Gabe doesn't move quite as well as Lara, but he looks surprisingly good at times - especially when he's running and aiming

Many will regard Syphon Filter as the first pretender to Metal Gear Solid's crown. There's a lot more to it than that - as an intrepid Future Gamer reporter found out...
James Price

Perplexingly, for the purposes of a text-based ezine, Syphon Filter's attributes can only really be described with inarticulate exclamations. It's derivative, yet brilliant; intrinsically flawed, but fantastically playable. Like a relationship on the rocks, every smile or cheer is followed by a perfunctory insult. One minute (to lapse into childish superlatives), it's absolutely ace. The next, it's a complete bastard.

Syphon Filter is, oddly, a somewhat sneaky game. Playing its first levels, its virtues are apparent, yet partially concealed beneath a wealth of control-based idiosyncrasies. Like Tomb Raider's Lara, chief protagonist Gabe can be an unwieldy character to manipulate. The third-person perspective, strengths aside, lacks precision. So, predictably - and, again, like Lara or even Solid Snake - there are instances where you're playing against the control system, and not the game.

Accept and adapt to that, however, and you're halfway to appreciating the raw, yet considerable charms of Syphon Filter. Like GoldenEye and the equally lauded Metal Gear Solid, stealth and marksmanship are central to its action. There's even a further twist, in that Gabe performs Lara-like feats of nimble feet and indefatigable arms. He can't jump - remaining true to the old adage about white men, but he can climb and shimmy across ledges. He can also dive, in order to avoid gunfire.

Gabe is more Bond than James himself, his exploits and endeavours comic-like and fantastical. Syphon Filter is level-based, with each adventure demanding that set objectives be met. It's the partially variable nature of each attempt, though, that makes it so compelling.

By holding one button, Gabe auto-targets an assailant in view. Another, though, enables the player to pick their target for themselves. Combined with the ability to duck in and out from cover while sniping, these two attacking styles vie for your favour. At first, having the CPU allocate your targets is handy, even essential. Later levels, however, underline the importance of manually sniping from a position of safety.