This is the game from two eras: the era of spy movies and spy military adventures and things like that, as well as the era of limited 3d controls of weird or digital pads of the time.

In terms of presentation game kind of nails it: it indeed feels like movies "Speed", "True Lies", "Mission Impossible" and James Bond movies of the time. The presentation is a bit simplistic, world is more abstract. You can see the game's budget by seeing cutscenes made with in-game models. It is silly but I dare to say that I liked it more than MGS in that regard even.

In terms of gameplay, it is in the alley of first and third-person adventures and shooters on consoles of the time. The limits of the original digital pad forced alternative gameplay mechanics which I enjoyed for what they are. Don't expect it to be as simple as 3rd person FPS as Max Payne, but rather something in the spirit of Tomb Raider mixed with Golden Eye. I generally liked it for what it was, and how those mechanics were utilized. I used leaning and cover, learned to use aim, etc. Bosses and tactical situations force you to adapt to this game's gameplay mechanics.

Not a super hit, but very solid and enjoyable title from the original PlayStation. If you liked Medal of Honor 1 or Perfect Dakr on N64 - you may try this one.

This is Syphon Filter. A game where you play as Superman 64 Clark Kent lookalike Gabe Logan in a stealth suit, in a mission to stop terrorist warlord Eric Rhoemer and eliminate all traces of a new, Nazi wet dream chemical weapon: Syphon Filter, a virus that can target and wipe out any specific genetic group at choice.

I don't really have much to say about this game that some other reviews haven't said already. I don't consider the gameplay to have aged that badly as everyone says. On the contrary, the strafing, dodging and leaning from walls coupled with the "danger meter" where enemy bullets can only hit you if you stay as an easy target in the open for too long, all make me think they knew there would be some inherent clunkiness to the combat in a game like this on the PS1 with hitscan bullet physics and digital controls (the game does have dualshock support but it's very unreliable, you might as well aim with the dpad), so these were some pretty functional workarounds they came up with. Being able to run and roll past enemies who miss all their shots for a few seconds also gives it another pinch of 'playable 90's action spy flick'. It honestly makes me wonder how a modern TPS with a similar mechanic would play like or experiment with it.

Moreover, i think the real flaws in the game are found in the missions themselves. As other reviews have mentioned, yes, the first level gives a good, yet very misleading first impression with it's massive size, with most of the other levels in the game being linear and more of what you'd expect from your other PS1 TPS. Although Washington Park being basically a MGS stage and Pharcom Warehouses with the infighting enemies and underground tunnels came close to replicating that. The Stronghold levels in the Cathedral were also neat, along with the plot twist that follows.
Many of the latter levels, though, just feel like the game repeating itself. "Rhoemer's Base" is basically the park level except with planting explosives instead of defusing them, and with stealth where if you get caught too early you might as well restart as enemies will spawn infinitely once that happens, The Stronghold Catacombs level is just a worse version of the Expo Center level with a mix of trailing and stealth, now followed by an escort mission, which makes me think this game was probably patient zero for all those escort levels in 6th gen games.
And Mission 19 might just be the worst mission in the whole game as it's just an endurance test with no real checkpoints through a long, pitch-black tunnel so dark that even your flashlight is useless so your best way to see what's ahead is to use the Viral Scanner you got from Pharcom Warehouses every few steps, and you have to inch your way through and slowly pick out enemies with Nightvision Sniper Rifle headshots, or else you'll be quickly killed or lose a lot of health because there's barely any cover until your reach the end of the stage. Oh, and there's also a few blind pitfalls just for funsies.

The game also ends on a very anticlimactic note. Basically, a missile carrying the Syphon Filter virus is complete and about to launch, you climb some ledges leading to a computer by the missile that conveniently contains the self-destruction codes you were looking for all along, Markinson pops out of nowhere and goes "everything according to Keikaku" and affirms that he was indeed working for Rhoemer, who then appears and shoots him before he can reveal his intentions for the Syphon Filter virus, whatever they were. Then there's a really hype timed sequence where you race through the facility to reach the mainframe and detonate the Syphon Filter missile, and then it's followed by the really anticlimactic Rhoemer bossfight. I thought you'd have to do something smart like shooting at his grenade launcher or hide behind pillars for him to blow them up and make the base collapse on top of him... but nah, just throw a gas grenade at him and he's out.

All in all, i would say the game has decent mechanics and a very great presentation but the more i kept playing it after the 14th mission or so the more i wanted to get over with it. It does make me want to give it's sequels a try though, and see how the story and gameplay build up from here. I can definitely see why this was successful enough to save the studio after the disaster that was Bubsy 3d.

Syphon Filter didn't really age well. Yet, here I am pondering on its absolutely weird take on its combat system. Hit-scans? Projectiles? What the hell, is that, Syphon Filter tells its competitors.

It manages to accomplish a level of power-fantasy unique to its system, with you running into dozens of enemies while regularly maintaining a status bar.

Also has the O button for rolling. Yeah, that's it for that sentence.

I have a lot of memories of playing this game as a kid back in the day. Replaying it now I’m surprised 9 year old me had the patience! I don’t think I’d have bothered to finish this if the nostalgia didn’t keep me playing. MGS1 has aged gracefully in my opinion but this feels like a relic with frustrating controls and oftentimes obtuse mission objectives. I did enjoy my time playing through it though, especially with save states! I’m going to give the sequel a chance since I never played that properly when it released. It will have to be better than this for me to play through the rest of the series though.