Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

This is based upon the PC version. In this third outing they take care of how pitifully poor at unarmed combat Sam was in the first two(seriously... a elbow to the head of a foe, and so weak that it takes two to knock anyone out, the second one being so slow that they'll fire off numerous rounds at you before it hits them?). Not only can you now render someone unconscious in one hit at close range from any angle, you can knife them, with the one difference being that they'll die. The blade can also be used to cut through fabric, and thus make new openings to tents and the like. You can now(due to all the new ways of taking out opponents at short range), drastically different from the ones before this, actually complete the majority of the game without firing a single round, if you please(!). For the first time in the series, you can get someone to go over a railing, in a couple of ways(my favorite? Pulling them over it, whilst hanging on it... oh yeah). That, along with hiding bodies, is made unnecessarily harder, though, by the changed, and now rather awkward, direction controls. Frankly, it usually doesn't make much of an impact, but when trying to Grab, or choose where exactly you're throwing or ditching enemies, it can get on your nerves. You can now travel through air ducts and the like. You get a few cool pieces of new equipment, such as EMF Vision, which reveals electronics, and is useful for figuring out where you can use your OCP, an attachment to your pistol, which temporarily disables cameras, lamps, etc. Speaking of things that go with your guns, the trusty SC-20K is changed around... though it still has the scope, there is now a genuine Sniper to turn it into, as well as a Shotgun, a precise one, and finally the one we know, that launches stuff. Hacking plays a bigger role here, and it's actually something you *do*, not just one click and it's done. It's not tough to get used to, and it isn't overused, I was never bored with the feature. You can now also use the ability to circumvent Retinal Scanners and Keypads, instead of coercing someone, or finding the code, respectively. The Split Jumping is the simplest and, actually, most awesome-looking of the three. Sensibility to light and sound is still the cornerstone(however, I could swear that there were times where I was in darkness and I, myself, could see Fisher, maybe it was for aesthetic reasons). There is now a Noise Meter, and while that might seem redundant, it's helpful in that it gauges how loud the surroundings already are, and thus lets you know very accurately how silent you have to be to not be heard. The graphics and animation are beefed up once again, and this has more elaborate cut-scenes, almost invariably fully rendered(one or two are in-engine), and they all relate directly to the story(apart from, like that of the original, the intro), which is very interesting and well-told, by the way. This time, especially near the end, they don't steer entirely clear of clichés, and the twists are good, if not all the way unpredictable. The Clancy fingerprint is yet again a strong positive of this, and the realism is high as a sky-scraper. This expects that you have tried the first two, and remember what happened in them. It doesn't do the "disappointing sequel" thing, nor lets up on difficulty, particularly(there are now three settings). It does spike up incredibly suddenly at some points, then again, it is mostly even. There are still faked news reports, and now, before each mission, you get a nice, detailed briefing, describing the situation, with every member of your team, and potentially ones you're working with temporarily, and you can listen to each, individually, again, if you missed anything, after which, you Load Up, where you select one of three(or only two, once or twice) configurations of what you bring along, depending on how you intend to handle it, Recommendation, Stealth, and Assault. That brings me to a very welcome new aspect to this... it actually has a reasonable amount of freedom(not as much as others, but they tried, and they succeeded as far as they went with it), as far as how you get through it. The varied objectives sometimes have more than one way to solve them(several computers, as well as people you can Interrogate, may hold the same bit of info that you are to collect, for example), and there are sometimes several ways to get to a spot. Apart from that, there are of course still many ways of getting rid of(or outright avoiding) the guards. This goes further in the streamlining of stuff that was there before in the franchise, and although one or two places, it maybe goes a little too far, it's almost exclusively a great thing. They bring back the map, and actually try to make it genuinely useful this time. It's a 3D model, and you can rotate it 360 degrees, it just has no specifications on anything, and doesn't tell you exactly where you are, it highlights that area. They were kind enough to add red squares to where your goals are, and this has the least "trying to figure out where you're supposed to go and how" of the trilogy. This can be frustrating. Sneaking is fun, as is fighting. While I haven't tried the multi-player, I can say that it sounds entertaining. There's Co-Op(two people, similar to single-player) and Versus, the latter of which has Extraction, Neutralization, Bombing, Disc Hunt Mode and Deathmatch. Music is nifty, not sure it's the same level as the predecessors. Audio is excellent, voice acting and effects alike. There's finally re-playability, with Unlockables, optional assignments and a rating system that gives a percentage readout of how well you did. I recommend this to any and all fans. 9/10

I have recently looked through video game boards and had watched Spike TV's video game awards. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory was not even in the running for game of the year. It was used in best graphics technology and best use of sound. But it did not win in either category. Game of the Year went Resident Evil 4, which by the way is a crap game in my opinion. Other games nominated for Game of the Year and were not as good as Splinter Cell Chaos Theory were God of War, FEAR, and World of Warcraft. Jade Empire was even a favorite over Chaos Theory. Damn RPGs don't do anybody good. I just hope that Splinter Cell Double Agent (part 4) will be a much better game and will receive credit for what it will do for the gaming industry. Double Agent should and will win Game of the Year for 2006.

