Others say...

"Splinter Cell, A look back."
For the longest time, Tom Clancy only conscripted game companies to make one franchise, Rainbow Six. For years, Red Storm, Tom's tool for entrance into the video game industry, turned out sequals apon sequels to rainbow six, all of them with the same sort of gaming experience. Ghost recon this and Rouge Spear that, until, sometime in the year 2000, Tom decided to try somthing different. He even changed game companies to do it, but he managed to help make a game that broke the chain of squad baised tech-thrillers, Splinter Cell.

The Review will be procedural, starting now.

#1: Graphics
At the time of it's production, and even to this day, Splinter Cell is a very good looking game. Everyone's face looked good and lyp synching was pretty much dead on. Textures and modeling looked very good, even up close. But where the game really shone (Figurativly) was the shadows, and for a stealth game, shadows should be paramount. The difference between light and dark was nicely pronounced, and that left you with a good atmosphere to go creeping around in. Atmosphereic effects, while limited to rain, were spot on. The only thing that seemed really artifical were the firearm mechanics, very stiff. It seemed that Sam Fisher (The protaginst main charicter) is the only person for which firearm recoil occurs, and the muzzle flashes were all one texture (It only really looks authentic with 3 or 4 different 'types' of flash when the gun goes off). Other than that, all of the animations looked good. And with the addition of different vision modes (Night and Thermal), the graphics in Splinter Cell are, still, top notch.

#2: Sound
To have sound be perfect for a game, two things must occur. #1: everything sounds true to life, and #2: everything is in its place. Splinter Cell gets those two pretty much on the head. Of course, no game to this day can completely reproduce all of the intricacies that real sound produces. But If any game gets ambient and low volume sounds right, this one does, in spades. Every footstep, every whisper of grass in the wind, is produced with cristal clarity. In cities, the sound of family arguments, on the sea, lapping of waves. The voice acting is superb, with Sci-fi great Michael Ironsides playing the lead charicter. Most of the accents of the various bad guys are good (Mostly russian, with a little chinese thrown in). The weapon and gadget sounds are good, with the distinctive high-pitched whine of sam's nightvision. All of the sounds where solid, with impressive environmental audio.

#3: Gameplay
The Gameplay dynamics are what really makes this game fun and addictive. At the core is the ability of the player the wait in the shadows, silenty, until some poor unsuspecting guard walks by, then slowly, ever so slowly, creep towards him until you get close and... success! you manage to grab him and put a gun to his head without any of the other guards noticing! Now, you walk him over to a corner or any other dark, secluded area and, wham! Down does the pistol. Clunk! down goes the unconcious guard. Now to hide to body...
These aspects, combined with gunplay, acrobatic skills and a little bit of tactics are what make splinter cell's gameplay so addictive. You can either shoot your way to success, or slowly knock out every one in your path, without any of them having the faintest clue what was happening untill it was too late...

#4: Overall
This game is definatly a must have. With a riveting storyline, Good voiceacting, Great Graphics and exellent sound and gameplay, This Game is one of the best stealth/action titles of all time, only superceeded by its predisessors, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tommorow and Chaos Theory.

Looking Back:

GRaphics:

Pros:
Textures are solid
Models and animations are superb
Weather effects are dead on

Cons:
Firearm mechanics are off, no recoil for NPC's and muzzle flashes are stale

Sound:

Pros:
Exellent sound design
Great Ambient quality
Voice acting is incredible
Music is non-intrusive and well put together

Cons:
"Only human"
'Loud' sounds are not as good as 'Quiet' Sounds in-game

Gameplay:

Pros:
Addictive
Well designed stealth elements
Great Gadgets including thermal vision and sticky-cams

Cons:
"Light meter" Mechanics are a little off, only dictating from where sam's feet are and not where his shadow is, if his is shillouetteing himself Etc.


I Give This Game a five out of Five.

"One of the most intense game on the market!!! Nuff said"
It begins with a complete tutorial and you might be overwhelmed by the numbers of moves and gadgets presented to you. You will need them all if you want to beat the game on the hard setting.
There is not much to add from the other excellent reviews. If you liked the Thief, Metal Gear Solid, or any other infiltration games, you owe it to yourself to buy this game immediately. You will find it at most bargain bins at less than $10. A steal.
The levels are all in different beautiful and detailed locales and the multiples objectives are never the same.
You want to stay in the dark? Shoot all the lights and wait for the baddies to fall in your traps. There are some timed objectives in the game but those are rare so take your time to enjoy the world of Splinter Cell.


"This is NOT!!!! an action game.."
Splinter Cell should be listed under adventure because thats the type of genre it most resembles. The only thing you do is follow directions and try to solve the puzzles on each level. You do something right, you advance, do something wrong, you dont. This is definitely not a shooter. I felt like I was playing Kings Quest or something. This is the second time I've been burned by a Tom Clancy game, there will not be a third.

"Splinter cell"
Splinter Cell is a game in its own unique class. It is the only game I have seen that is a realistic stealth game based in the near future. I first rented this game got stuck and gave up. A few weeks later I picked it up at Best Buy. I beat the part I was stuck at and went on to fall in love with this game.

You are Sam Fisher. An Elite member of the 3rd Echelon that uses stealth and ingenuity to overcome obstacles to complete his missions. You are battling the middle east and even the US in this game.

"Good fun."
When I first started playing Splinter Cell I didn't really like it but after a while I came around and I couldn't get splinter cell pandora tomorrow in my comp fast enough :P

I thought it was very linear and I felt confined by the whole "one way through" thing. Eventually, I began to feel like it was part of the plot because i figured most "secure" locations would have very few weaknesses.

In the begining I was also a little dissapointed with the whole "don't kill anyone but the target thing". I was used to just fragging everything that moved and now I'm surrounded by all these nice little potential targets and i'm not supposed to kill ANY of them??!!?? Now i'm completely bored with the games that only requre a finger permenantly attached to the fire button to win. Mass murder is good and all but it's definatly better to savor your kills and interrogate and force them to co-operate. And it's good to be able to use a little strategy.

I liked the story a lot too. It was very captivating compared to most of the games i've played recently. The movies gave the game the sence of urgency and importance that make your missions seem worth while and rewarding.