I Alone Have The 5th Freedom (Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (Xbox))

Member Name: Guile176

Product:	Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (Xbox)
Date:	07/04/03 (719 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Amazing gameplay, Graphics

Disadvantages: None

To be honest, I wasn't all that interested in
Splinter Cell until a few months back when I
played it on a demo. After spending a few minutes
on the demo, I was blown away. Splinter Cell
seemed to be the game that I thought Metal Gear
Solid 2 should have been. Not to say that MGS 2
was a bad game, its just that I thought it had far
too many flaws holding it back from greatness.
Such flaws included a poor camera system, and a
clueless and lame main character. Not only did
Splinter Cell have a far better camera system, but
your character was much cooler and more believable
as well.

Your character is none other then Sam Fisher. Sam
is what is known as a Splinter Cell. He is a
special covert operative, who works alone. It is
his job to help protect American freedoms from
scum like terrorist. Like I said, Sam is a much
more believable character then MGS 2's Raiden.
Raiden was a clueless boy, Sam on the other hand,
is a seasoned vet who knows exactly what he's
doing. To add believability to things, Sam even
has graying hair, to show that he's been around
for a while, and isn't some fresh recruit.


There are 9 missions in Splinter Cell. These
missions take place all around the world in places
such as the Soviet Republic of Georgia, a Chinese
Embassy, and even the CIA Headquarters. Mission
objectives range from kidnapping individuals, to
surveillance. Unlike most games, you cannot enter
Splinter Cell with all guns blazing. In fact,
gunplay plays a small factor in the game, since
most of it relies on stealth. In fact, in some
missions, you're not even allowed to kill anyone.
If you do, its mission over.

To help Sam get around unseen, he has a variety of
different things he can do. You can crouch to help
move more silently, climb ladders and pipes,
rappel down walls, and use zip lines to quickly
slide down wires. You can grab enemies from behind
and either drag them to a dark corner to knock
them out, or use them as a human shield if things
get too heavy. One of Sam's coolest abilities is
his wall split. In narrow corridors, you can hop
up and do a split between walls. This is very
helpful in helping to avoid patrolling guards.
Once up there, you can either let the guard pass,
plant a bullet in his head, or drop down and knock

him unconscious.

Sam also has a nice variety of toys he can use as
well. Like I said, gunplay is a small factor in
the game, so Sam doesn't exactly have a huge cache
of weapons. His main weapons consist of a silenced
pistol and a special assault rifle. The rifle is
especially cool. Not only does it have a sniper
scope, but there's all sorts of goodies you can
shoot from it. Some of these include things to
help stun enemies such as air foils, shockers,
smoke grenades, surveillance cameras which stick
to walls, and the coolest of all, the distraction
camera. After you shoot a distraction camera out,
you can make it do a whistle sound to help attract
a bad guy. Once the bad guy is close enough, you
can release a gas which will cause your enemy to
go for a little nap.

One of Sam's coolest and most used gadgets is his
trademark visor. With it, you can turn on night
vision, or inferred. The night vision function is
what you'll be using most of the time. You'll find
that in most parts of the game, its best if you
either shoot the lights out, or switch them off,
then turn your night vision on. Your enemies will
b
e blind, but you can see them as clear as day.
Just be careful though, some enemies in later
missions will be equipped with lights, so you
won't exactly be completely invisible to everyone.


Enemy AI in Splinter Cell is a little flaky.
Guards usually follow their preset routes, so
you'll often find yourself hiding in the shadows
and studying their patters before moving in.
Enemies also seem to be rather blind at time.
Sometimes when you're hiding in a low light area,
a guard will come within a few feet of you,
looking right at you, but not seeing you. Also,
enemies seem to be blind to the light on Sam's
Visor, and back. While this really doesn't hurt
the game any, it does remove a little of the sense
of realism that the game tries to portray.

There's nothing really much as far as different
modes go. You simply get your main single player
game and that's it. There are a few extras
including, such as some interviews with the games
creators, and Sam's voice actor. And although
nothing has been released as of now, there is some
downloadable content such as extra levels planned.



Graphics 10:

The graphics in Splinter Cell are simply amazing.
Textures are well varied and very sharp and clean.
The frame rate is high and rarely dips. And when
it does, its barely noticeable and doesn't take
away from the action in any way at all. The
animation was also very realistic and nice to look
at. The biggest standout about the graphics
however, is the spectacular lighting effects. From
the light emitted from neon signs, to the light
coming in through windows, you will be amazed.

Finally, there's the camera. Unlike the camera in
MGS 2, this one is actually good. Its fully
adjustable and can be moved in any way you like. I
never once had a problem with the camera in the
game. If only more games had a camera that
actually worked this good.


Sound 9:
From the cracking of glass, to the mood setting
and movie feeling soundtrack by Crystal Method,
the sound in Splinter Cell is amazing. However, I
did have one minor gripe about the sound. Most
notably some of the voice acting. While Michael
Ironside does an amazing job of voicing Sam, some
of the other actors could have been abit better.
Its nothing horrible or anything, it
just could
have been abit better.


Control 9:
Like everything else, the control in Splinter Cell
does not disappoint. While there is abit of a
learning curve, after an hour or so of play, you
should be fully used to things. Aiming can seem a
little inaccurate at times, but its not too bad
once you get used to it. The trick is to give your
targeting a second or 2 to adjust to where your
aiming it. After that, things work pretty well. It
just may frustrate you a little at first.


Overall, I would highly recommend Splinter Cell to
anyone that was a fan of Metal Gear Solid. Even if
you weren't a fan of that, or never played it,
then I still urge you to do yourself a favor and
try this one. And while this game is going to the
PS2 shortly, your best bet would be to get the
XBox version instead if you own both consoles. Not
that the PS2 will be bad or anything, but the XBox
version is the better looking of
the 2, and has downloadable content which the PS2
versions doesn't. Either way though, you'll be
getting an amazing game. Great job UBI Soft.

Summary: