Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is the next installment in this popular stealth-action series. Unlike Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, it uses a completely new engine, and features a cooperative multiplayer mode. While the Versus mode, which is SC:CT’s competitive mode uses the same engine as the Versus mode in SC:PT used, there were some improvements made. All this comes together for the best game in the series, regardless of its flaws. The game takes place in 2007. In the single player mode of the game, you will once again take control of Sam Fisher, a Splinter Cell, member of the Third Echelon, a secret organization inside the NSA. As usually, Fisher carries out all kinds of super secret mission, when avoiding detection as much as possible, and in the end averts conflicts, wars, and other unpleasant stuff. The game has an interesting Tom Clancy-esque story that revolves around information warfare. In the SP campaign, Fisher will visit such locales as New York and Hokkaido, an island of Japan, in order to gather information and eliminate targets. Overall, the story is in the usual Splinter Cell style – it involves a lot of people, some plot twists, and overall it might not be impressive, but it’s good, and fits the game nonetheless. Besides changes in graphics, SC:CT also features a lot of changes in gameplay, compared to previous games. Sam Fisher is now more deadly, and is free to exercise his fifth freedom, allowing him to kill anyone he wants to achieve his objectives, more freely. The game incorporates many new moves, many of them involving Sam’s new knife. While in the previous games, the basic and most often used means to dispose of an enemy was an attack from behind, in Chaos Theory, Fisher has the ability to use more attacks from different angles, both deadly, and less than lethal. This means you can play the game in more than one way: you can be a deadly ninja that goes around and eliminates everyone in a swift and stealthy fashion, occasionally triggering an alarm, and getting yourself in a firefight, or you can be a shadow, that avoids his enemies and completes the mission without ever being seen. Or something in between, if you want. Maps in CT also offer more freedom, compared to previous games. Although some of them are still somehow linear, they do well to offer multiple paths, and generally make more sense. Maps are now bigger, and will often require you to sneak through areas which you already visited, increasing the sense of non-linearity. In addition to maps being bigger, you now get to choose which of three pre-packaged kits you want for each mission, and you can choose one, depending on your style of playing: if you want to be stealthy, you’ll take the stealthy kit, or if you like to kill people, you’ll take the assault kit. The AI in CT is also improved. They notice things like open doors, or turned off lights, and become more careful. They also remember previous events, and if you, for example, turn the same light off twice, they’ll see that there’s something fishy going on, and will be even more competent in checking all dark crevices for enemies. Overall, the gameplay in SC:CT is fun. It might get boring after a while, but the campaign isn’t too long, and feels just right, compared to today’s standards. The SP campaign also offers increased replayability due to multiple paths that the player can take. In addition to the SP campaign, there’s also a brand new coop mode. PC games today lack good cooperative modes, so coop in SC:CT is a welcome change. Coop plays very much like the SP campaign, except instead of playing all by yourself, you’ll play with a human partner. That allows you to use some interesting tactics, and makes the gameplay somehow different from SP, although still similar enough to make you feel at home. While coop is fun, it’s only fun when it works. At the time of writing this, there are still a lot of bugs in coop, and some of them make the mode impossible to play. However, Ubi promised that they would release patches, and even additional downloadable content, for the quite short coop mode. Still, it would be nice if they could release a game that works out of the box, without needing any patches. The third mode of SC:CT is the spy versus merc mode. It’s a 2v2 multiplayer mode, in which two of the players are spies, and two of the players are mercenaries. Mercs are basically guards, and they play in first person, using various gadgets to detect and eliminate spies, who play in third person perspective, and use various gadgets to distract, disable or hide from mercs while completing objectives. This game mode is unique, and highly original. It is very different from your usual deathmatch, and it is also very different from the SP and coop portions of SC:CT. SvM is very exciting on both the spy side, and the merc side, though it might take some time to learn the game, due to its uniqueness. The bad thing about SvM is that it is very similar to the same mode in SC:PT. The SC:CT version features new maps, gadgets, and is better balanced than its predecessor, but it still seems that it’s just an update to the old game. The game ships with a level editor for SvM, so there’s probably going to be some custom maps released for the game mode, which somehow increases its replayability. Splinter Cell games were always known for their good graphics, and Chaos Theory certainly stays true to that. The lighting was always an important part of SC games due to the fact that shadows are an important part of gameplay, and in SC:CT is looks great. The various locales also are well done graphically, and often create a specific atmosphere to them. Animations for Sam’s various new attacks are very well done, and implementation of ragdoll effects makes the game both better looking, and adds to gameplay. The Versus mode is another story though – it looks very much like SC:PT, since it uses the same engine, and the graphical differences stand out very much. You can get over it, and just play the game, but it would’ve been nice if SvM featured better graphics. Besides looking good, SC:CT also sounds good. The music background by Amon Tobin fits the game very well. The voice-overs of main characters are as good as ever, and contribute to the style of the game. The voice-overs of enemy characters are also good, and even though sometimes it’s it apparent that they’re put together from different sound bits, it is nice to hear enemies asking one another “Did you hear that?” and then hear a reply along the lines of “Yes”. The game let’s you switch between accented English voices, and voice-overs in character’s languages, which is a nice addition, however, not completely so, as some of the conversations between guards can, for some reason, revert to accented English. Overall, the latest installment in the Splinter Cell series is the best one ever. It stays true to the original, while still incorporating plenty of new stuff. For people who were never fans of SC, this game isn’t going to convince them to like the series, but those who liked previous Splinter Cells are going to enjoy Chaos Theory.
Other Helpful Reviews for Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
After completing Pandora Tomorrow and being largely disappointed, I was half expecting Chaos Theory to be much of the same. But there is a ray of light at the end of the tunnel for us addicted SC fans. There seems to ... Read Full Review
After playing Double Agent PC and going through the frustrating amount of bugs, I decided to go get the 3rd installment of the series, Chaos Theory. Now THIS is a stealth game! The story is a little confusing cause it th... Read Full Review
