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Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (PC)
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| Description:
Author Tom Clancy has written some fine novels, and UbiSoft has written some great games based on these works. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is one such release. This one is a bit different, however: it models itself on that champion of espionage, Metal Gear Solid 2, which, as it happens, is a good thing. As Sam Fisher, you are out to save the world from international terrorism. In doing this, stealth is of paramount importance. Splinter Cell makes terrific use of light and shadows in this regard. If Sam Fisher stays in the dark, he is less likely to be seen; but, equipped with night-vision goggles, you are not hindered by the lighting effects. It's a clever system that creates some memorable scenes and adds to the sensation of being undercover. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a supremely balanced game. The initial training received is just long enough, gameplay is perfectly weighted between stealth and action, and the blend of different objectives in missions ensures that the experience never becomes a chore. More than being merely balanced, though, Splinter Cell excels in all areas. This is as compelling a spy game on the PC as you'll ever play. --Jonti Davies
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3/5 |
Soft Cell
(March 06, 2008) |
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"Uh oh," was the first thing I said. "It's got 'Tom Clancy' in the title." Whenever you see those two words on the cover of a game, or indeed book or film, it will mean two things.
Firstly, there will be a dull and pedantic emphasis on computers and boring technology.
Secondly, the protagonist will have a short, succinct, hard-case name. 'Jack Kill' or something.
So when I opened the instruction booklet to see "In response to the growing use of sophisticated digital encryption to conceal potential threats to the national security of the United States, the NSA (National Security Agency)..." and later on "You are Sam Fisher..." I was not impressed.
Maybe I should have ignored the booklet. Because when I started the game, I didn't see much to do with "sophisticated digital encryption". It turns out, you see, that Mr Fisher is in fact some kind of techno-savvy ninja-commando with night-vision goggles on his head and a large gun strapped to his back.
Ninja-commandos are decidedly more interesting than computer encryption, and Splinter Cell demonstrates this with Sam's quite startling athleticism. The control system is intuitive and effective, allowing you to control Sam's speed with the mouse wheel and carry out nifty double-split jumps up narrow alleys with just a couple of key presses. He can perform neat little commando rolls which, with his crouched form, black suit and greying hair, lend him an air of a silverback gorilla. He can bound up walls, monkey-bar across abysses, shimmy up drainpipes and, when he's done all that, he can whip out his weapon and kill bad guys.
Or maybe he won't kill bad guys. Splinter Cell is a "stealth action" game, so hiding and letting the guards bimble past you is usually the best option, apparently. Sam can crouch down in a patch of darkness in the corner and, because he's wearing all black, he's extremely stealthy or perhaps just because the bad guys are thick, he'll be invisible. Unless they turn on the lights. Or have night-vision goggles themselves. Or they're on alert. Or you get bored and shoot them in the face. And this is where the game's faults start rolling up.
The first major problem with this game is its choking linearity. The level design is such that most of the time you simply feel like you're going down a single, very narrow corridor to the end of the level. Usually, there's only room for one or two bad guys on screen at a time - bad guys who are pretty easy to kill. So why not simply kill them?
Well, the developers have thought of that. In some levels, the "political constraints" are such that you're not allowed to kill anyone. And if you set off an alarm, you fail. This makes life deeply frustrating, especially because Sam is woefully bereft of plentiful non-lethal solutions during the first half of the game. He's a ninja-commando who can scale walls with ease. So why he can't throw two punches in less than six seconds is beyond me.
When the political gloves come off, you wonder what the fuss was all about. Because if you set off an alarm, maybe three men will turn up to investigate. Unless you've already killed them of course, which more often than not you would have. There's a lot of fun to be had sneaking around, grabbing terrorists from behind, hauling them into the shadows and clunking them on the head with a pistol butt, but even this can be undermined with night-vision-equipped enemies and "bullet-proof" cameras.
Equally irritating are the types of mission that you are sent on. The objective, you are almost invariably told, will be to reach a computer and send the data back. How boring is that? No assassinations? No sabotage? Modern spying, it is implied, is focused entirely around stealing people's pen-drives while the nerds back at base jabber at you about the data you've recovered. As such, the plot feels under-developed and isolated from the game. "Wow," your boss will say. "Check out this data!" Except, of course, you can't. "We're sending you to infiltrate the Kalinatek Building right away!" Oh, you will say, as you start the next mission in some car park. Why, exactly? "That's all you need to know, Fisher."
Despite its faults, I did enjoy a lot of this game. The quick-load button will come in handy, both for tackling the same enemies in a slightly sneakier way and after you get gunned down, savaged by dogs and trip an alarm, for which you subsequently fail the mission. Splinter Cell comes across as a brilliant idea, a good engine and a fantastic control set tacked on to a mediocre game with a sub-par plot. Sounds typically Clancy to me. |
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4/5 |
Great Game for all you Stealth Lovers!!
