The game that may have once persuaded folks to buy an XBox has made it's way onto GameCube. Yes, I'm talking about Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. Fortunately, this game isn't total, utter crap like Tom Clancy's other most recent game, Ghost Recon. In fact, this game is incredibly good. There are all kinds of tactical strategies you need to keep in mind as you sneak your way through each level, trying to accomplish your missions to help save the world against terrorist attacks. You'll be surprised by this game. I was. It's another of Ubi's greatest.
The lighting effects are wonderful throughout the game.
G R A P H I C S
Splinter Cell's graphics are clean and polished, just like you'd expect from a game of this caliber. They aren't blow-you-away, holy-crap, this-is-better-than-real-life amazingness, but they look better than most of the games out there. The animations are smooth and pretty, and the characters look great doing most of their actions. Some things, such as jumping into a wall you can't climb up, look a little rediculous, but there is no game I've seen where that doesn't happen. For some reason, though, you just seem to expect more from this game. And in most places it gives more. For instance, the textures in Splinter Cell are wonderful. They're not too repetitive, are very detailed, and the right textures are in the right places. There also seem to be a huge variety of them; it's unlikely you'll see the same texture twice on two different types of places. Three dimensional objects are very crisp and there are no chunky, pixely egdes to be seen on any of them. The lighting effects are excellent. When you step into a shadow on the ground, your stealth meter immediately drops -- your enemies can't see you as well there. When there's a street lamp shining onto the street, you can see the light spreading across the ground. Better not walk in it, or your enemies will see you. Sometimes, though, your stealth meter shows you are in more intense light than you actually are, or vice versa. This doesn't happen too often, but it'd be nice if the light stuff were a little more consistant. Characters' faces and bodies look excellent. I still can't be sure, but when I see the characters moving, it looks like the suits and the clothing is actually moving. Speaking of moving, this game features one of the greatest graphical feats I've seen on next-gen systems. They've designed an object, usually a weaving of leaves or a hanging cloth, that blows in the wind, moves when you touch it, and hides you from those outside of it. This really is amazing if you think about all the programming that has to go into creating each one. It gets a little weird when you have to walk through one and there isn't much space on the other side. You walk into it and you can see ti rimpling back, but all of a sudden you glitch through to the other side. I guess it couldn't really be helped, and the swinging banners look beautiful enough for you to forget about it. The framerate seems to stay solid throughout the game, even while shooting multiple guys at once.
"Okay, let's scan those eyes, eh? No, I said scan! See, that's why this gun right here is aimed to shoot right through your skull, probably through your brain, and it would be really cool if the bullet flew out your eye on the other side. There, that's a good boy."
G A M E P L A Y
First of all, this game has some of the most unique and quality gameplay I've seen in a long time. Games have attempted to offer stealth missions to please the gamer, but, generally, they didn't (Read: Hulk). They didn't rely on the dynamic lighting effects to judge whether or not your enemy saw you, but on a very definite, crisp line where the light just ended. Well, we now see that they were oh so wrong. You can't just skirt around the little 2-dimensional display of light. You have to be aware of every light everywhere -- above you, next to you, even below you, for they all can compromise your position. The game features a neat little stealth meter in the bottom corner of your screen that shows how visible you are to enemies. When the stealth meter is all the way towards the dark side, (say you're in a corner,) your enemy absolutely cannot see you even when a foot and a half away, unless he walks into you. That's pretty cool, but it's a little unbelievable. It would make much more sense if you didn't have a green light that's always glowing on your head -- it seems like it would give you away in about 2 tenths of a second. The whole game takes place in dark locations. Shadows are aplenty, so you'll have no problem hiding from the baddies. Even though the areas all sport the same theme of general darkness, the game doesn't have a repetitive feel, thank god, and you'll find yourself doing new things and fulfilling new objetives even as you are pushing 90% complete. You go new places, find new items, more restrictions on your objective... it just gets better and better. Finally, we get a game that offers up some action that doesn't involve shooting. Yes, there are many shooting elements, but there is strategy involved. You don't go in, guns blazing, shooting levers, computer consoles, generic evil terrorists and whatever else is in sight. Little things like having to move bodies away from where other guards will see them or an alarm will sound. Watch out for the cameras, too, because that will have the same outcome. The gameplay is deliciously varied and provides hours of fun. There's a huge replay value here. This is a very inventive game and its sure to spawn both many clones and many sequels.
Sneak! SNEAK DERNIT! AHHH! Get in the dark! You'll be seen!
C O N T R O L
If you've read my review of it, you may know that the Ghost Recon controls were dreadful, and that the game didn't belong on GameCube. Thank the lord, it seems Tom Clancy has finally gotten the whole control thing together. The game has a third-person view on your character, unlike all previous Tom Clancy games, which had been first-person. Of course, this means that the game now needs a camera control, which is controlled with the C stick. Thus, there are no strafe controls in Splinter Cell, which is perfectly fine; I never felt the need for strafing. You have all the necessities here, including Y for jump, X for crouch, A for an action button, etc. The only thing that's a little awkward is the shooting. You press R to enter the aiming mode, where you get into a first-person view through Sam Fisher's eyes, and you aim with C and press R again to shoot. L is shoot your secondary item you choose from a menu that pops up with a press of Up on the Control Pad. Here's the only awkward part -- to get out of first-person mode, you press B. It seems like this makes sense, as B is usually cancel, and it sounds pretty simple, but it just feels wrong during the game. Many times I pressed R to get out because that's how I got there. I was thinking quickly and my mind just said "R is how you got here, R is how you got out." Of course, I quickly got used to exiting first-person mode with B, it just took a bit to get used to. Another complaint I have about the shooting is that your aimer moves so slowly! It's rediculous. Often times, you can't react at all quick enough, so you get shot a few times before you shoot them, which ...um... isn't good. However, you won't have to worry about this much, as you aren't shooting much in Splinter Cell. Overall, the control could be better, but it gets the job done. Well.
Watch out, there's a slight drop.
S O U N D
Guess how the sound is in this game? Chances are, you guessed right; the sound is, for the most part, pretty good. The music is by no means memorable, but it works perfectly with the game and sounds high quality. The transitions from track to track sound seamless. When an enemy sees or hears you, the music quickly changes to a fast-paced, slightly frantic beat that both helps to warn you that you have to get the hell out of there and keeps your heart-rate up as you try to creep without making any noise. One very interesting aspect of the game is that if you step over leaves or paper or anything similar, you make noise that anyone near you can hear. Which means they come running. Not only does it make noise in the game, but the sounds coming out of the speakers really sound like leaves crunching or papers ruffling. Gunshots sound fairly real, and although I seem to think I've heard better sounds, I probably haven't. Either way, it doesn't sound like a real gun firing. No game can reproduce that. Other sound effects aren't all that much above average, with the usual grunts, scrapes, dings and other noises. The voice acting in the game is excellent, much, much better than average. Not only does it just sound like someone reading off a script, it actually helps portray that character as a human being and his or her emotions. This is one of the first games I can actually say that about.
I N - B R I E F
Graphics - 9.6
Gameplay - 9.9
Control - 9.3
Sound - 9.5
Overall - 9.6
