Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, like its predecessor, is Xbox Live enabled. The difference is that not only does Pandora Tomorrow bring with it the ability to download new content it contains an entirely new multiplayer mode. In this new mode, two people play spy (similar to the single player game, but with quite a few differences) and two people play mercenary (similar to Rainbox Six 3; first person shooter with gadgets). The spies try to neutralize virus canisters while the mercenaries try to eliminate the spies or prevent them from reaching their objective. What ensues is a fast paced game of cat and mouse that has to be experienced to be believed.

But don’t be discouraged if you don’t have Live. The single player mode of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow as a sequel holds water. There are eight new missions, a handful of new abilities and improved artificial intelligence. The game play and environments feel very much like a natural extension of the first game. Gamers without Xbox Live may be disappointed by the lack of revolutionary newness in the single player mode, but the fact of the matter is multiplayer is the reason to get this game.

Single Player

The second installment of Splinter Cell contains a story very much like the first. This could be argued as disappointing and lacking originality or a proven system that shouldn’t be tampered with. Either way, Splinter Cell’s single player does not stray far from its story formula.

Once again, you play Sam Fisher, the elite, neck-breaking, badass of Third Echelon. This time instead of Russian mafia and Chinese military separatists threatening World War III, a small group of terrorists are trying to unleash weapons of mass destruction on the United States. The story does have the flavor of the times, a la “war on terror,” but don’t expect any sneaking around Al Qaeda camps. Instead, the story relates to recent events in Southeast Asia.

In 1975, Indonesia invaded the neighboring Portuguese colony of East Timor claiming it as its 27th province. It stayed under the brutal control of the Indonesian military until 1999 when the United Nations stepped in with peacekeeping forces to assist East Timor in gaining their independence.

In Pandora Tomorrow seven years later, the United States installs a temporary military base to train the Timorese defense force. Anti-U.S. resentment leads to the forming of a terrorist organization known as Darah Dan Doa led by an Indonesian guerilla fighter, Suhadi Sadono. He and his buddies take over the U.S. embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia and take several hostages. In the first mission you are sent in, not to rescue the hostages, but to destroy top-secret documents that are held in the embassy.

The remainder of the missions takes you all over the world as you track down and annihilate the terrorist threat. Locales range from Paris and Nice in France, to the jungles of Indonesia to Los Angeles International Airport.

During each mission, players will notice a few significant changes from the original game. Most obvious is the way the game play works. It seems like the guys at Ubisoft were dissatisfied with the way the first game could be played. In many areas you could run through the levels blasting away without a hint of stealth. Their new game almost forces you to play it stealthy because of the 3 stage alert system.

The NPCs still have intelligence that would rival a housecat, but when they discover your presence by gunfire or lack of stealth they sound an alert. The first alert causes them all to don flak jackets so if you’re used to blasting away you’ll be forced to aim for headshots. With the second alert come Kevlar helmets that prevent headshots from the back almost eliminating the ability to blast through the level. If you are unlucky enough to get to the second alert you must be sneaky because a third alert will usually cause mission failure.

At first learning about the new alert system you may think the game more difficult than its predecessor, but in truth the harsher penalties for lack of stealth are nicely balanced with obvious, yet creative, ways to complete each mission without detection.

Finally, Pandora Tomorrow introduces a few new tricks to Sam Fisher’s repertoire. The first and coolest of these is the SWAT turn. When faced with a side room full of enemies, Sam can now peek around the edge of the door and quickly twist past the doorway without being seen. The animation looks slick and the move allows you to sneak past rooms that are unrelated to your objective.

Second, Pandora Tomorrow allows you to hang upside down by Sam’s legs and draw his sidearm. Effectively, this move has no real advantage over hanging by one hand, but it does look cool and does allow you to pull your gun out quickly when hugging pipes.

Finally, the designers added a modification to the Split Jump called the Half Split Jump that can be used in smaller corridors. From the Half Split Jump position, Sam can jump to ledges and other areas that would have been out of reach before.

Honestly, on the whole there isn’t a lot to rave about with regard to Pandora Tomorrow’s single player mode. They have definitely improved what was already an outstanding game and the story in this installment is as good or better than the original.

But wait…there’s more!!!

Multiplayer mode

When it comes to multiplayer online games there aren’t very many game genres. First person shooters abound. Sports games are a dime a dozen. Flight sims, RPGs and Real-time strategy games have all been done. So how cool is it when a game design company spontaneously invents one? Damn cool.

The online mode of Pandora Tomorrow is basically two different games. First is a derivative of the single player game where you sneak around and try to satisfy objectives. Second is a first person shooter style game where the goal is to prevent the spies from reaching their goals.

As a spy, you are given different equipment and abilities than in the single player game. You have “sticky cameras” that can put mercenaries to sleep by releasing toxic gas nearby. You have smoke grenades that obscure your movements and slow down the mercs or put them to sleep. Flash-bang grenades for blinding opponents and sound emitter devices that confuse mercs by spamming false footstep sound effects near the gun-launched emitter. Finally, a special spy bullet allows you to listen to your opponents’ comm. traffic and marks them on your radar.

Your gun is “nerfed” and only stuns the target for a split second. Everything in your arsenal is non-lethal; with the exception of what God gave you. You can kill mercs by dropping on them from above or by sneaking up on them and breaking their necks. Not an easy task against a well-trained mercenary.

As a mercenary, you get gear designed to detect infiltrators. You get two vision modes similar to the spies but designed to counter them. Motion sensor mode casts the screen in red and will detect spies (and other moving objects) when they move at more than a snail’s pace. Electromagnetic Field sensor mode is blue and causes electronic devices (like night vision goggles) to show up bright white. Your vision modes are complemented by a flashlight for lighting up the shadows and a laser sight that will point out spies if the laser passes over them. Flares stick to walls to light up dark areas and phosphorous grenades spray neon green paint on anything in the blast radius.

Mercenaries are the definition of lethal armed with an assault rifle, mines, fragmentation grenades, stun tazer, and special laser spy traps that when tripped act exactly like spy bullets. The assault rifle has different rates of fire and a brutal Snipe Mode with up to 6x zoom. So in short, these guys are built to do some damage.

The game plays out like one would expect with the mercs setting up mines and spy traps in creative places near the objectives and patrolling with the different vision modes trying to locate the spies. Spies sneak around the ducts, trying to avoid detection, disabling mines and traps. They use teamwork to first distract the mercenaries and then go for the objectives. The different environments in the game require different defensive and offensive tactics so there is no limit to the amount of fun to be had.

But be warned, this is an online experience just like all other Xbox live games. There is a large amount of online gayness. Players have found exploits and hacks like the ability to teleport to the middle of the Warehouse level by executing a button combination while on a pipe (you won’t find specifics here). Hacks like this are incredibly lame and adversely affect the game. They make rank matches all but pointless and can cause people who want to play fair no end of frustration. The best way to enjoy this game online is to forgo rank matches, find a few real life friends that have the game and a few online people that share your interests and play with them.

The only other detractor from the game’s online mode is the limitation Ubisoft placed on the number of players. Obviously a truly balanced game is one played two on two, but why the limit guys? I can imagine a group of five friends that all have the game. “Sorry, fifth favorite friend…we don’t have room for you.” Would it really hurt to have a few extra spies or mercs running around? Maybe the game dynamics would be impacted, but people already play 3-on-1 and death match. Can the engine not handle rendering a few extra entities? Would lag be that bad?

Those questions I’m afraid will have to go unanswered. But in spite of the few problems of the online mode (who knows they might even patch it) the answer to one question is certain. What is a game I should have in my Xbox library? I think you know the answer to that one.