(October 04, 2005) |
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Splinter Cell is an excellent "Stealth Game". Many people might get bored or may not like, well that is because this is not a fast action based game like UT2004 or Halo. This utilises possible real world scenarios where patience and stealth should be your best freinds. The modes and tools offered in this game are quite pleasing, Heat and night vision,throwing objects to grab the attention of people in your area so you can sneak etc, taking hostages so you can escape or do your tasks, or simply the various modes in which you can operate are simply Amazing!! I realy enjoyed playing this game.However you got to have time in your hand as well,as some missions can take up time!
But this is a Great Game! try it!..be an Agent before its too late!! |
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5/5 |
The story tells all
(September 09, 2004) |
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Usually games such as Splinter Cell are Ugh...Not interesting, same old stealth games modeled after James Bond and other predecessors of the like. But Splinter Cell isn't the usual ugh games. It's the story of an ex marine and field agent working for the NSA named Sam Fisher who has been assigned to handle America's foreign affairs. It has finally beaten James Bond and Metal Gear Solid in greatness not seen since Pac Man became famous. It's not just the usual shoot em up game it has depth; it has soul and digs deep into enemy territory and events of this world. Unlike most Tom Clancy games such as the Rainbow Six series or other steal action games for that matter Splinter Cell's plot is very realistic. So realistic that you have reference made of 9/11, warfare around the world and American Foreign Policy. The game mostly focuses on the Caucasus, but Sam doesn't go to places such as Chechnya or Armenia. His missions are based in the country of Georgia with little reference made to the trouble between Georgia and its separatist regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia (in the beginning of the game.) Towards the end of the game, Sam does drop into Myanmar and the CIA. Also in the game, probably for the first time, you get a well detailed look into the enemy side of the conflict between the United States and Georgia to find the Georgian president Kombayn Nikoladze . Unlike previous games that labeled most of the enemies always on a gun raging rampage against the Hollywood modeled hero, you get to see a more detailed look of the enemy and those who are caught in the middle of the conflict. In previous games it was never possible to hear enemies talk unless they shoot at you first or hear any conversation as well scripted. Fisher hears conversations between Georgian cops, encryptors, CIA agents, and mercenaries. Their voices don't turn harsh unless they sense danger or hear an alert. Than there are a small snips of the concerned family man talking on the cell phone in the CIA level with gentle but stern voices for a few minutes. The conversations between police, military and hardcore rebels aren't cartoonish or comic book-like as in previous games. The dialogues are well placed intense, juicy and one to stick around to listen on. But what's amazing is how the game squeezes in civilians who are just as stress and frighten as the enemies themselves. And there are also scenes where civilians are killed and Fisher must talk to them to get information. Sam does run into dead people either massacred or killed by bullets and injured workers who he usually helps to the infirmary or become unglued from behind a barricade of wall/landmines. The game also shows the wickedness of man and how deadly war is. If Sam accidentally steps on a landmine in one of the last levels of the game he looses all his health and on the verge of dying. While walking through certain levels Sam passes by many dead people left on the ground from a previous shooting or execution by military officers or police officers. Looking closely at the faces of the dead many of them are young mostly in their twenties or thirties. Certain people Sam runs into are jittery and seeing him sneaking around through a window gets them on the edge. There is a level towards the end of the game that has Sam running back and forth to protect captured Chinese diplomats and three very young American soldiers being held at a slaughter house in Myanmar. Just the scene and passing through the slaughterhouse with blood from cows strewned on the walls and dead cows lying on the floor different rooms is enough to give you the chills. But what's great about the game is that it doesn't look at America's foreign affairs in a hollywood styled way with a patriotic theme of fighting for Democracy and label everyone on the other side as a bad guy. It's well scripted and features dialouges and people in ways other games of the past couldn't. For those interested in getting a game that's out of the ordinary or one that goes over the top Splinter Cell is recommended 100%. |
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1/5 |
Why do you like this?
(August 21, 2004) |
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I cannot understand what people see in this game. This was so obviously written for a console then ported over to the PC market. The controls are for a joypad and do not translate well to a PC whose owners are used to mouse and keyboard interface. Once you do master the controls the game is so easy as you have far to much time to react as console users need time to look round with a joypad. The missions are boring and very linear there is no room to explore, another hang up from the console which only has limited memory. Spend your money on something else this is not a good game. |
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3/5 |
Performance...
(December 01, 2003) |
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Well, the graphics, detail, game play, are all excellent in this game!
Although! You do need a high spec machine to run this game...also, there are many bugs in the game, as I found out when I installed it.
After visiting the Splinter Cell website, I found, it wasnt just me with the "buggy" game.
If i had read what people thought of it on there support forums, I would not have brought the game...
Yes, it is excellent, but is very buggy...Even on a GF4 TI4200, AthlonXP 2400+ and 512 DDR Ram....can still be slow...disapointing I have to say. |
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