NotTheGuyYouKill
Member
Logan's Shadow ends with a massive cliffhanger and the potential death of Gabe Logan. I don't know if we'll ever get another SF game or not... maybe that mysterious 'Kill Strain' title. But if not, here's how I'd bring the franchise back, for one final instalment with the very first hero that I ever loved: Gabe Logan.
Here's my vision for a Syphon Filter revival. An epic espionage and revenge saga.
Story
The game starts with a reporter writing up a human interest story about the infamous Gabe Logan, former war hero turned traitorous traitor...
The game would be split up into three primary parts: Part 1 is set in a remote Chinese prison (I'm thinking the Chateu d'If crossed with Bane's prison in The Dark Knight Rises rules over by Chinese hardcases) for spies and dissidents where Gabe Logan has spent the past decade or so locked up and framed for crimes he did not commit. Logan and the IPCA has been swept under the rug and forgotten by the rest of the world. Most, if not all, of his friends are dead. The people responsible, part of a conspiracy deeply embedded in American and Chinese governments, militaries, and industry have pretty much gotten away with it. Act 1 is primarily Gabe Logan either reminiscing in his cell or being tortured by a deliciously evil prick and is primarily composed of random, broken fragments of memories and dreams for the levels. So we hop around some of Gabe's greatest hits and flash back to earlier things from his life we hadn't seen (such as a level set during Operation Desert Storm). This way, we can establish his history, the history around Syphon Filter (the virus), and establish his decaying state of mind, and his iron resolute will.
Act 1 ends spectacularly with a massive prison riot and breakout. A core group of individuals loyal to Logan escape with him as he plans to arm up and chase down the people responsible for his imprisonment and the destruction of the IPCA and the revival of Syphon Filter. This section involves a lot of varied globe-trotting with a lot of neat set-pieces so the players don't get bored. Each environment must be very distinct from the last and every facet of gameplay, the ebb and flow should reflect that.
The third act takes place primarily in either the United States or maybe a highly dense urban area such as Tokyo as Gabe Logan races to prevent a massive terrorist strike that involves the use of Syphon Filter. I have more ideas, but this is how the three acts of the story are broken down: The Prison, The Mystery, and The Vengeance.
In terms of gameplay, I want every experience to feel unique, which is hard to do with a third person cinematic stealth shooter, as we all well know...
There has to be multiple ways to complete missions, and you should be able to choose how you play in a lot of instances (non-lethal versus lethal), but I wouldn't penalize players for choosing one or the other. It's really up to their preference. The air taser has to come back and set people on fire.
Gabe wouldn't run like he has a diaper on.
I'd have three playable protagonists, and their gameplay sequences should each feel unique. Gabe is the primary, so his would be classic action and stealth. I'd have a female reporter (similar to Elena Fisher) and her sequences would be a lot of sneaking, investigation, and conspiracy unraveling. I want her sequences to feel tense and dark. I haven't quite nailed the third character, but I think it'd be a part of Gabe's band of broken and burnt out soldiers that escaped from the prison (I'd totally get Nolan North to play him).
"Do you think Gabe's lost his fucking mind?"
"Probably."
Most of the time, it would be Gabe that you control, while the rest of his team follows their own objectives, but Gabe would also command them in squads when the occasion calls for it. It's not alien to the series, I think. He is a leader.
I have an idea in my mind for an amazing scene near the end where there's a US senator shitting his pants as Old Man Logan in a trenchcoat walks into a building with a group of gas-mask wearing shocktroops follow. Just a nice twist on the classic villain trope. I also have sketched out the beginning parts in the prison quite well. It's quite a dark and hallucinatory journey through the mind of Gabe Logan before the prison break, which I am determined to make the greatest prison break of video game history. I also have a bank heist sequence in mind (even the Count of Monte Cristo couldn't work his revenge plan in on a budget)
I wanna open the levels out and give them depth, allowing you to tackle the enemies and objectives from multiple angles while still being able to enjoy the story. Rather than throwing waves after waves of enemies, there should be fewer enemies who are smarter and more dangerous. I'd want the AI to not be pure scripted, but procedural (?) Boss fights are essentially individuals as good as Gabe. I'd almost wanna take a look at survival horror games for ideas with boss fights. They have to be tense as fuck, but the reward is that sheer feeling of awesomeness when you beat them at their own game. No 'shoot the guy in the weak point rinse/repeat' nonsense. Every encounter feels unique.
