Syphon Filter SDA run (2006) Submission Comments

Author's comments:
Syphon Filter is one of those odd games that's either brilliant or terrible, and you're never sure which. The controls are sloppy, the manual aim is excruciatingly sluggish, the graphics and story are mediocre, the voice-acting is awful, and yet the gameplay flaws somehow breed their own strategies for getting through each level. The sluggish controls just become another obstacle to be overcome like the guards and climbing segments. It's very odd, but I've rarely cursed at a game louder or grudgingly enjoyed it more.

I started this run back in April 2006 and finished it in early June. It's my first non-TAS speedrun, and despite having to fight with the controls as often as the guards, the game is blessedly single-minded and it wasn't difficult to find the most linear route for each set of objectives. Much of the time saved came from finding where guards can be bypassed, where objectives could be completed without having to hang around for too long, where long and careful climbing segments could be skipped, and where enemy placement and movement could be manipulated in various ways.

I owe a great deal to Shin's run of this game, linked here. He used much more cautious routes than I did, but the general path for most levels was the ideal one, and watching his runs ended up saving me a great deal of time figuring out how to optimize large sections of the last level set. Thanks also to Saxman for pointing me in this direction.

Overall, I probably lost about 30-40 seconds or so from minor mistakes or not-quite ideal parts of some levels. I'll point out my least favorite spots in the run in the segment rundown.

Segment 1: Georgia Street - This level is the only one I'd consider to be notably improvable, but only because I improved so much playing the following levels. I figured out a strategy for covering the CBDC agent that was pulled off better in Washington Park than here; in involves getting a feel for when the objective complete message comes up and leaving the agent to fend for himself at just the right time so it pops up as you're already on your way out. There are a few bumps against bits of scenery, and rather than answer Lian's call right away and immediately cancel, I opt to wait until the prompt disappears, so I can use the triangle button to unlock the subway. About halfway through the run I seem to figure out that answering and cancelling is faster. I pause for a brief moment at the end of the level to force the guard's grenade farther away from my finishing position in front of the viral bomb, or else it would kill me as the screen faded to black.

Segment 2: Destroyed Subway - Gabe is ridiculously flammable. One brush against fire and it's all over. This is one of two "completely on fire" levels, and it involves a lot of ridiculous climbing and avoiding guards who have nothing better to do than hang out in a collapsing subway. The ones that have caught fire and run screaming at you are hilarious though. Note how many guards I'm simply ignoring in these early levels -- it isn't until about level 6 that their aim goes above stormtrooper level.

Segment 3: Main Subway Line - As soon as I realized you could kill Mara before she stops at the end of the subway, I tried to see how fast I could do it. Turns out it's REALLY fast. ;)

Segment 4: Washington Park - There are two major elements of this level that cause the most problems in a speedrun: covering the CBDC agents and finding Margos in the hedge maze. I used the same tactic I tried in Georgia Street to better effect with the CBDC agents here, counting off a set number of seconds and then abandoning them, so that the objective complete message would appear when I was well on my way. Got a little hesitant with the fourth one, but I don't think I lost too much time. As for Margos, he appears in roughly the same spot each time, it's just a question of what he'll do once he hears the gunshot noises or sees you round the corner. The mini crouch-walk I did at the end of the level is embarrassing; I was trying to roll and hit the wrong blasted button.

Segment 5: Freedom Memorial - Not much to say. Just takes persistence to hit him three times as quickly as possible, before he can shoot or turn to move the backpack out of your line of sight.

Segment 6: Expo Center Reception - First of two annoying un-improvable stealth segments. Then the level turns to all-out action. Not the fastest I've killed Benton, but probably the fastest I've killed the guard with the keycard at the bottom of the tall ramp. Had a few rough spots shooting the elevator control panel (man, that manual aim is slow) and probably don't have to climb on the far left in the Mars surface room (then again, there are a buttload of guards there). Note how hesitant I am climbing the lunar lander and again on top of the balcony. That's because I had two incredible runs where I fell off the balcony and died. Consecutively.

Segment 7: Expo Center Dinorama - One of my favorite runs, even though I'm not fond of waiting for the Lian message to go away instead of just cancelling it again. I avoid every guard in the tall room except the one with the keycard, and manage to knock out Mara with the taser before she can even say her line of dialogue. The game recommends you use the sniper rifle to shoot her weapon out of her hand, but the taser has a neat glitch where all you have to do is aim at someone and fire for it to connect. Check out Phagan glitching after she collapses!

Segment 8: Rhoemer's Base - You can actually go full commando on this level, but then you get swarms of guards with extremely good aim appearing around corners constantly. I tried, I really did, but stealth ended up the only consistent way to beat the level quickly. Found a ridiculous amount of shortcuts in this one, from ignoring guards and spotlights on the balcony to skipping a semi-scripted segment with two walking guards by jumping off the wall after backtracking across the first upper walkway. Easily saved 30 seconds.

Segment 9: Base Bunker - The bit with the gas grenade is my favorite part. This is a really easy level to get killed on, and it takes a lot of fast, careful manual aiming to get through it quickly. I screw up a little bit here, but mostly manage to do it quickly. The layout of the bunker is frustrating, but nowhere near as bad as the catacombs end up being.

