2nd Op By

Brad Gallaway 6.5 RATING

The ultimate example of a difficult game to review, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell possesses the best of what modern videogames offer as well as some of the worst from the past. Unfortunately in this case, the bad clearly outweighs the good and prevents the game from reaching its full (and considerable) potential.

Before going any further, let me give praise where it's due and commend the game's astounding graphics and effects. If I were to score it based only on visuals, it would be a perfect ten. The usage of shadow adds outstanding depth to being stealthy, and the game's night-vision is stunning to see. The environments look as good or better than anything else available on consoles today, and Sam Fisher himself is a great addition to the pantheon of videogame luminaries. This grizzled old vet can definitely give Solid Snake a run for his money any day of the week.

With that said, there's more to a good game than graphics and style. I'm in full agreement with Gene's assessment of the gameplay, and quite disappointed with the true nature of this beast.

As Gene noted, Splinter Cell is both extremely linear and highly restrictive. As a result, I was constantly forced to suss out the developers' "one correct solution" to each challenge, and figure out exactly what steps they wanted me to perform. There just isn't any freedom to try your own ideas or strategies despite the wealth of gadgets in Sam's back pocket. Strip away the eye candy and you're left with an archaic "try and die" style of gaming where success comes by memorizing every level's obstacles through countless deaths and failures. This unconvincing and inflexible structure can't hold a candle to the organic, freeform missions found in Deus Ex or Hitman 2—both excellent examples of next-generation thinking in related genres. Splinter Cell's brand of play feels like it went out of style with the Cold War, and its designers are going to have to work harder to keep up with the modern espionage scene.

While my hands felt completely tied going through the levels, other games have been guilty of similar crimes. It wouldn't have been so intolerable if not for the straw that broke the camel's back: unpredictable hit detection. Similar to Gene's experience, connecting bullets with their targets was about as reliable as rolling dice. The first time through an area, I could pop a key lightbulb with one shot. After dying and retracing my steps, I emptied an entire clip and still wasn't able to shoot the same light out. This also goes for headshots. Sometimes I could down a guard with a single clean hit, and the next time the same guard could take one in the skull, two in the chest and keep on coming after sounding the alarm. In a game where one alert can fritz an entire mission, gunplay needs to be significantly tighter than this to avoid needless frustration.

I was very excited to get my hands on Splinter Cell and had been looking forward to it since the first screenshots. The Xbox has been badly in need of another superstar title besides Halo, and Splinter Cell was poised to be it. The game's abundant "cool" is plain even to casual observers, and it's almost inconceivable that it would fail to impress. However, as much as I wanted to like it, the various gadgetry and other elements just don't come together without a solid core to attach themselves to. I wish Ubi Soft had spent more time expanding the gameplay instead of tweaking the lighting and shadow. As striking as the presentation is, the actual play feels very shallow and limited. If these issues are addressed, a future sequel should be incredible.

Disclaimer: This review is based on the Xbox version of the game.

Public Opinion

Umsavang 5.0 Rating

This game half sucks and partly rules. The graphics are very good, but only the lighting is gorgeous. The motion is terrible, the enemies are blocky and the game hides a lot of its problems by being constantly dark. Sure darkness is supposed to be a veil, but not absolute blackness. The game is frustrating because shooting is very random, and very boring linearly being just a series of "get to CPU, shoot guard before hits alarm, proceed" which increases aggravation because you will more likely miss shooting the guard and get caught and are forced to start over, on random trial and error, you didn't learn anything from dying like Panzer Dragoon. Graphics don't make good games. This is not a good game.

The PS2 version has a number of CG cutscenes that were not present on the Xbox, and they significantly add to the game by explaining things that didn't make sense before. They also give needed depth to Sam Fisher by touching on the relationship with his daughter. Family Man Sam is far more compelling than Anonymous Spook Sam, in my opinion.

Many of the levels are also streamlined and modified to help the game flow more smoothly. The Normal difficulty has been reduced, with some levels being more lenient in terms of the number of alarms you can set off, and the behavior/number of enemies.

The Xbox has the downloadable "Kola Cell" level via Xbox Live, but the PS2 exclusive level, "Nuclear Power Plant" was excellent in its own right, featuring Sam in snow-white arctic camo pulling off a very lengthy sortie... on Russia's Kola peninsula.

The graphics on the PS2 aren't as ultra-polished (the night/infrared vision look more striking on the Xbox), but they're more than respectable, and even better than i would have imagined possible, frankly. This port looks excellent.

Splinter Cell on the PS2 still has the same issues that Gene and I touched on in our reviews, but it's different enough to warrant a look from people who had trouble warming up to the Xbox version. With new CG fleshing out the plot, a more manageable difficulty level and graphics that more than get the job done, i'm giving this version of Splinter Cell a full extra point, bringing it to 7.5

Reader Second Opinions