Splinter Cell

This is the first Tom Clancy Video Game I've ever played.

I'm familiar with his video games, but this one interested me the most.

Splinter Cell is taken place in an alternate late 2004. The story is similar to the real world. Including Terrisum, World in Crisis, and a war between the middle east and the USA.

You play Sam Fisher, a highly trained Agent for the NSA(National Security Agency). Your mission is to enter enemy territories and find out info and secrets on the terrorists. It's a challenging task including sneaking around in the dark, hacking into computers, disable security cameras, threaten terrorists to spill the beans, & killing off terrorists. Mission Failure is not an option in the NSA.

There are 9 missions in total with a very long game play. You can play this game for hours till you succeed in stopping the terrorism from rising.

The graphics in it are very well done. Photo realistic backgrounds, people, and objects. The light/shadow is top notch. A few cool gadgets to use, a few weapons and special Night/Thermal Vision goggles. The voice acting is great to. Plenty of catch phrases from Sam Fisher.

Those who like Tom Clancy, Stealth, or Shooting related games will like this title.

This game is the first of it's kind. A spy game that has it all. Interrogation, going in the shadows, walking slowly or fast, night vision, thermo vision(which is helpful when finding an enemy). It's the first game that if you do it wrong, you have to start all over! And there are very exciting ways of finishing the game. Also, when there is a code you should enter to open a door, it brings the number pad to the screen, snd you enter it by mouse clicks. And other similar stuff, like when trying to open a locked door, YOU have to do it, pressing buttons and stuff. It's the first game that let's YOU play.

This review is for the PC version. I haven't yet played any of the other titles of this franchise, nor have I even looked at any of Clancy's books relating to them(if there are any). With that said, I have read some of his novels, and this definitely is a product by him... for better or for worse. It is nearly only a positive thing; this is masterfully done. The by far best things about this are how vital, and how amazingly sensitive, light and sound are in this. I have never in any other game seen anything quite like it, and certainly not before this came out. You are literally more likely to successfully hide almost right in front of someone, if in complete darkness, than further away, to the side, when well-lit. As a help, you're supplied with a meter, that tells you in no uncertain terms exactly how much in the shadows you are. The amount of noise you make is determined by how fast you move, as well as on what. You can walk regularly, as well as sneak, and both have degrees of speed to that type, adjusted with the mouse wheel. That's one of the ways control differs from the norm, and as soon as you've gotten used to it, you'll be grateful they made it this way. The graphics and animation are incredible, if not entirely as smooth as that of the recent(not first) Prince of Persia trilogy that this slightly predates and was also made by Ubisoft, then again, they're close. And this is their initial attempt, and they hit so much of it right out of the park that we can forgive the couple of clumsy things to it, the biggest being the awkward jumping. Even the simplest of moves requiring it are made tougher than they ought to be, and you know that famous, nifty position where your legs are all that's keeping you up, between two surfaces, that everyone has at least heard of being in this? It's the main reason the leaping is so odd, and I can't claim there was a single place I used it. There are other cool acrobatics(and they completely rock, with no exception), though they seem terribly underused, and every last one is specific to the places you can use it. That's right; there's not one level of this that isn't linear(meanwhile, they're invariably fantastically well-designed), so there is absolutely no freedom of movement. Proceeding in this too often means "figuring out what they intended for you to do". Not only that, no, you spend much too long *just finding out where you're supposed to go*. That works for a lot of VGs, heck, it was a massive step up from the classic side-scroller and such when it originally came about. I'm not arguing that fact. What I am pointing out is that this is stealth(it surpasses others in most areas, not all). Plus, you've got a team backing you up, would it kill them to at least let you know the basic *direction* you're going in? Yeah, you get a map, however, unless you make sure you know where you are at all times(and how would you), it can prove utterly useless. Allow me to draw a comparison to the Hit-man series, I'm certain I'm not the only to do so. In each of those, while maybe not always, they offered multiple solutions, and you can go back and try out something else, and if it makes sense to do, you may very well be allowed to pull it off(especially in Blood Money, it got greater). You're told what you are to do, given an in-depth satellite view of the location, and from there you can soon think of ways to do it, and start actually *doing* those. Why not here? There is no replay value. This goes back and forth between being too easy and equally hard, and can be frustrating. The rigid military precision that Tom, and his work, is infused with can be irritating in this, and sometimes shooting is overly difficult, and enemies don't seem to have any problem with it. With that said, the two weapons, fitted with silencer and flash suppressor, pistol and SC-20K(to know it is to love it) are a ton of fun to use(when the time is right), as is all the equipment. Diversions that can also render foes unconscious, a reusable reconnaissance camera, the Sticky Shocker, and that's not the only *launchable*(!) stuff you get to use. Optic cable for looking under doors, wall mines, lock-picks, flares, grenades, and I could go on. The tactical opportunities is another thing where this really shines. Night and Thermal Vision(and trust me, it is perfect) demand mention, as well. Don't get me wrong, the game-play is magnificent. The AI is beyond reproach. Responsive and eternally as smart as they're meant to be. The music is well-composed, aids in that it changes when you're in immediate trouble, and you may frankly find yourself humming the kick-ass theme to yourself. There are next to no bugs or stability issues. The "humor" is really the usual silly stuff, fortunately, it's seldom in this, and the tone is an earned maturity(this never talks down to you) not ruined by the many bad-ass lines and moments. Sam Fisher, who you're taking on the role of, is voiced by Michael Ironside, who owns the crap out of every vocal emission(including the freaking *death scream*), since that is one of the things he can just *do*. He doesn't go overboard. The acting/audio is all marvelous. This has an interesting and immersive plot. Every character is credible. Realism is through the roof, and it almost always does pay off. This respects its audience. Inbetween the well-written and nicely varied missions, you see bits of faked news reports, that adds loads. This ranks tension higher than action, and you'll get to do some awesome infiltration. I recommend this to anyone that sounds appealing to. 9/10

