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Silpheed, back in the days when they spelled it with an “I”, was a vertical shooter. It was a pretty fair success on the Sega CD, and there was a fun throwback version in the early days of the PlayStation 2, which kept the old gameplay and threw in sharp new 3D graphics.

Project Sylpheed has not a lot in common with its predecessors. For starters, those games were fun to play. This, on the other hand, is a noble attempt at a full-blown 3D space sim that almost totally fails. Game Arts apparently looked at Wing Commander and Freelancer and thought, “Shoot, that doesn’t look so hard at all.” Unfortunately, they thought wrong.

Instead of an exciting space combat simulation, Project Sylpheed is kind of like the low-budget sequel to Rez. There’s a whole lot of bright colors and flashing lights on screen, and while there may be some underlying method to the madness, it doesn’t often make itself obvious.

3D Sickness

Sylpheed’s view is third-person, but it’s not a railed shooter – you can move wherever you like around a huge 3D space, using a simplified one-stick control scheme or a more complex setup for advanced players. This could have been an advantage, but in fact it’s where the game starts to fall down. The game has no idea how to create structured, intelligible action in such a big area.

Besides the multicolored space-box in the background, every ship and missile leaves a bright, dayglo contrail behind, which means a decent-sized dogfight turns the entire screen into a big plate of neon spaghetti. What’s more, the background often doesn’t scroll smoothly when you’re trying to turn across it. Instead, it jerks across the screen in quick fits and starts which hurts your eyes in addition to making it hard to spot targets.

Along with the crowded battlefield comes a host of tiny interface bits that are often impossible to see without squinting. The indicators for a target’s shield level and other statistics are so small – even on a 720p display – that unless you’re right up in an enemy’s face, they may as well not even be there. The HUD’s 2D radar, leaving aside the limitations of representing a 3D space there, is rarely very useful, because there’s just too much crammed in to tell one blip from another.

What all this means is that gameplay boils down to a simple, repetitive process. Follow the automatic targeting arrows, fire off some homing missiles at whichever target they choose, and repeat. This still leaves a lot to be desired, because the auto-targeting likes to pick targets that are very far away, and it’s tough to pick out a nearer one as it buzzes by against the confusing background. If something shoots at you, just juke and dodge at random, because there’s no way you’ll be able to tell where the attack is coming from.

Join the Navy and See…Well…

All this takes place against the backdrop of a story so boring it almost becomes interesting again, in an academic way. You might not think this many clichés could fit in this much space, but Sylpheed does it.

Wing Commander worked because it had interesting characters. Freelancer mainly had that dude from 90210, but it made up for him with an absorbing plot. Sylpheed has neither and nothing else. The characters are stereotypes with only the blandest of dialogue – the gruff, paternal squadron leader, chirpy wingmates A and B, former best friend turned fated rival -- and the plot gives you no incentive to bother watching any of the cut scenes.

Topping it off, the bad guys are cardboard cutouts, which is the real kiss of death for a game like this. Another of Wing Commander’s landmark achievements was giving life to enemies that you really wanted to kill. The targets in Sylpheed have as much personality as the ones in the 16-bit Silpheed-with-an-I. After more than 10 intervening years, we ought to be able to expect a little more from this game.

Buying the Farm

Bits and pieces, here and there, stand out as what could have been the components of a better game. As befits the descendant of a well-made vertical shooter, Sylpheed has a very cool selection of weapons and a smart system for letting you unlock them as well – points earned from kills and optional mission objectives buy the next round of cooler, deadlier destructive technology. The mechanical design, too, is perfectly sound. Game Arts still knows how to draw neat-looking spaceships. When it comes to making them interact in a real 3D space, though, that’s where they still have a whole lot to learn. One of these days, after a couple more tries, maybe they could get it right, but chances are their first effort won’t inspire anyone to try and fund a second.

Article by: D. F. Smith
Video produced by: Michael Benson