I only played my first Splinter Cell game recently – Conviction on the Xbox360 to be precise. I enjoyed it despite the way that I could "win ugly" by blasting my way through far too much of the game if I wanted to, so when I saw a relative had a copy of Chaos Theory I borrowed it, not realising that it was for the original Xbox and not the 360. Anyway, as a result it took me a minute to get used to the game; primarily because of how it looked but also because some of the more specific controls were lost on me since the manual was for the original controller, not the one in my hands. After a short time (and some trial and error) I got to grips with more than the basics and it was then when the game-play came through the previous generation graphics.

The story is on quite a large scale and the cut scenes do help it, but there are limitations on the telling due to the age of the game and one of the things they haven't pulled off is atmosphere. I never really felt the race against time, or the scale of the situation and I did feel like I would have liked a bit more tension in the game. Anyway, playing it without that emotional buy-in was fine though. The game offers you the option of going in guns blazing but, while you might get away with that approach for part of a mission, you will be punished by the staged alarms, which mean guards put on body armour, use more powerful weapons etc. You also have a limited amount of ammo as well, which means that they are worth keeping for when you need them – not just using them from the get-go. So, the focus is very much on stealth and this aspect is really well done. It is hard to play it in a bright room but the shades of darkness are impressive even though it is previous generation. Although the action is mostly the same, there is variety in how you deal with the guards – avoid them, kill them or knock them out, hide their bodies or leave a trail behind you. Generally I found myself knocking out the guards to make missions a bit easier since I didn't have to worry about someone circling round on me when I know they're unconscious behind a desk.

Creeping in the shadows is fun and I appreciated the change of pace from games like Call of Duty etc; I also don't mind that patience is part of the game-play as well because this worked for me but these things do come with a downside. The downside for me was that I found that I had to play Chaos Theory in smaller sessions (like an hour) because I did get a little bored with the game if it was all I did for longer than that. It wasn't that it was boring per se, just that the game-play doesn't vary too much and it does rely on getting things right. As a result it is also a bit broken up and fragmented in terms of a flow (slow saves don't help either). On some levels there was forgiveness and you were able to be patient, get the feel of the room before you make your move. On other levels you learn by trial and error so it sometimes doesn't feel like you're good at the game – just that you know guy someone will come from the left because he got you last time (for example).

Although the game-play carries the fact that it has aged now, there are still some issues with this as a previous generation game. Graphically I had no issues because it still looks good – although it is quite a shock to jump from it back into a modern HD game! Audio wise things are not as good; the music in Conviction blended and built really well but in Chaos Theory it doesn't quite work as well and it is quite digital in how it comes on and goes off. It was the sound effects that bugged me a bit more though. They blend but again the limitations are clear because, although they fade, there is a very noticeable "switch off" stage to them. The best example is city noise on the New York level – on a balcony it is a great background of traffic, take one step inside a doorway and it completely stops, take a step back and there it is again. This is the same with radios and other environmental noises. The directional nature of the noise isn't great either because locating things within your headphones is hard and this aspect was a bit off as well. This aspect annoyed because playing a stealth game and being quiet means supporting noises are important, and in this I found it difficult to locate. It isn't awful though and maybe I am just accustomed to the very impressive sound design one gets with modern games.

Overall Chaos Theory remains a really enjoyable stealth game despite the limitations of its age. It got a little dull for me if I exclusively played it for any significant length of time, but this wasn't a problem. Lack of atmosphere, slow saves and fragmented game-play did hurt it for me but otherwise the stealth aspect and the freedom of opinions kept it fun and engaging. Not quite the classic some would have you believe but a good game and one that stands up well.

(Title: Splinter Cell Trilogy - remastered in HD)

Setting: Korea, Japan, U.S.

Graphics: Big step up from the first two remastered games. It impressed me almost as much as Deus Ex for the Playstation 2 on my 34 cm colour TV! It often looks terrific…like a PS3 generation game, although some of the character modelling still looks PS2 standard. The bad guys often have a sleepwalker/zombie/Cliff Young shuffle to their walk, although it slightly improves later on in the game. Very impressive visuals. Sam Fisher also looks different in the game, as you play him…he seems bigger on the screen, so there is some adjustment to the new look of the game.

