Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

The gameplay: Incredible! This game should easily win game of the year! Why? It's so realistic, so breathtaking, so nerve wracking at times that you really feel that you are Sam Fisher. Here are the basic moves: You can crouch, roll (to move quickly through one area without being seen), jump, double jump (jump off a wall to cling on to a pipe at the top), split jump (where your up against the wall doing the splits. You cant then jump down in surprise and knock out your enemy, or shoot him), cling to pipes (and move around, even hang from it while shooting down a guard). Those are just a few! You can knock people out, put a gun to their head and interrogate them. Use people as human shields, hide against walls, knockout anybody, slide down a wire, etc... So many moves, all so very cool, you'll really feel like a secret agent. Now with these moves, you must make it through dozens of levels to prevent a war from happening. If caught, the U.S. will have nothing to do with u. You're on your own.

Gadgets: Thankfully, with these awsome moves, you have perhaps the coolest gadgets ever thought up. You have gadgets to unlock doors, look under the door, climb walls, shock people to death, etc... So many cool gadgets! You'll need every one of them to get through this war. But that's not all! You later on get cameras that you can shoot into a room to see everything before you enter, giving you time to plan, think, etc... These cameras though (so cool) can also, when pressing the red B button, make a loud whistling sound that will attract guards. When they are close, push the yellow Y button, and a sleeping gas will enter the air, knocking the guards unconscience, and leaving your path clear. These cameras also have night vision, heat vision, and of course, regular vision. So many uses, these cameras may save your life more than once. Use them wisely.

The game: In the game, you must get through different levels, finding out secrets in various ways, and doing whatever is asked of u. U can read e-mails from hacked computers, listen in silently on conversations, hide dead or living bodies (you can either knock them out or put a bullet to their head). Sam is also equipped with heat and night vision goggles. So when you have been spotted, and several guards are coming your way, you can shoot out nearby lights, split jump and watch blind guards come in. Put your night vision goggles on, jump down, put a gun to one's head, and use him as a human shield. Shoot the others, knockout your hostage, hide the bodies, and move on. So many options of doing almost anything during gameplay, you'll be spoiled of how to beat each mission...or come back later and beat it on a harder setting. You can also pick up and throw bottles, coke cans, anything. The whole process of the game is very cool.

The graphics: In case you haven't heard, this game has some of the best graphics ever seen in a game. One of my friend's walked in, sat down, not seeing the controller in my hand. He thought I was watching a movie for a few seconds! That's how good this game looks. The lighting is fantastic. Knock out all the lights, pitch black. Leave a tiny bulb on, a lite glow fills the room. Very cool! Sam even changes. He rolls up his sleeves, breathes in and out, steadies his gun when running so as to not make a clit, clat noise. Etc... So much detail put into everything. Even things like when Sam's hands are busy (like hanging from a pole), he cocks his head up, then down, to get his night or heat vision goggles on. Sooooooooooo realistic!

Depth: Incredible! On the normal setting, you'll be lucky to beat this game in less than 30 hours. And the ability to go back and beat the game on hard later adds even more replay value! This game has it all!

Overall, this game rocked in every aspect. Even sound (perhaps the best ever in a game) is ignored because of how good everything else is. Voice acting is so realistic, as Sam always sounds confident, and yet sometimes doubtful, and even a bit nervous. You can hear how fast you're running, the footsteps of approaching enemies, the true reloading of your gun (which ranges from silencers and snipers, to machine guns at times), and the shells falling to the floor.

This is a classic, a must have, and any gamer should feel left out never playing Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell!

(And oh, later on, you may be able to download new levels from the internet so your PC. So cool!)

Thx!


Could have been a classic   March 14, 2003
17 out of 19 found this review helpful

After hearing much about the Game Splinter Cell I felt obliged to buy it after playing through the entire game hereys my opinion on the game.

The game contains only nine levels plus training, at first I thought the game was going to be extremely short but after playing it I realized each level was around two or even three levels in a normal game. It came on three CDys so that should have been a clue to. (88%)

The graphics in this game put all third person video and computer games to shame. Not just the crispness and the sharpness of the graphics but also their attention to details. If you stand next to a chain linked fence your shadow is disrupted by the chains, something I never seen the programmers take time to do. In thermal vision if you kill someone you will see their body heat drain from their body. If you walk in some mud then into a building you will see footprints with the tiny details that you would expect to see in real life. (97%)

The sound effects are quite necessary to the game being based on stealth. You will learn to listen for the buzz of the camera, the mechanical sound of a gun turret, the footsteps of an approaching enemy, and the hum of a computer. All these have a distinct sound and let you identify the situation of the next room before even entering. Since this is based on stealth you will not hear any music unless your cover is blown, when the music is playing thought itys quite enjoyable. (90%)

-Game Play-
I will break this into three sections yMovesy yWeapons and Gadgetsy and yLevel Designy

