Graphics

Graphically, the game is nothing short of revolutionary. Admittedly, the quality is somewhat less than the Xbox calibre, however the lighting is nothing short of fantastic. Cut-scene graphics are quite possibly the best I’ve seen, and that’s all there is to it.

Sound

Great sound. Flawless sound. Techno beats that differ from level to level when you’re being hunted, otherwise – wait for it, because this is amazing – complete silence the rest of the time, which makes for a great atmosphere. Oh, and the voice acting from Michael Ironside as Sam Fisher is also amazing. Thanks to Ironside, Fisher sounds rather frightening. Imagine someone coming up to you and grabbing your neck and whispering in your ear “Bob’s your uncle,” before you feel the butt of a pistol crack against your temple. The guy’s clearly not much of a pacifist. Thanks to this great voice acting – from the entire cast – its really possible to feel the relations, the general perspective of one another. Pure genius.

Gameplay

So, how does it shape up? Obviously, there was little in the way of groundbreaking inspirational gameplay. Hide from baddy #1, sneak up on baddy #2, take him hostage, maybe interrogate him if he’s a vital NPC, and maybe use him as cover from the other guards. Get from scene to scene as quietly as possible. What is interesting is the way in which this is done, however. The on-screen furniture has an interesting little addition not seen anywhere else – the shad-o-meter. The further left your meter is, the more in the cover of darkness you are, rendering you practically invisible. However, to the right and you’re a sitting duck, lit up like Blackpool illuminations, whatever the analogy, you’re in trouble if there’s a bad dude around. There’s also a couple of interesting moves – the split jump, where you can jump and do the splits to hold yourself up between two walls to avoid detection, there’s the pipe crawl – swing monkey-style across a pipe, or tuck your legs in to get over obstacles, and then there’s your more cliché rolls and jumps. Equipment list is pretty funky too; you start off with a gun as effective as a peashooter and end up with a silenced machine gun that can also fire taser-like implants, video cameras, and other such goodies. Constantly on our boy’s noggin are his night-vision goggles – a quick tap of the left button on the digital pad and those will flick down – which come in handy throughout. You might think that with so many controls, the game would be awkward to control, but I beg to differ. Most of the jumps and rolls are circumstance-affected, so tapping triangle in one situation may make the character, Sam, just jump, or maybe grab a zip line and swing down to his next location.

There is no escaping the sheer complexity and challenge this game thoughtfully provides. This one is not for the easily frustrated. Many a time will you fall, many a time you will curse the game for your own misguided efforts. But it's worth it, for whilst there is a steep learning curve, that very second where you finally get that bit you’ve been stuck on for the past two hours, you will practically rejoice. It’s a challenging but mentally rewarding game.

Story

Let's be honest. The idea of one-man black op espionage stealth game is hardly new. We can date it back to the original Metal Gear Solid, created by videogame guru Hideo Kojima. However, the Metal Gear Solid games were so good that until now, no other developer really wanted to go anywhere near the stealth ‘em up genre. However, not Tom Clancy, and Ubi Soft – they disregarded any respect they had for the legendary games, and created Splinter Cell, and created a masterpiece.

Summary

To sum up, Splinter Cell is the best game I’ve played in a while. With a plot more believable than Metal Gear Solid 2 and some revolutionary graphics, Ubi Soft and Clancy could hardly lose. But add to that some great sound, interesting little gadgets, a bloody smart AI and you’ve got yourself something that sounds oddly like a classic, proving that Clancy’s games won’t follow the same path as his books. JC