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 first game was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, but the follow-up was made by the Shanghai team. Despite the change in team, they have made a worthy successor, keeping the core gameplay intact, making a few tweaks, and then placing Sam Fisher in different locales for new challenges.
There’s a few usability tweaks like you can now open doors whilst carrying bodies, and if a door needs to be lock-picked then you no longer need to manually select the lockpick in your inventory. A simple but effective ability to aid your stealth is the ability to whistle to draw attention to your location.
I’m not sure why they changed the health restoration system, but rather than picking up health packs to use whenever you want, they are now instant use but found fairly organically like a first aid tent.
There’s some new animations from climbing onto or from pipes, rather than trying to awkwardly fall into/off them. There’s a new stealth move “swat turn” which moves cover to cover whilst staying hidden. Maybe that one is a bit “gamey” and I read it never made a return in future games.
The story involves the threat of a smallpox virus being unleashed unless the guerrilla leader Sadono makes a daily call to announce the titular code phrase "Pandora Tomorrow", which ensures his safety. Sadono is working alongside a guy with the pseudonym "Mortified Penguin" who has purchased his own smallpox virus.
You play a lot of the game in night vision so mainly look at greyscale visuals which helps it hold up. You can use the thermal visor which is required in some sections but I used it sparingly in others.
The lighting model was impressive back in the day and it still works reasonably well. The problem is the inconsistencies remain from the original game, like sometimes you are standing near small lights but the guards won't see you. Some areas are dark but your light meter shows that some parts of this dark patch are in fact - lighter. 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.
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. Simply using light switches makes guards suspicious, and they will go to turn them back on. This can be used to your advantage anyway. Compared to the first game, I was shooting out lights way more often since it seems more necessary in order to stay hidden in the dark. For example, there might be a bright light near a door and a guard on the other side. So as soon as you open the door then you are spotted. If you take out the light first, then the door opening will startle the guard but you will not be seen, so can slip through.
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. You can also repeatedly tap which moves silently and looks ridiculous as you slide across the ground. 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. However it's hard to judge the effect because they often investigate where you threw it from rather than where it landed.
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 seems much lower in this game. Some doors are unlocked, some require lockpick, and many others require key codes, or more rarely retina scans. Retina scans require grabbing the guard from behind and forcefully pushing his face to the scanner.
This game does a lot better at guiding you through the levels, so I didn’t get stuck. There are many areas with multiple ways to get through them. Some aren’t too obvious but it's great when you realise you have found an alternate route.
The level variety is pretty good. There’s the usual buildings/office areas, but then there are jungle sections where you move through foliage. The most interesting idea is the short level on the train which features narrow corridors but part involves some tense outside-the-train navigation which is more of a visual spectacle than difficult gameplay. There’s a similar narrow corridor vehicle later on when you board a submarine.
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, otherwise they take a few punches to knock down. 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.
Even though Sam is a trained soldier/spy, his accuracy with the pistol seemed questionable. However, in this game, his accuracy is more obvious when you enable the new laser sight as you see it move as he breathes. The rifle is still the more accurate gun, has longer range, can equip special gadgets to it and has a scope. You also have grenades in some missions, and smoke grenades to stun.
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.
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.
In terms of flaws, the Americanised voice actors rather than using real accents based on the locales is a disappointing choice. Some dialogue is a bit cheesy/comedic or forced exposition by the guards which doesn’t sound natural. There were some lights which seemed like they were supposed to be swaying but their movement was very jerky and seemed very unrealistic with the perpetual motion.
In many ways, this is more of the same; which is a good thing because the initial game was great. There’s some great ideas with the locales, and the change in design to use fewer locked doors results in better pacing if you don’t have to backtrack to find a guard/computer you overlooked. The minor changes remove some of the frustrating aspects too. Just like the first game, I’d say it's pretty iconic, holds up surprisingly well, and can be tense.