Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Splinter Cell games have always been a pretty good series. The first game introduced Sam Fisher and emphasized stealth action. Pandora Tomorrow introduced the alarm system, to force players to side towards more secretive measures. Although in the first two titles you could complete most missions with guns blazing, instead of opting for stealth kills. Even though most gamers went for the stealth kill challenge, Chaos Theory has a better blend between stealth and action through out a ten level span. At the beginning of each level you’re given a chance to pick Fisher’s equipment. If you want to be crafty pick the stealth option. This is likely to give you gadgets like sticky spy cameras and gas grenades. Although you sacrifice the amount of ammo you start off with. On the other side of the coin you can start out with the assault package, which loads you with bullets for your SC-20K rifle. The expense is that you miss out on having all of the neat toys you would be getting if you equip the stealth gear. There is also "Redding’s Recommendation" given by your superior. This package gives you the best of both worlds for more balanced gameplay. If you plan to go for stealth kills or better yet knockouts the stealth package is best for most missions. In fact you can pick up plenty of weapons from the untrained guards you knockout making the assault package worthless most of the time. Yet, it’s still a nice option to have if you want to go in blasting your way through a mission.

With the balance changes out of the way, Splinter Cell is still the Splinter Cell you know and love. The story is written by Tom Clancy, starring Sam Fisher in the year 2007. Conflict in Asia is brewing between Japan, China and North Korea. Japan’s newly created Information Self Defense Force has discovered information that the devastation of their economy may have been caused by a malicious computer algorithm. The event isn’t isolated and has been discovered that America is the next target. The only programmer who knows about this has gone missing so it’s up to Sam Fisher to find him. The story takes place through ten different and lengthy levels. Each level will give a bunch of objectives to complete. Most of them sound rather simple like chase down a person or scout a bunch of weapons crates. Fisher doesn’t have to complete all of the objectives listed, in fact there are many optional paths for you to take. You can opt out of playing the opportunity objectives completely. All of these branching paths give gamers more of a reason to play Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory over again.

It wouldn’t be a Splinter Cell game without a bunch of gadgets. You have the trusty SC-20K rifle that shoots bullets with the foregrip attachment. If you switch to the launcher attachment Fisher can shoot a mobile camera, a sticky shocking device, and a ring airfoil that can knock out NPCs. You also have a bunch of vision settings with your trusty eyewear. You can see normally, switch over to night vision, use thermal vision to scout out live targets or use EMF. The most useful sight tool you have is easily the EEV (Electronically Enhanced Vision). Similar to Metroid Prime you can find interactive objects like lights that can be turned off or what things can be hacked. You’ll have to use your EEV to transmit data for many of the optional missions. While EEV is activated you’re movement is much slower, but it is an absolute necessity in the game. Once you spot all of the lights in the room you can use your OCP to disable them allowing Fisher to do his trademark stealth kills. Most fans will notice that Fisher isn’t attacking with his bare hands anymore. Instead he is equipped with a trusty knife to do the kills with. Chaos Theory gives gamers another option to eliminate threats. Instead of killing them you can just do a knockout. Either move will put an enemy down, but if you want to get a perfect mission rating you will need to use knockdowns.

Between guard battles Fisher will need to do things like hack computers and pick locks. Both of these are little mini games in between the main mission. The hacking game has Fisher lock all of the port addresses by correctly selecting them. As the game gets harder there will be less correct fragments to select from. The lock picking mini game is more has players wiggle the analog stick until they hear a clicking sound. Once they know which direction to point the stick in Fisher will break that part of the lock. You will need to do this until all of the pins have been pressed up. While lock picking allows Fisher to enter a room with absolute silence you don’t have to engage in it. You can break locks or bash a door open. This compromises your stealth, but it gets the job done quickly.

The real gem of the game is in Splinter Cell’s multiplayer mode. Either played on-line or off-line there are four different levels to play with. These levels require teamwork just to get by. If there is a big pit you’ll have to throw one of the players to the other side. If there is a big wall to climb you can use one other player as a human ladder. Another thing is you don’t have complete use of the OCP anymore. Instead it can only partially deactivate objects. To get your team through you have to take turns jamming lights. Some brilliant level design encourages gamers to work together.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory looks great on the Xbox. Sharp use of lighting plus great visual detail makes this one of the best looking games. On the other hand the PS2 version isn’t as easy on the eyes. Most of the time the game is too dark. Even with the brightness on the TV all the way up you can’t see that far. Instead you’re forced to live in the green night vision goggles most of the time. On the other hand the character models look pretty good and when you can actually see the environments they look great. Don’t get me wrong it’s not that the PS2 version is a travesty, it’s just the Xbox version is superior in the looks department. Also the Xbox version has the benefit of online multiplayer co-op, while the PS2 version doesn’t have this. PS2 owners benefit from the fact that online play is free, so it’s not all bad. Once again Ubisoft doesn’t support the Gamecube modem. Which is a real low point for Gamecube owners. At least you still have two player co-op.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory caters to fans giving them more of what they want. These gameplay tweaks in Chaos Theory to keep the series from getting stale. While the multiplayer maps and branching paths will keep gamers playing for hours.

Import Friendly? Literacy Level: 0

The US version is the one we have in hand, right now we’re not sure on how the Japanese or Asian versions will turn out.

US Bound?

Out in the US and in your store right now. For more information on the US version of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory visit the official site.

+ Pros: Excellent co-op multiplayer and a good blend of stealth with action gameplay.

- Cons: Best played online with Xbox live, also other console versions suffer visually.

Overall: It’s easy to say that Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is more of the same. Yet the balance changes brought in this installment along with great online gameplay makes this the best version yet.

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