when i first got it as a gift i barely played it. i couldn't stand the training level because they were quite difficult for me (that should tell you that i'm not a gamer). but after a while, once i got used to the game, and played the police station level for a while, i started to love this game. the graphics are amazing on the xbox. i also have the ps2 version and there are slight differences between them. at first i used to think that the game sucked because you only get a certain amount of bullets. however the purpose of the game is to use your gun as a last resort. you have to distract, sneak around shadows, hang above people (y-split). i compare it to goldeneye for the n64 because splinter cell and goldeneye, in my opinion, made the consoles look much better. i spent a LOT of money on the james bond games looking to emulate goldeneye but after i found splinter cell and timesplitters 2, my search is over.

Whilst Splinter Cell might have made a pretty good game for the Xbox, it simply is not up to the standard expected by more discerning PS2 owners.

Whilst it absolutely is not in the same league as MGS (1 or 2), the game itself is actually more akin to Syphon Filter on the PS1 - which it has "borrowed" greatly from in many areas.

Most annoying of all, it keeps the S-Filter approach to stealth - in that once you are spotted then it is game over on many levels (!!) Wheras in MGS, Solid Snake had to deal with the consequences of being discovered.

So in S-Cell you find yourself repetitively going over and over the same sections of the levels.

On the levels that dont have this drawback, the AI is so stupid that you can simply charge through as if you were playing a shoot 'em up.

And as for all those fancy moves you see on the box, forget it, I completed the game and not once did I find anywhere to perform the promised moves - they simply arent required.

And also, the box says "creat your own darkness path" - ie all lights are supposed to be shootable - rubbish, very few lights are shootable.

The game is very very linear, you simply can only take the route laid out for you, you cant climb on stuff that the programmers dont want you to - even though they are low enough.

This game could have been so good ! But quite frankly it is just plain ordinary. If you have never played MGS then you might think this was pretty good, but otherwise just rent it from Blockbusters (PS2 owners) before you consider buying it.

And poor PC owners need a 1gb, 256mb, 64mb GFX PC to run this !! Talk about sloppy coding !! It runs with all the same FX on a 300MhZ PS2 - the only difference being in a lower screen rez ! When will PC programmers learn to code as efficiently as Console coders ? Probably never.