Rating

A+

Specific Ratings

GameplayA+
GraphicsA+
Learning CurveA+
Replay ValueA
SoundA

Pros and Cons

Pros
  • Excellent Graphics
  • Rockin soundtrack
  • Excellent weapons
  • Unique moves
  • Wide range of non-lethal moves and weapons
  • Very good training section
  • Intense stealth action
Cons
  • Using the Laser Mic

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (PC)

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Summary

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is an outstanding Stealth action game that has you playing Sam Fisher, who is a special CIA agent intent on stopping terrorism

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Description

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is an excellent stealth action game that sends you on nine missions to try to stop a terrorist organization from spreading chaos across America.

The year is 2003, and the U.S. has developed a secret part of the CIA known as Third Echelon. This unit has employed special elite intelligence-gathering forces to try to stop this recent spread of terrorist attacks. You play one of these special OP's, and his name is Sam Fisher. You will be dealing with all kinds of trained forces, including Russian and Chinese.

This was a very fun game that had an intense storyline and loads of cool moves and weapons. It is a stealth action game, so sneaking and trying to stay in the shadows is a big part of the game, much like the Thief games, but in a more modern world.

Gameplay was superb, with a very easy interface, and easy ways to control Sam. The keyboard is used to control movement, interact with items in the game world, crouch, bring up inventory items, jump, reload weapons, put Sam' back to a wall, and the ESC key was used to bring up what is called the Palm Opsat. The different sections that you could easily access thru the Opsat included: Goals, Notes, Data, Settings, and Saving/Loading. The mouse was used to look around, fire weapons, and zoom in/out when in Sniper mode.

Graphics were amazing!!! Not sure if I could ever properly describe how realistic, genuine, and damn near perfectly rendered everything was. There was rich detail in structures, other people, weapons, and vehicles. Sam has a special pair of goggles that he can use that enable him to see in the dark, and also thermal vision capabilities. You press the number 2 key to activate Night Vision, and number 3 key to activate the Thermal Vision. Each of these options had some very "cool" graphical changes that occurred on the gaming screen when you switched into them.

The learning curve was excellent in this game. The first thing you do when the game begins is running through a large training course. In this course, you will learn how to perform all the great moves that Sam can do, and go through basic training on some of your weapons. This IS part of the game, and cannot be skipped or chosen off the main menu, the game starts with the training course.

Replay value is very good in this game. I think the missions would be basically the same, but there is a difficulty setting that can be adjusted, and it would probably be worthwhile to play the game again under a more difficult setting. There is NOT a multiplayer option in this game, which was not a big deal for me, but I know some people would miss that.

Sound was very good in this game. It featured Michael Ironside as the voice of Sam Fisher, and had music by the band called "The Crystal Method". The weapons had authentic and realistic sounds to them, and there was a background music score that would become more intense when you were involved in a heated gunfight.

There was some really unique moves that Sam could perform in this game, that I had not seen that often in any other action game. Some examples of those would be the following: Back to the Wall move (which actually allowed Sam to move along the length of a wall), Zip line (Sam could jump and grab a cable or rope above him, and automatically slide to the other side), and Rappelling (Sam will sometimes find rooftop structures that will allow him to rappel down). There are also some moves that involved Sam having to deal with NPC's. If Sam was quiet enough, he could sneak right behind an enemy and grab him, at that point Sam could interrogate that character if the interrogation option is available for that character, thus possibly gaining needed information on his objectives. There were some missions in which Sam could not kill any opponents, or the mission would have failed. Of course, during these missions Sam had moves and weapons at his disposal that were of a non-lethal type. Sam had a devastating elbow move that could knock enemies out if he could get close enough to them, and also another knock out move could happen if he dropped down onto enemies from a higher vantage point. In order to avoid setting off alarms, make sure Sam always hides any bodies that he knocks-out or kills (When Sam stands over a body, he will have an option to pick it up and than carry it, fireman's carry).

What would an action game be without great weapons, and Splinter Cell delivered. Some of the kick-butt weapons that you get to use in this game include: SC-20k M.A.W.S. (Modular Assault Weapon System, this is your Sniper rifle, but it also had a alternate fire capability that allowed you to use non-lethal methods of attack, like Ring Airfoil Projectiles, Smoke grenades, and Sticky Shocker), SC Pistol (Sam's standard pistol, this will be the only gun he has until he finds the M.A.W.S. in a later mission), Frag Grenade, and Wall Mine (great for taking out many foes at once).

Other items that Sam will interact with throughout the game include: Medical Kits (used to heal himself), Lock Pick (used to bypass locked doors), Laser Microphone (used to record needed intelligence info. from a distance), Key Pad Lock (Some doors have these, and Sam must find the codes to open them), and Retinal Scanner (Sam must take a high ranking enemy hostage and force him to use the scanner to bypass these devices).

This was such a great game, and there was really not much at all that could be considered a problem with it. The only thing that comes to mind that I had a problem with was the Laser Mic, and it was only in one mission, in which I could never seem to get the required amount of info, and the mission would constantly fail. I finally had to download the game patch, and after I installed it, and went back and played that part of the game, it went thru it just fine without any problems. So if you encounter the same thing, just find the patch on the many sites that it is available on, and once you have installed it, than you should be able to continue with the game.

I would HIGHLY recommend this game, and ALL the sequels and expansions that have come out for it, which I plan on getting ASAP.
This game is a roller coaster ride through high stakes stealth action, and you will feel like you have truly saved the world from thugs intent on destroying the American dream.

You need to definitely pick this one up!!!!!!

Your Fellow Gamer,
Bobby

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