Welcome to the world of espionage and covert operations that exists in Splinter Cell. Ubi Soft has once again put out a game that introduces new concepts and ideas into what would normally be a third-person shooter.

You are a top agent of the NSA, Sam Fisher (well, you become reinstated after you do a quick training mission). Politics of a small country have created problems for the rest of the world, and your mission is to find out what the hell is going on. Well, in so many words. The game is composed of many missions which will take you around the world, and in each of those missions, you are given objectives to complete. The objectives range from discovering a mole within the organization to finding your informant within a burning warehouse.

As I played this, I was reminded very much of the Thief series for the PC. My reason? The point of the game is not to shoot everyone you see. Often, enemies are armed with guns much more powerful than your own, and will kill you quickly. The point in this game is to get by the enemies you see, sometimes without hurting them at all. Sometimes, obviously, you will need to kill them. That's where your silenced pistol comes in handing. Of course, if you have the stealth, you can sneak up behind them, grab them in a chokehold, and knock them out. Or you can just crawl past them silently. If you need information, you can grab someone in a chokehold, put a gun to their head and demand it of them. Or use them as a human shield. You know, whatever is best for the situation. As you move into dark areas you can clip on your night-vision goggles, or later in the game, thermal-vision goggles. The effects created are impressive.

The gameplay is excellent. There are few buttons to use, and the controls can be learned quickly and easily. However, with the few buttons you can do so much. The game allows for many varied actions. For example, you can wall-jump, which is something rarely seen in a 'real-world' game like this. Also, after you wall jump, you can pull a move in which Sam does the splits and locks himself between two close walls. Using this, you can wait for an unsuspecting guard to walk underneath. Then he's knocked out as you land on him. You can also push your back up against a wall, reach a corner, and shoot around that corner while remaining on the wall, hence remaining unseen. Say you enter a brightly-lit room. Just take your pistol, shoot out the lights, destroy any cameras, place on your goggles, and knock out a group of men soundlessly, picking up their bodies and hiding them, all without leaving a trace. These are only a few examples of what you can do in this innovative game.

The graphics are also very good. As you put on your night-vision goggles, everything is reduced to a grainy black and white view, just like real night-vision. The thermal goggles also produce the expected effect, surrounding everything in the glow of warmth that they radiate. Even without these goggle effects, the game's graphics made me raise my eyebrows. The only major problem I found with them is the hands. The hands of the characters in the game seem to be locked in a Vulcan greeting. The index and middle finger are fused, as are the pinky and ring finger. Live long and prosper seems to be their motto. Still, this only really shows itself in the movies, and creates no problem with the experience of the game.

It's not often that a developer creates a game that depends on stealth with the addition of modern technology. With challenges such as video cameras, revealing lights, and snipers, Ubisoft has managed to pull this off.

Grade: 93%

System Requirements for the PC:

Supported Chipsets