Segment 10: Base Tower - This helicopter usually takes about three times as long to beat. My strategy up to this point didn't involve it making a second run on me after it appears the first time; normally it makes one run, disappears, and then hovers overhead shooting at you for about 15 seconds straight. This time was something of a happy accident, but I'm not complaining! The dialogue section before the helicopter appears is unskippable, so I use the time to grab the ammo and flak jacket.

Segment 11: Base Escape - This level is basically designed to be a speedrun, so there's not a whole lot of room for improvement.

Segment 12: Rhoemer's Stronghold - Here's where the game starts getting really hard. First things first: That roll off the balcony took me hours to get down consistently. As long as this level is, it's hard to keep every aspect of the run perfect, but I think I did a fairly good job. Lots of guards can be avoided, and three or four guards in the library can be luck-manipulated out of existence if you're quiet and take the route I did. Lost 20 seconds going for the K3G4, but it's flak-jacket-tearing capabilities more than make up for that time in the next level. Oh, and finally: After two years of playing Goldeneye, a game that doesn't just let you kill the scientists, but requires you to! >;)

Segment 13: Stronghold Lower Level - Same mission objectives as the previous level, but this time most of the guards are wearing flak jackets, so the K3G4 came in really handy here. I fire the shotgun as I'm going down the first ramp in order to get the scientist to run out of the room at the far end of the balcony; otherwise I'd have to hunt him down. As it happens, he's on the left side of the stack of crates as I enter the bottom room again, but it couldn't be helped, it's just the way the game times it.

Segment 14: Stronghold Catacombs - By far the most anti-speedrun level in this game. First segment is an un-improvable stealth part, so I just mess around to pass the time. Second segment involves covering Phagan as he takes you to Lian's cell. If you bump into him or spend a lot of time shooting at guards, he stops moving for a few seconds. If he sees guards, he starts walking slowly. It took a lot of practice to figure out how to make him run as much as possible, and apart from the guard who appeared at the end and caught me flat-footed, this is my best Phagan run ever. Third segment is covering Lian on the way out; she behaves the same as Phagan, except that she stops to shoot at guards constantly. By accident I eventually found out that if she takes any damage at all, she'll start running to the exit and just breeze past any guards that are in the way, which made this segment blessedly easier. I bump into her once, but other than that, this segment's as good as it gets. The catacombs are notoriously hard to navigate, and my knowledge of the proper path through them is still slightly shaky, but since I keep up with Lian, I don't lose more than a second or two of time as a result. Seeing Phagan get shot at the end of this level is twistedly satisfying.

Segment 15: PHARCOM Warehouses - The two groups of guards are battling it out as you go through your objectives in this level, except for when they decide they'd rather shoot at you. Manipulating their behavior is iffy at best, since they rarely follow any set path, and never spawn with any sort of consistent timing or position. Had a slight stumble in the room with the last test subject, but didn't lose more than a few seconds. Crossing over the wire to the power box is always tricky, since you never know if the guards will notice you and you're basically helpless while doing it. One Rhoemer's men blasted the guard who was shooting at me, so I got lucky this time.

Segment 16: PHARCOM Elite Guards - The behavior of these guards is smarter than anything up to this point, but no less manipulable for that. I owe a lot to Shin for the strategy in this level, and I'm pretty proud of most of my headshots. A few things happened differently from my set strategy in this run, but it didn't throw me off much. It's amazing how few guards you actually have to shoot in the tunnels.

Segment 17: Warehouse 76 - I almost went for the M79 here, but after test runs of the last strand of levels, I decided against it. It would've added at least 30 seconds to my time for this level, and it turns out I didn't really need it. I manage to bypass two climbing sections, one by dropping off the crumbling catwalks onto the explosive barrels rather than cautiously climbing down (which was unbelievably hard), and the other by cutting close to the corner of a stack of boxes you'd normally have to climb. Check out how I completely ignore the screaming on-fire guy :)

Segment 18: Silo Access Tunnels - My favorite level to run, because it's the most challenging without being violently irritating. This run has it all, good manual headshotting, bypassing a Lian message by climbing at the corner of the first climb-up area before it activates, rolling through the bridge to get down into the access tunnel, rolling right down into the elevator room (extremely risky and hard to pull off), overall I'm just really proud of this one.

Segment 19: Tunnel Blackout - My least favorite level to run. This one's just infuriating. Getting down the tunnel by dropping down the support beams is extremely inconsistent (the big drop involves hitting a tiny patch of sloped beam), so half the time I didn't even make it past that. Then I get to the bottom and the level is pitch-black, so I have to crank up the game brightness to be able to see what I'm doing at all. Syphon Filter remembers your y-axis settings, but not brightness. Add in a bunch of iffy encounters with guards and one incredibly stupid dropoff and you've got one truly evil level.

Segment 20: Missile Silo - Most of this level is scripted events punctuated by brief moments of improvable action. I tried a bunch of different strategies for the guard on the lower level, but the fact is you HAVE to kill him and it was too hard to get him to appear where I needed him. The scientist with the keycard was a huge pain to kill quickly; he bolts as soon as he sees you, so it was rare I made it past him on each run attempt. Finally, Rhoemer was a shot in the dark, because you have to avoid his first M79 shot and then trust the radar blip to guide him directly into the cloud of gas. This is probably the fastest I've ever killed him.


And that's it for the first game. I have to say that overall this has been a challenging, frustrating, involving, and rewarding experience and I'd love to do it again with another game....just not Syphon Filter 2 or (god forbid) 3.