Sound: Didn't notice it too much, but it is annoying how the sound you make in the game alerts the bad guys…in a silly way…e.g. if you creep to fast, e.g. a lighthouse on a stormy, windy day, the guy inside, on the ham radio will hear you! Hmm. Stuff like that.

Good about the game: * I don't usually give credit to Ubisoft, finding their games sucky in one way or another, but big plaudits to them for the way that you gave revisit any mission you've played and try and improve your % score. That gives replayability to the game. I replayed a few missions or parts of missions in order to unlock trophies and it did not affect my score in bad ways. E.g. I had one save for the very end of the game and I went redid an earlier mission to get the trophy for getting at least 80% in every mission. I did that, and when I went back to my end game save, all my later mission successes were not altered, so I got my trophy. Not sure if that cuts both ways…I'd hate to do WORSE in a replayed mission and have that show up on your save for the finale…especially if you did not save that replay.

* I actually had fun early on in the game coming to grips with the new look and feel of the game. I'd laugh if I got into trouble with the bad guys as I was adjusting to the new dynamics of the game.

* Humour is back in the game. There are some 'cute' easter eggs too, I suppose that you would call them…checker boards with 5 black and 5 red squares for each side; TV screens showing promos for the previous Splinter Cell game (the apartment mission, I think). The security firm mission has a newspaper mentioning Ubisoft! Sometimes you get a Vincent Price type voice saying "Darkness" when you endarken an area.

Bad about the game: * Has some bugs like: quickloading a game can quit the game! The game seems to save more than once sometimes when you save…either that or there is delay between you saving and the game acting on it…so that you are surprised when the game stops to save. This could potentially be very bad…as in you saving when you are in good position and the game acting on that when you are bad position…you might find yourself in an impossible spot and need to restart the entire mission again. Fortunately, this never happened to me.

* Stupid trophies! Loads of trophies for just basically playing the mission or the game. I got sucked in to a certain extent (e.g. one for getting at least 80% score for every mission) but some I just can't be bothered chasing.

* There is a new sound meter which shows how much noise you are making…it's unrealistic.

* In the apartment mission, once you reach the helicopter, the noise of that helicopter keeps going, even after you have moved across the road…and inside another building! Just annoying to hear that noise.

* The game has bodies to find. Not sure what the Hell that is all about. If there's a trophy in it, I can't be bothered with it. One body that I found was actually invisible, initially! WTF? All rather silly, really.

* Sam dying when he doesn't auto-grab edges.

Misjudgements in the game: * The BIG one: the horrible hacking mode in the game. It is utterly baffling! When I did manage to hack a computer or whatever, it felt quite random…I had no idea why it worked. You really need to be able to do this in the game. Eventually I consulted the training tutorial for this (I pretty much knew how to do everything else or could work it out myself…which is GOOD about games!) but that wasn't much help. Had to go online for the trick to hacking. It's mind numbingly simple once you know how to do it. It's just a pity that it's so incomprehensible to work it out or have useful advice in the tutorial video to help you. I actually had FUN with the game once I knew the trick to hacking…getting to actually enjoy the gameplay! How about that? For the unitiated, the hacking puzzle just overloads you with information which I found impossible to process…the number of online tips proves that the system is not intuitive…bad, in other words. Some verbal tips in the training video on what buttons to press would have helped…there were a lot of visual clues which weren't obvious…to much information to process. Useless.

General observations:

The best game of the trilogy. You can see the seeds of some of the features I hate in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series here. Would have liked to have known why missions didn't get 100% even when I thought I did everything required. 10-20 hours worth of play over 10 missions…10 for replays once you know the drill.

I got this game today (3/29/05) and played forever. The only reason that I stopped playing was because of the parents. This game is the best Splinter Cell game. It has kick butt graphics, sound, AI, physics and more. If you are looking for a game to rival any and defeat it, get this one. The fact that there are different paths through and around most obstacles is awesome. In the first two games, which were and still are sweet, you could only go one way through a level and each time you died you had to do the same boring "stuff". Not here. The new moves and different paths are awesome. I especially love the stealthy kills with the knife or choke hold while hanging upside down. Ubisoft and Tom Clancy did a great job at creating a game sequel that is better then the rest.

P.S. "Kick butt" just doesn't do justice but it is prohibited to say what I want to say. But everyone should know what I'm trying to say.