Written By Chad Varn

     For the first time in the at least the past fifteen years a console game has torn me away from my beloved PC. It almost happened with Halo; Microsoft and Bungie’s definitive first-person shooter, but I still found myself going back to the PC for deeper plots as in Deus Ex and a larger multi-player experience via games like Battlefield 1942. The last console game I remember as kid growing up that drained my every waking moment was Activision’s classic Pitfall for the Atari 2600. Yea, I am somewhat of an old guy, but hey, I still love to play games. A couple of weeks ago Splinter Cell was put in my lap and my gaming life hasn’t been the same since. It has completely turned this gamer into a huge console player again, and like that great game of Pitfall it is slowly sucking away my every free moment of time.

At first glance Splinter Cell comes across as a Metal Gear Solid 2 clone, but its approach to the stealth action genre is somewhat different. For our take on Metal Gear Solid 2 go to this link.

     The first thing about Splinter Cell is of course the graphics. While I’m a big believer in the axiom that "great graphics do not a great game make", Splinter Cell’s graphics are simply stunning. Using a heavily modified Unreal engine to drive it, I never thought you could pull off some of the effects that Splinter Cell does. Lighting is so convincing throughout the levels that belief is almost suspended. Even the moths hovering around lights cast shadows and it’s done in real time with no slow down. Lights coming in through bullet holes or blinds in an office give an eerie glow. It manages to give Splinter Cell a near photo-realistic look. The textures used are all high resolution and give all the objects and surfaces a sharp detailed appearance.

     The story involves a group known as the third echelon, a covert NSA organization that operates independently of the government. You are Sam Fisher, a seasoned special ops veteran, reactivated to join the third echelon and become part of the splinter cell. If caught during a mission or worse yet, killed, the government can and will disavow all knowledge of your existence. Your mission is to infiltrate both enemy and friendly states alike to ensure the safety of the free world, by any and all means necessary. This ability to operate in this manner is called the fifth freedom, and as a splinter operative you’ll invoke it often.

     Sound plays a key a roll, being equally important to not be heard or seen. Cleaver use of world objects like bottles or cans can be thrown to produce noise in one direction distracting guards so you my go another direction. Although this has been done in games like No One Lives Forever, it is more effectively implemented in Splinter Cell. The very sound of your footsteps can bring unwanted attention as well. Walk too fast on a steel walkway and you’re sure to arouse suspicion, or walk on a shattered piece of glass and that could also give you away. Movement in Splinter Cell must be precise to avoid detection, and rushing too fast into areas can produce noise that will give you away.

     Controlling Sam Fisher and the camera is very easy, the left analog controls movement while the right controls the camera. All the buttons by default are assigned intuitively to the various actions you’ll need to use during missions. You may also rearrange the various information windows to your liking so they don’t obscure your view. As Fisher you’ll have many special moves at your command like the split jump move that enables you to pounce on your victims from above, and the double jump that lets you get to places by jumping then bounding off of the nearest adjacent wall. Fisher can also scale fences, climb pipes, and zip wire, giving you many ways to get from point A to point B.

     There are not too many complaints about Splinter Cell as far as bugs or features go, but there are some. For one thing, it would have been more realistic if every body you kill or render unconscious could have been searched. Most of the time you’ll find satchels but it would have been more immersive to search bodies for other objects like Metal Gear Solid or even No One Lives Forever. As always, developers have screwed up the save features. I know that having save points at certain times heightens tension but for goodness sake the X-Box has a freaking hard drive, so let’s use it. Not all gamers can keep going to the next save point. A save anywhere feature would have been nice. I think Hitman 2 does this the best, by giving you a certain amount of saves based on difficulty.

     Splinter Cell is X-Box Live enabled but there’s no multiplayer. You will soon be able to download new content such as bonus missions. As of this writing, no new content was up. Over all, Splinter Cell is right up there with Halo. It’s a game that makes you want to own an X-Box. It is fun, challenging, and drop dead gorgeous. If you haven’t got your copy yet, RUN don’t walk to your nearest software store and grab it. Don’t have an X-Box? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!

Publisher   Ubi Soft   Developer   Montreal Studios   Platform   X-Box   Player   One Players

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