. This eliminates any chance of frustration with the light hit-this-switch, then-that-switch puzzles that occasionally crop up.

The online play in Dark Mirror was notoriously brutal and sloped terribly towards much more experienced players since they get more starting weapons to choose from when equipping your character, including the dreaded double-sawed-off-shotguns that ended any confrontation very quickly. Whenever I would go online with one or two friends to play against others who seemed to do nothing but play the game I would call it our Monday Night Meatgrinder game session. We would get shot and blasted down to little bloody chunks relatively quickly. It's really a testament to how great the game was with its included headset voice support and online leaderboards that we all stuck with it for a while, leveling up a few ranks before ultimately losing our tolerance for being stomped on fairly regularly.

Even back then there were a few moments I suspected the enemy had gotten extremely lucky. One particular moment stands out. I once nailed an opponent with a grenade at point-blank range and then watched his lifeless, defeated form get right back up and start shooting again. I was stupefied, but not so much so that I didn't put three or four bullets in him before he took ME out with a few good shots. I never forgot that encounter, chalking it up to a despiriting engine glitch, but now I think it was something worse: cheating.

My very first online game of Logan's Shadow showed me the developers had done a truly remarkable job taking the online play up a notch or two since Dark Mirror, and it also shocked me with a clear example of brazen game hacking and cheating.

But first, the good news.

You do have to create a brand new profile, but all of the menus are much flashier with animated backgrounds and connecting online was a breeze. The user interface in the extensive lobby system, featuring US East, Mid and West chat rooms here in the 'States as well as an email system and clan support happens to be much clearer, more colorful, and easier to follow than the one from Dark Mirror. The in-game interface is also superior with the ability to choose spawn points before you come back and a clearer idea about what you need to do in the various game types.

When I jumped into my first game, a team deathmatch alongside the cheater "CJeee" I saw him die and went to pick up his weapon while he waited to respawn. I knew I was in trouble when the gun showed with negative ammo amounts and maximums, so I immediately dropped it, thinking it was empty or just broken and would disappear soon enough. When he did return he quickly made short work of the other team on the level below. I ran down to see what was happening, noting the high score already being racked up and saw star-shaped impacts all over the walls, each animating. Another enemy walked in and CJeee turned, spraying automatic gunfire and more of the stars across the room, killing all of the incoming enemies right away. It was a bloodbath, and they quickly left the game while I stared. Back in the waiting room before launch I saw him type "custom firmware" to someone before the game started but wasn't sure what he was talking about, and this must've been it. He had the ability to push hacked weapon data out to the server or other players and become a supersoldier, killing anyone far too quickly.

The big shame is that Logan's Shadow can really be a stellar online shooter, and to be fair the next five games I played showed no sign of cheating -- as far as I could tell. They were competitive and fun with the typical capture-the-flag style gameplay mixed in with deathmatching of various types, and while I didn't have a mic I didn't hear anyone else using one either, in typical PlayStation fashion. It's easy to track your teammates with HUD markers in the game so it's no great loss. I'm not really sure if my profile earned any XP when my team lost or won, but I do know it's a long way until you level up if my experience is any indication. A kill gets you 1 point in the games I played, and I hope there are more points for other actions, but I didn't see any extra points for, for example, picking up detonator codes or arming the enemy bomb in one particular game mode. The first level-up happens at 400 points.

In the end this reinforces the need to play with people you know. You'd hope online play with strangers would be rewarding, but with cheating this easy to do for this game I don't anticipate playing it much online. This also casts other online games into doubt for me. If someone can hack in special weapons that spray instant-death shots around a room, can they make their vehicles regenerate in Field Commander or their Ratchet always seem to scrape by unscathed in Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters? Was I getting headshotted by cheaters all those times playing Dark Mirror or were the others that good? Will I ever know or be able to trust competitive online games I'd play on the PSP again?

As a consolation, there are a set of stats for each part of each offline mission that unlock additional items for use in the offline game should you replay it, and you can jump between episodes any time you want to achieve them. These include things like a required number of stealth kills or knife kills or simply the ability to survive the level without dying. This is made substantially better by a new healing system built into the game that restores your health if you stay out of harm's way for long enough. All of this, along with new bonus missions that get unlocked, are icing on the cake of an excellent offline game.

I can't help but think that the pirates and cheaters are using their custom firmware tricks to ruin online play for the handheld, dooming it to be an offline machine when there are so many things it can do so well.

From Aeropause.