And yes, we need a flamethrower guy.
What would you do?
Here's my vision for a Syphon Filter revival. An epic espionage and revenge saga.
Like the Count of Monte Cristo, but with more killing and subversion of world governments
Story
The game starts with a reporter writing up a human interest story about the infamous Gabe Logan, former war hero turned traitorous traitor...
The game would be split up into three primary parts: Part 1 is set in a remote Chinese prison (I'm thinking the Chateu d'If crossed with Bane's prison in The Dark Knight Rises rules over by Chinese hardcases) for spies and dissidents where Gabe Logan has spent the past decade or so locked up and framed for crimes he did not commit. Logan and the IPCA has been swept under the rug and forgotten by the rest of the world. Most, if not all, of his friends are dead. The people responsible, part of a conspiracy deeply embedded in American and Chinese governments, militaries, and industry have pretty much gotten away with it. Act 1 is primarily Gabe Logan either reminiscing in his cell or being tortured by a deliciously evil prick and is primarily composed of random, broken fragments of memories and dreams for the levels. So we hop around some of Gabe's greatest hits and flash back to earlier things from his life we hadn't seen (such as a level set during Operation Desert Storm). This way, we can establish his history, the history around Syphon Filter (the virus), and establish his decaying state of mind, and his iron resolute will.
Act 1 ends spectacularly with a massive prison riot and breakout. A core group of individuals loyal to Logan escape with him as he plans to arm up and chase down the people responsible for his imprisonment and the destruction of the IPCA and the revival of Syphon Filter. This section involves a lot of varied globe-trotting with a lot of neat set-pieces so the players don't get bored. Each environment must be very distinct from the last and every facet of gameplay, the ebb and flow should reflect that.
The third act takes place primarily in either the United States or maybe a highly dense urban area such as Tokyo as Gabe Logan races to prevent a massive terrorist strike that involves the use of Syphon Filter. I have more ideas, but this is how the three acts of the story are broken down: The Prison, The Mystery, and The Vengeance.
In terms of gameplay, I want every experience to feel unique, which is hard to do with a third person cinematic stealth shooter, as we all well know...
There has to be multiple ways to complete missions, and you should be able to choose how you play in a lot of instances (non-lethal versus lethal), but I wouldn't penalize players for choosing one or the other. It's really up to their preference. The air taser has to come back and set people on fire.
Gabe wouldn't run like he has a diaper on.
I'd have three playable protagonists, and their gameplay sequences should each feel unique. Gabe is the primary, so his would be classic action and stealth. I'd have a female reporter (similar to Elena Fisher) and her sequences would be a lot of sneaking, investigation, and conspiracy unraveling. I want her sequences to feel tense and dark. I haven't quite nailed the third character, but I think it'd be a part of Gabe's band of broken and burnt out soldiers that escaped from the prison (I'd totally get Nolan North to play him).
"Do you think Gabe's lost his fucking mind?"
"Probably."
Most of the time, it would be Gabe that you control, while the rest of his team follows their own objectives, but Gabe would also command them in squads when the occasion calls for it. It's not alien to the series, I think. He is a leader.
I have an idea in my mind for an amazing scene near the end where there's a US senator shitting his pants as Old Man Logan in a trenchcoat walks into a building with a group of gas-mask wearing shocktroops follow. Just a nice twist on the classic villain trope. I also have sketched out the beginning parts in the prison quite well. It's quite a dark and hallucinatory journey through the mind of Gabe Logan before the prison break, which I am determined to make the greatest prison break of video game history. I also have a bank heist sequence in mind (even the Count of Monte Cristo couldn't work his revenge plan in on a budget)
I wanna open the levels out and give them depth, allowing you to tackle the enemies and objectives from multiple angles while still being able to enjoy the story. Rather than throwing waves after waves of enemies, there should be fewer enemies who are smarter and more dangerous. I'd want the AI to not be pure scripted, but procedural (?) Boss fights are essentially individuals as good as Gabe. I'd almost wanna take a look at survival horror games for ideas with boss fights. They have to be tense as fuck, but the reward is that sheer feeling of awesomeness when you beat them at their own game. No 'shoot the guy in the weak point rinse/repeat' nonsense. Every encounter feels unique.
And yes, we need a flamethrower guy.
What would you do?
