I originally only played Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory, so as I now make my way through the series; I thought I’d feel very nostalgic playing this game. However, I barely recognised any parts of the levels.
The previous two games are very playable although they have elements that seem a bit dated. I’m not sure if the graphics were subsequently enhanced years after release, but I did enable the highest graphical settings and it looked great.
Many of the changes from Pandora Tomorrow remain; so you don’t have to manually equip lockpicks, you can whistle to attract guards, and health packs are found as first aid kits in places like toilets, kitchens or utility rooms. The “Swat turn” move has been removed which I suppose seemed unrealistic. An interesting change I noticed is that bringing up the menu to check objectives or the map doesn't pause.
You play a lot of the game in night vision so mainly look at greyscale visuals which also helps it graphically hold up. You can use the thermal visor which is required in some sections but I used it sparingly in others. There’s also another visor which detects electronics which seemed only useful for some optional objectives. There’s a lens distortion effect around the edges of the screen when using the visors.
The lighting model is always impressive in these games although there always has been some inconsistencies where the light meter seemed to suggest it was lighter/darker than the visuals actually showed. So you can’t really use your own eyesight and judgment in some places, but if you keep your eye on the meter as you move, then you are fine.
Another technically impressive aspect is the cloth physics. Sometimes there’s objects like curtains that you can hide behind but bear in mind the movement and sound can also alert the guards. On a few levels, Sam can cut the material to pass through.
At the beginning of the mission, you are given a more detailed mission briefing from a few characters. You are given a choice of 3 loadouts which are recommended, stealth or assault. There are secondary objectives which are optional. Most of the secondary objectives require you to explore the map, but your main approach of stealth and finding alternate routes/shortcuts is against that. At the end of the mission, you are given a percentage complete score based on how stealthy you were, penalised for bodies discovered, kills etc.
The levels have various objectives so some are instant failure when guards are alerted. Others have "alarm levels". You need to use stealth, taking into account both light and sound. When using night vision for clarity, you can be blinded by the lights. You can shoot out many lights to help you stay out of sight and reduce that glare, however the sound of the gun or the smash can at least startle guards. Sam’s pistol has a new feature that can temporarily disable electronics. The “faulty” electronics, or simply turning off lights using switches makes guards suspicious, and they will go to investigate or turn them back on. This can be used to your advantage anyway as a simple distraction.
Moving whilst standing makes more noise than crouching, but even crouch walking makes too much noise for many guards. You can control the speed using the mouse scroll so can set it slower to reduce the noise. There’s also different surfaces so wooden floorboards will be noisier than carpeted floors. You can still jump on the spot as an easy distraction but you can just get Sam to whistle to draw attention instead. In other areas there are objects like cans and bottles that you can throw as a distraction.
A new gauge is the sound meter with the current ambient noise shown on the meter. As long as the noise you are making is less than this then you should remain undetected. So if you are in an engine room with constant noisy hum, then you can take advantage by moving faster.
You can place your back to the wall which helps stay out of sight, you can peer around corners, and is sometimes necessary to squeeze through tight gaps but that’s all used quite sparingly. You can climb ladders, pipes, zip lines, and wall jump once to navigate some corner walls. If there’s a tight corridor, you can stay high using a “split jump” with his legs either side propping up, but again, it is used sparingly.
The original game used a lot of locked doors. The frequency was severely reduced in the previous game, and is still used sparingly here. Some doors are unlocked, some require lockpick, and many others require key codes, or more rarely retina scans. Retina scans can be opened by taking a relevant guard hostage, but can also just be hacked now. There’s more hacking in this game, and Sam can even hack remotely. For the electronic hacking mini game; you just wait for the numbers to light up in the corner of the screen and click when that happens. This filters the list of IP addresses. If you match all numbers then it unlocks, if you don't match all 4, you can often guess which one matches from the remaining numbers.
This game has many areas with multiple ways to get through them. Some areas are more linear, but then there’s ones where you navigate multi-storey buildings. The level on the ship has changing objectives and sees you moving between different deck levels. The map screen is more complex. I still found it hard to reposition and work out where I was or where you need to be. The objective is marked in red, but trying to understand some of the map layouts was confusing. The open level design in some sections makes working out where you need to go more vague. At the end, you need to get to the extraction point which could be in a new area, or a previous area you have seen.
It’s possible to play most of the game with minimal kills. Some moments allow gun play but usually trigger alarms which can auto-fail some missions. Enemies can be defeated in one punch if you are behind and undetected. Guards will take you down quickly with gunfire if you are spotted. In many missions all guards seem to be alerted when a single one is, despite not raising an alarm or others hearing you.
In previous games, Sam’s accuracy with the pistol was very inaccurate and caused by his breathing. I think the guns seem more accurate here. There’s the trusty pistol but then the rifle for faster fire and longer range. The rifle also has special gadgets like sticky shocker, and sticky camera. You also have grenades in some missions, and smoke grenades to stun.
Sam seems more aggressive and snarky in this game. He has a knife attack which can be used for some brutal kills. The throat slash was quite shocking when I first saw it. You can gain extra info from interrogating people but it's more for world building, or to hear Sam’s snarky dialogue. He can be very witty, humorous and sarcastic during these moments. "It’s noisy down here, makes it easy to sneak up on people". Sam changes animation when close to enemies, slowly moves his hand to his knife; giving you a better understanding of how close you are, and making the transition to the grab animation more smooth.
Some missions require the use of gadgets to listen remotely. There’s some optional-use spy gadgets such as the diversion camera which can make noise and release smoke, or the optical cable to look at the other side of doors before you open them.
Bodies need to be hidden from other guards, so you need to place bodies in dark areas either by carrying them or shooting out a nearby light.
Guards often pull out torches to inspect dark areas. They generally seem a bit dumb, have limited visibility and slow reactions. Maybe this was on the standard difficulty, and I didn’t test it out on the higher ones.
The general gameplay feels familiar to previous instalments, but with a bit more freedom and choice of how to approach the levels. The enhanced graphics are also a treat. I’d say it's pretty iconic, holds up surprisingly well, and can be tense.