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XGD > Xbox > Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
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 Information
Demos
Videos | Title | Views | Length | Date Added | | 36 | 0:52 | 9/18/2008 | | 31 | 3:36 | 9/18/2008 | | 19 | 1:21 | 9/18/2008 |
Additional Files
Reviews A stealth action experience worth remembering., November 21, 2005 Rating: 8.0/10 By Mitch Every now and then, when I pick up a video game box, some of it looks odd. Not "odd" as in weird, but odd as in I truly can't imagine what the game play could possibly be like. The box didn't feature any in-game screenshots, so I stood there, confused, unsure of what to make of this game. Apparently, it was supposedly a hard game, but that was all of the information I received. I almost put it back on the shelf- but when I didn't, and took it home to play, I was lucky. I almost made a huge mistake: Splinter Cell is a stealth action experience worth remembering.
Splinter Cell refers to a highly trained secret agent working under Third Echelon, which deals with most terrorist threats that you don't hear about on the news. And we're not talking about a James Bong agent, going undercover while wearing a $2,000 suit and meeting all sorts of beautiful women along the way. Sam Fisher, who you take the role of, is a frighteningly trained agent who the world has absolutely no clue that he exists. Specializing in stealth and recon action, his main goal on the field is to get in, solve the problem, and get out, all without being detected. If Sam is caught by the enemy, and taken in, the United States Government will deny his existence and claim to have absolutely nothing to do with his work. That's kind of a frightening thought, too: if Sam makes one tiny mistake, and slips behind, he can literally be abandoned by his country. The story revolves around Sam being called back to duty after a long, relaxing break. There's a new terrorist threat out there, and without giving too much away, it involves the Chinese and the Russians. Immediately, we start off with Sam suited up in his field gear, greeting his old commander in an office of the private Third Echelon HQ. After a short conversation, Sam goes for a quick training run to refresh his skills, only this is brand new for us.
Basically, controlling Sam is easy. As we take control of the flexible character, we're put into a 3rd person control scheme, and it acts out like any other game. Sam can rotate 360 degrees, walk and run, crouch… however, none of that is what Splinter Cell is really about. When we run, we're running because we MUST. Mainly, the stealth action variables revolve around being swift and silent. We're given the opportunity to practice this in our training scenarios. At first, it's getting to know how what Sam can do in an obstacle course. Personally, I was rather impressed: Sam is very athletic. Of course, he can do the basic routines, such as jump, climb ladders, and crouch under lower obstacles. Technicality soon comes into play, when we learn that Sam can resort to some interesting tactics to avoid or hunt the enemy. For example, Sam can jump very high. While doing this between two closed walls, such as a high doorway, he can jump, spread his legs, and pin himself high into the frame and hide in the darkness. There are many moves like this, all of them very interesting and some are hard to perform. Either way, they pay off, and you'll find yourself using them even when you don't need to.
When we move onto weapons, it isn't too hard to understand. I was worried Splinter Cell would go with the ever-so-trendy lock-on auto aiming scheme that was started in Grand Theft Auto, but luckily, I was wrong. While aiming a weapon, it moves into a third person type view where the camera is mounted on Sam's shoulder, and we have a perfect aim on the weapons crosshairs. In training, there aren't any human targets lurking around, so cameras will be fine for shooting. Normally, in the actual game, we'll also be dodging cameras, many of them able to be taken out with a few shots. But Splinter Cell isn't all about shooting people. In fact, you'll probably not want to. Realism plays an important part in the stealth action world, and when you gun down an enemy, you may be unlucky enough to grab the attention of one of his comrades, who will spray as many rounds at you as possible. To top it off, Sam is no James Bond. All it takes it two rounds to take his life, and you'll have to replay the mission from the last start point. So, what's a better tactic than running in with guns blazing? Are you not a fan of just sneaking by peacefully and not causing any pain or havoc? You might just be a fan of grabbing enemies from behind and bludgeoning them with your elbow or pistol handle on the neck. This is a fun tactic, and you can choose a couple ways to take out an enemy in sneaky fashion. In fact, instead of grabbing them and knocking them out, you can hold them in place and force valuable information out of them, such as passwords and maybe even use their eyes scan to get past a locked door. But what if you kill an enemy and his comrade finds his dead body? What if you are indeed seen and shot down? Say "hello" to stealth action perfection.
Sam's versatile, you know that by now. But when it comes to stealth, he's a cool, calm, invisible commando that can evade God if he wishes. However, that's up to you and your own stealth skills while holding the XBOX controller. The worlds in Splinter Cell are extremely detailed, and run off a rather impressive graphics engine than regulates light frequencies and levels perfectly. I've never seen light textures so perfect in a game before, and completely blend in with the environment and almost look too realistic. Light is what we have to work with when trying to evade being seen. The bottom right hand corner of the screen displays your stealth meter, which is fully active and changes depending on how bright the area is. This is helpful in two ways: hiding, and hiding dead bodies. If you're in a pitch black area, the meter will be completely down, indicating that you're just about invisible to the human eye as well as some cameras. As long as your quiet, which is performed by walking extremely slow or crouch walking, you can sneak by just about everything. However, when you take out an enemy, his body isn't just going to disappear like in other games. It'll stay there, and it's up to you to move it before moving on because the risk of a guerilla coming across it is too high. Sam's able to lift the body up, throw it over his shoulder, and find a dark corner to throw it in. However, the problem is, Sam moves a lot slower while carrying twice as much body weight, and occasionally you'll be fighting with time as an enemy moves in closer while you're trying to hide as fast as possible. If you carelessly move on, you might face the consequences, which most of the time is the 3 stage alarm system. If a body is found, an alarm will sound, being the first stage. If it sounds for the third time, the installation you're infiltrating will become fully active and the mission will be aborted. If you hide out for long enough, eventually the alarm system will go back to zero and you can start all over again.
Splinter Cell is good, end of story. It's already spawned many new stealth action imitations, and what does that tell you? That it's good? Damn right. If you'd think creeping around and being as non-violent as possible, you'll probably change your mind when you play this. I know I did.
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