A step backwards for the Splinter Cell series, which plays better as a shooter then a stealth game.
The second mission is all right, although you will find yourself fighting with the camera more then the enemy. The third level is borrowed straight from Splinter Cell 1, but it has been dumbed down a bit to make it almost way to easy for anyone who’s ever played it before. Other then that, the missions aren’t too difficult and don’t offer anything new and exciting.
Controls: The controls seem to be where the game lacks a lot. Although you can get used to them after a while, the camera will always cause some problems now and then. You have to stop completely for a second until the camera button seems to work, and if you just ran around a corner into an enemy, that’s to long. The movement can be a bit tricky at times as well. You only have two speeds, walking and running. If you lightly push on the thumbstick you will walk or sneak, but until you let go of the stick that’s all you will do. It is a bit sensitive at times as well, which can cause a real problem sneaking up behind enemies.
Graphics: I didn’t find them that bad. They weren’t the best, but the look of everything wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Of course, the collision detection was just terrible. In any part of the game if you are holding an enemy and walk up so they are facing the wall, when you knock them out they’ll fall right through it. Which if anything just makes the game easier so you don’t have to hide the bodies.
AI: The AI is just terrible. Sometimes you can run by them having them see you, then run and hide and after a few seconds they’ll go back as if nothing had happened. While other times they’ll just start shooting you for no reason when you are obviously hidden. It is not anything special.
Sound: They packed a lot of speech into this game which is always a bonus. But one of the things you’ll notice and be annoyed with right from the start are the footstep sounds. There are different sounds for every surface, but only one sound for each foot and they are generally a lot louder then everything else. This can cause you to look at the sound meter when sneaking around the game way to much.
Gameplay: The selling point of this game is that it is a STEALTH GAME. This game goes for that, but there is little to no point in going for the stealth kills or really being sneaky because just shooting your way through enemies is way to easy, and almost more enjoyable. In most cases the enemy would rather stand still and shoot at you then run for the alarm anyway, and they don’t seem to dodge your fire at all. Trying to sneak up behind people can be tricky sometimes with the iffy controls, and if you do it wrong the load times in game are terrible to sit through.
Overall the game isn’t the worst thing in the world, but I would only recommend it to pretty big Splinter Cell fans. The story isn’t much but sets the game up Double Agent and gives some hints at what’s to come. If you are going to play this game I suggest running a movie in the background to help with the loading times you will go through a lot when you mess up from one the controls.