Careful with that axe, Eugene. (Tom Clancys Splinter Cell - Pandora Tomorrow (PC))

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Tom Clancys Splinter Cell - Pandora Tomorrow (PC)
Date:	02/10/05 (225 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good game play, challenging but not frustrating, good graphics, something different

Disadvantages: No tutorial level, some might find the game too slow paced.

Building on the success of one of the rare breed of "sneak 'em up" games, Ubisoft bring us the continuing adventures of Sam Fisher, ex-Navy SEAL and now government operative.

You're dropped in East Timor where the U.S. Embassy has been over-run by terrorists and hostages have been taken. Surprisingly, rescuing the hostages is not your priority, but you're actually to retrieve some important documents before they fall into enemy hands.

What you manage to find out is that there is a larger conspiracy at hand that has serious repercussions for the United States, and it's up to you to find out what exactly is going on and stop the terrorist threat.

The difference between Splinter Cell games and other, spy/military games is the fact that secrecy and stealth is often the method of achieving your goal. Guards must be avoided (or eliminated quietly), cameras and lights are your enemy and the shadows are your friend. Of course, there are times when you will be required to remove people from your path (guards, civilians etc.) and these can be accomplished in a lethal or non-lethal way as appropriate.

As a newcomer to the series, I was slightly disappointed in the lack of tutorial level as you're thrown directly into the action on the first level. However, there are little training notes that appear each time you're required to use another feature. These were, for the most part, adequate for me, but sometimes it would have been nice to try out a few things on a training level first. I would imagine that if you've played any of the other Splinter Cell games, then a tutorial level isn't necessary for you.

Even at the highest difficulty level, I found that PT offered just the right level of challenge where I was always making some sort of progress. Even if I were required to replay large parts of a level, I was still getting slightly further than during my previous attempt. This suited me perfectly and I do think it's important to avoid frustration in games, although it might mean that experienced Splinter Cell gamers might find this a bit too easy to complete. It was a novel experience that part of the challenge is not only getting past any guards that may be on patrol, but also finding good hiding places for their bodies if you have killed them or rendered them unconscious. Leaving bodies where they may be easily found is as detrimental to your progress through the game as your own death.

Despite being a sneak 'em up, the levels were imaginatively designed, and I'm not referring to the graphics, although they do play a part. The design of your surroundings with light sources provides the shadows you need to sneak about. Light switches are provided to turn off the (indoor) lights and if push comes to shove, you can shoot them out at the risk that your enemies will get suspicious. The levels are varied: indoors and outdoors, wide open and claustrophobic, stealthy and shoot-y, and each of these provide their own kinds of challenges which varies the gameplay within the 'sneak 'em up' mould, which is not as limited as I'd originally thought.

As Sam, you are able to do lots of different things to navigate around the levels - crouch, climb, rappel off of rooftops, speed down zip-lines etc. and perhaps the most useful feature is the fact that there isn't simply a walk/run toggle - by using the mouse wheel (if you have one), you can gradually increase or decrease Sam's speed at a cost, of course. The faster you run, the louder and easier to track you become. The controls, though, are intuitive, easy to use and customisable (though I didn't need to or want to change them).

The graphics are excellent, although most of the time you won't be able to see them for what they really are due to the fact you spend a lot of time in the shadows with your night vision goggles turned on. Your various vision modes change how you perceive the world - night vision turns everything into a lesser-detailed greyscale (and you get 'blinded' by staring directly at a light source). Heat vision removes everything apart from heat sources, which are displayed as red, yellow and orange blobs. With the pace of the game being quite slow, the detailed graphics is not as much of an issue as if you were playing a first person shooter such as Doom 3, for example, which would have to display the graphics much faster.

The audio is also very well done. Everything sounds proper, so a guard whistling in the distance doesn't seem fake, overheard conversations fade in and out depending on other ambient noise etc. These help increase the atmosphere in the game a lot. The voice acting is of a high standard (though sadly, the script is not). Sam Fisher's voice is provided by Michael Ironside (SeaQuest DSV, Total Recall etc.) while his boss, Lambert, is voiced by Dennis Haysbert (24, Now and Again etc.) Both do excellent jobs until the cheesy script lets them down, that is.

There are multi-player features, but I've not used them.

The script is by far the weakest element of this game, and that's not even a huge problem as it won't really effect your enjoyment of this game if this is the kind of thing you like. It was slightly different to the normal game I would play (I'm more of a first person shooter or Grand Theft Auto kind of person), but I still found a lot in this game to challenge me. I bought this game for around the £15 mark, and thought it was worth the money. It's slightly shorter than I was expecting, and if I'd paid any more for it, I'm sure I wouldn't be as satisfied. Overall though, I found Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow to be a fun, challenging game that's slightly different to what's on offer.


SC:PT recommended:
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP (XP recommended)
1.4GHz processor
512 recommended
Graphics card: 128 recommended (ATI Radeon 8500 or GeForce 3 or better)
DirectX 9.0
DirectX 8.1 compliant sound card
3GB Hard Drive Space

My PC Specifications (as a comparison):
2.5Ghz CPU
1GB SDRAM
160 GB HD
Soundblaster 7.1 soundcard
ATI Radeon 9600 AGP graphics card
Direct X 9.0c

PEGI Rated: 12

Summary: Sam Fisher returns in the second Splinter Cell sneak 'em up game.