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Once in a while, I come across a game that reminds me why I got into this expensive hobby in the first place.There’s always going to be a million sports updates, hop ‘n boppers, shooters, right down the list – but very rarely is a title balanced so well, with enough attention to detail and gameplay that you literally cannot wait to finish it just so you can play it again. Personally, my high watermark this year was Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and I thought it had a lock on the Game of the Year award…until I picked up Splinter Cell. Now all bets are off – it’s that damn good. Imagine Metal Gear Solid 2. Now throw out the insane amount of nonsensical cut-scenes. Add more realistic moves, ultra-cool weaponry and gadgets, a real-life scenario ripped straight from today’s headlines, sweet graphics and stealth action the way it was meant to be, and you’ve got Splinter Cell in a nutshell. The backdrop starts out simply enough. US government agents go missing halfway across the world, and you need to find out what happened. It’s from small seeds that mighty trees grow, however, and it’s from this tiny beginning that Splinter Cell germinates into a strong gameplay oak. The control and graphics make up the yin and yang of this amazing title. With the ability to crouch, climb, shimmy up poles and ladders, grapple down walls, hug corners and many others at your disposal, the permutations are endless. Realistic weaponry and gadgets like lockpicks, optic cable cameras to peek under doors, laser listening devices, thermal/night-vision goggles, tranquilizer darts and more make sneaking around more fun than should be legal. Which, as an active pracitioner of the rarely-discussed “Fifth Freedom” – basically, the right to neutralize anyone who acts as an obstacle to US government policy – legality isn’t really what you’re worried about.
The lighting effects are simply breathtaking. This is truly one of the most technically impressive games I’ve seen on any console, and the way lighting works as an integral part of the gameplay is tasty bacon indeed. If you’re looking to blast your way through the game, you will not win. Period. Hugging the shadows and timing your movements to avoid guard detection is absolutely key to survival in this game. If the shadows aren’t working in your favour, using the silenced gun to shoot out some lights can balance the scales. Toss a glass or pop can towards a corner to distract guards – but the guard AI is tuned razor-tight, especially on the higher difficulty level. They will notice when a guard is popped, walk over to check on noises, and raise alarms to summon backup without hesitation. Missions involve infiltration of restricted areas to access information – traveling around the world to different locations to hit different hot spots. Nobody likes a spoiler, so I won’t go into too much detail here, but suffice it to say that the painstaking detail in the architecture is a huge draw in making the game as believable as it is. Everything looks exactly how you would envision it in real life, with hallways, open areas, offices, courtyards, everything modeled correctly. There’s no feeling of just moving from box to box – these are real locations and portray themselves as such. Xbox Live subscribers will gain access to extra levels sometime in early 2003, according to UbiSoft. If they are as well designed as the ones already in the game, this alone is worth getting Xbox Live for. **SPOILER BELOW** It’s easy for me to remember at exactly which point I fell in love with this game – it’s the CIA mission. You have to infiltrate the building in order to tap a computer, but since you’re an American breaking into a rival agency, you cannot kill anyone. The tension involved is palpable, knowing that you can’t shoot anyone who might come across your position. Watching for guard patterns, waiting for the absolute opportune moment to scuttle from shadow to shadow, listening to conversations and hoping for the right time to knock out an employee – after completing this mission, I was grinning from ear to ear so hard my mouth hurt. The feeling of accomplishment was so enjoyable, the CIA level encapsulates everything good about this game.
**END SPOILER**If there’s any portion of Splinter Cell which doesn’t measure up, it’s the voice acting. Michael Ironside’s Sam Fisher lends an air of gravitas and world-weariness to a role which could have easily fallen into Schwarzenegger-style parody, but the remaining characters seemingly aren’t as well cast. It’s nothing incredibly bad, but it certainly isn’t anything to write home about. There are some annoying clipping irregularities – drop an unconscious enemy beside a wall and watch his head disappear, or sink through stairs. Again, nothing to prevent full enjoyment of the game, but considering Metal Gear Solid got it right over a year ago, you’d think the power of the Xbox would prevent characters from losing their heads. Something for the sequel, I guess. Bottom line? This is the best Xbox game released to date - yes, better than Halo. If you have an Xbox and you don’t give Splinter Cell a chance, you’re an absolute fool. Period.
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