The game features so many different moves that I have isolated this segment. The game features few keys meaning that most moves are key combinations, easier to remember but harder to perform. You can crouch, roll, climb, jump, walk, and run like in most other games but hereys a list of new ones: use people as human shields, interrogate, force cooperation, grab, move unconscious or dead bodies, split wall jump (use a wall as extra leverage for your jump), split jump (in a narrow hall way you can do a split wall jump than extend your legs before you hit the ground and then knock out people from above), rappel (tie a rope around a chimney or some sticking out object and climb down the side of the building with rope), back to wall (lowers your visibility), and quiet landing. These additional moves make the game more enjoyable but the split wall jump is really hard to control the direction of your jump, making it frustrating at times. (90%)

The weapons are not only unique but they also aide the stealth and spy aspect of the game. You have an SC Pistol that fires a 5.75 mm round that is fully flash suppressed and silenced, in some missions you will be equipped with a laser microphone that attaches to your pistol, this allows you to hear and record your enemyys conversation (two missions this will be required for you to continue on to the next mission). You get an M.A.W.S which stands for a Modular Assault Weapon System, this is your basic all purpose rifle. Using regular bullets (5.65 mm) the weapon can interchange from a sniper rifle (itys silenced and also equipped with a scope) a rifle (it can change rate of fire from single shot (more accurate) to fully automatic) and finally to an assault rifle. This is just the beginning the rifle can also shoot a zero projection round (airfoil ring) which incapacities rather than kills (certain missions call for zero fatalities), a sticky shocker which sticks on the enemy and shocks (knocks out), a gas grenade that emits smoke (if the enemy remains stationary and within vicinity it will knock them out), a sticky camera when fired allows you to zoom in and out plus has thermal and night vision modes (thermal detects heat while night vision aids you in the dark) this feature is good for scouting out a corner, and a diversion camera which emits a noise to draw the enemy near and releases a gas that will knock them out (you cannot zoom in and out or change vision modes with the diversion camera). Two vision modes (Thermal and night) allow you to move through low visibility conditions. An optic cable (Night vision mode only) allows you to see under doors. A frag grenade and a wall mine allow you to blow away a bunch people. A camera jammer jams the camera electromagnetic frequencies allowing you to go undetected. Two types of flares (chemical, and standard) allow you to distract your enemies. Notice how there are not a lot of guns especially loud machine guns, thatys because this games based on stealth and thatys also incorporated in the weapon selection. (96%)

The level design when you get past the graphics, the moves, the weapons, and the stealth feature is mediocre at best. The game play is very mediocre due to the linear game play; you cannot help but go in the right direction. If thereys a door that they want you to access after you accomplished another task, the door will come up as yjammedy which can be neither picked, nor opened. The story line is quite good with itys natural twists and kept you going throughout the mission. Though the linear game play was fine while playing it the first time it totally decreased the replay value since there is only one way to complete the missions. This game could have been one of the best to be ever released in gaming worlds but the linearity decreases it to just a good/excellent game. (80%)

Total for game play= (89%)

Game play (two weights) = (89%)

Graphics (single weight) = (97%)
Sound and Music (single weight) = (90%)
Length (single weight) = (88%)

Total = A- (90%)

Synopsis-
Could have been legendary if not for the linear style game play.


Go away, Snake. I'm busy.   January 2, 2003
B. S Wallace (Somewhere Over The Rainbow)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

This game beats Metal Gear to the ground. After being rather disappointed by MGS2, I began to look for another stealth based game. I found this in Splinter Cell. In this game, Sam Fisher may interact with anything that could prove useful to his mission. You can actually throw a glass bottle, creating a distraction. The stealth meter is something that MGS could really have used, instead of that Soliton Radar. The gameplay has an extended learning curve, but it is still enjoyable. In MGS, you can run to the next area, escaping guards, but in Splinter Cell if you are spotted, many times you are ... If you are patient and enjoyed Metal Gear, I'd recommend this, but understand: This is far from a MGS2 copy (No annoying story, that seems to go on endlessly). Also, the graphics are something you have to see to believe.


The hype is justified!   November 11, 2002
Walter Reade (Appleton, WI United States)
14 out of 17 found this review helpful

I am always suspicious of an overly-hyped game, but Splinter Cell left nothing to be disappointed about. If this is a taste of what's down the road for video games, I'll have to quit my job! The graphics are super, game play and sound awesome, and the implementation of the stealth concept is powerfully convincing.

I have only three minor issues with the game. The first is that it takes a bit to get the controls down. Not a big deal, just a forewarning. What really bugged me was that pistol aiming was too slow. The number of bullets it took to put someone down was also on the unrealistically high side. You could be right over someone and shoot him in the back of the head, and it still would take a couple shots.

These minor flaws aside, the game if simply awesome!


Best game of its time   December 13, 2002
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is the best game i've played for many years. this game has exellent gameplay, graphics, wepons, and relly cool effects. I give this game a perfect five star rating because when you combine all of the great stuff in this game compared to the one bad thing witch is that it's kind of hard (that makes it all the better to me) this game will be relly hard to be beat.