Gamespot missed the mark on this one.
Well after getting the game, I decided to take his advice and write a comprehensive review from the standpoint that this game is not really as bad as it seems.
To start off, Splinter cell on the PSP seems like a tough gig for even Ubisoft to pull off. There are just so many nuances and quirks from the original series that one may be asking himself, "How the heck are they going to cram that all in there!?" The simple truth is: actually there are some things missing. Gameplay is pretty standard from the standpoint of all the other games, although the camera system has been tweaked for it to work with only one analog stick, and as much as I tried, I just couldn't hate the camera system. When playing this game, you have to keep in mind that it is a PSP game, not a console equivalent. As such, I found it not only interesting to use the new system, but to watch the game unfold using the camera as a new dynamic. There are points where there are enemies on all sides and you just can't see all of them with one camera view, and this places even more emphasis on finding a good place to hide while looking around.
The graphics themselves are not terrible at all, and it will become evident to any Splinter cell fan from the moment that he starts playing that the entire engine is that of Pandora Tomorrow with a few tweaks. Instead of only being able to grab enemies, like in PT, you can now execute stealthy kill or knock-out moves like in Chaos Theory. In addition, the lighting while probably being great for the PSP, is not very good at all for what the game prides itself on - dynamic lighting. There were instances where passing beyond a specific point on the map simply did not register a guard's beam of light, and where areas that you would be clearly seen in any of the console versions registered as complete darkness. Character models are quite basic too, not showing any signs of speaking when they do. That being said, you have to once again remind yourself that this is a handheld game not the X360 or PS3 version.
Sound is something I would rather not like to touch on. While the voice acting is superb, the effects are completely horrible to listen to. Example: when you walk, ever time your foot falls it plays the same one or two foot step noises all the time. While there are different noises for different types of material, it would have been nice to hear a little more variety instead of the same looping footsteps all the time. Water has the same trouble, but in its case it is even more annoying because the entire clip seems to be about a second's worth of material just continuously looping until you move away from it. Also, it was disappointing to hear that while you progress through the levels, it recycles old clips from Pandora tomorrow (and subsequently the voice actors that were not a part of the original series at the time). This results in times where Lambert finishes talking and tripping an alarm results in hearing that guy who sort of sounds like Lambert but not really telling you not to be caught. Sometimes it’s actually kind of funny and in reality it’s totally ignorable.
The storyline is a little different from past series, instead of Sam playing through a series of predefined missions over a story line, it revisits Sam's past while explaining more recent events that happen to him. As the GS review said, there is a pretty big spoiler in the end, and it WAS painfully obvious that this game should have been released in tandem with Double Agent. Maybe they would have had a few more months to work out the bugs.
Speaking of bugs, if you are afraid of them ruining the experience like everyone else does, then here’s a list of all of the bugs I found:
1. Voice acting suddenly stops when a sound effect/music sample plays right in the middle.
2. I got stuck in a wall once.
3. For some reason, when I played one of the levels the PSP would freeze and randomly shutoff at the exact same point. Shutting it off and rebooting an hour or so later solved it.
People complain that the camera is glitchy because it clips through walls and other textures; however I found that sometimes it helped me to get a better view on something if that stupid tree branch wasn't in the way.
All in all, this is a game that I would recommend to any fan of the series. If you are some one who absolutely cannot live with any bugs in his game or a person who hates PSP ports of Splinter Cell, then avoid it. It’s as simple as that. In most of my experiences though, these bugs were something of a novelty to me, and I was able to shrug them off and continue enjoying the storyline.
If you are looking for a more accurate review, see the may issue of GI Mag.