Sam Fisher, Third Echelon's best agent, returns for another round of tense and enjoyable high tech stealth action.
SCPT, as an entirely plot, rather than character, driven game is quite passable, however it is the missions, and their challenging difficulty, that carries the game. Each mission is unique in terms of the goals and objectives and you need to adapt your gameplay and skills learned as the game progresses. The missions seem to become more difficult as you progress, even though as in all missions you are still evading or terminating guards and bypassing security systems. For me the real plus in the SC franchise is the use of the third dimension ... often the best, or indeed only, way past or around a difficult spot is to climb up and find a path less travelled. Remember, when in doubt shoot out those lights ... darkness is your (only) friend. Take out those guard dogs ... darkness will not protect you from them!
My review of SC, also here at GameSpot, discusses gameplay and this has remained largely constant in SCPT with the exception of a few new options and key reassignments, so players of SC can play this game with minimal relearning. The ability to save at anytime has been retained and is a great backup, especially for those missions where even one alarm is enough to end the mission. As a stealth game it's all about planning based on observing the scene, the movement of the guards, patterns of searchlights and CCTV cameras before deciding which is the best way to achieve the next goal. Using all the three vision modes: normal, night vision and thermal is essential as each reveals something invisible to the others ... like land mines!
Sam's weapons are essentially his own athletic climbing, jumping and stealth capabilities, as well as hardware like a silenced pistol and the specialised SC-20K Modular Assualt Weapons System (a Q-Branch style multi-gadget assault rifle). [More about the SC-20K here: http://splintercell.wikia.com/wiki/SC-20K_M.A.W.S.] Each mission comprises multiple goals and new information is revealed as you achieve them. Like SC, SCPT eschews the usual unrealistic mission-ending boss fight, although capturing Suhadi Sadono, the Timorese rebel leader, alive is quite challenging. While the game is definately in the stealth genre at various points, especially in the later missions, as the stakes become too high to be coy, Sam is allowed to go "weapons free" and you enter 3rd person shooter mode.
SCPT comprises 8 missions, all beginning with insertion into the mission area and ending with an extraction, summarised as follows:
o Mission 1: US Embassy - Dili, East Timor (tutorial/refresher, jungle/outdoor, night, infiltrate rebel held embassy, locate Ingrid, escape)
o Mission 2: Saulnier Cryogenics Lab - Paris, France (rail tunnels, infiltrate scientific establishment, battle mercenaries, cryogenics storage area)
o Mission 3: Hesperia Railways - Paris-Nice, France (night, infiltrate high speed train, find Soth, record converstation) - a fast moving train makes for a fun mission!
o Mission 4: Jerusalem Street Markets, Israel (beautiful rendering of the sights and sounds of the Old City district, find Dahlia, observant civilians, find gun-maker, evade Israeili security forces, non-lethal force only, double agent) - a long mission as there is much observing and evading of security forces.
o Mission 5: Drug Refinery - Kundang, Indonesia (jungle, moonlight, heroin factory, plant explosives, guard dogs, record conversations, tail Sadono, remote gun turrets) - one of the more challenging missions.
o Mission 6: Submarine Pen - Komodo, Indonesia (jungle, remote gun turrets, guard dogs, secret submarine complex beneath village, infiltrate submarine, single alarm, get data, evade and escape) - strange how bad guys always seem to have a convenient submarine in these games!
o Mission 7: Rebel TV Station - Jakarta, Indonesia (stormy night/lightning, rooftops, sewer tunnels, land mines, elevators, find Ingrid, capture Sadono alive) - challenging.
o Mission 8: LAX Airport - Los Angeles, California ( single alarm, car park basement, baggage handling, inquisitive civilians, find & terminate terrorists, elevator shaft, find Soth) - the "John McClane" mission and a tough one.
A pleasant change from the original SC was the a balance of indoor and outdoor (with varying light conditions) missions. In the original SC you seemed to spend about 90% sneaking about indoors in offices and corridors, in SCPT you get to enjoy the roof top vistas, murky tunnels and the tropical jungle environments.
Like SC, and for its vintage, SCPT is quite exceptional in its graphics and sound presentation. SC is a full 3D graphical experience and the environments look and feel real and there is a great deal of interactability between your character and the maps. Voice acting is very good in capturing the mood, whether wry humour or a sense of urgency. Sound, encompassing background theme music, effects, ambient sounds and dialogue, is all well executed. These elements work together to create a moody atmosphere that enhances your sneaking about activities. The cut scenes are reasonably well done however you really do need to pay close attention to the briefings and messages from Third Echelon HQ to follow the storyline and understand what you mission goal is.
Gltches? I did notice in the final mission at LAX that the underground baggage conveyors showed the bags going in circles in and through the walls at the turning points, rather than along the conveyors which meant you could not hide behind the bags to avoid detection. Otherwise SCPT (v1.31) is a very stable game.
GameSpot's official review covers SCPT rather well and I refer you to it for more detail. Finally, not having tried it, I cannot discuss the multiplayer mode except to say the MP maps are rather good and are fun to explore.
OVERALL: Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow is rich in detail and provides challenging environments in which to put your character, Sam Fisher, through his paces. The storyline is far fetched, but not atypical of the genre ... at the end you feel the satisfaction that comes from saving the world from another WMD-wielding group of fanatics.
SCPT is, in my view, more of a continuation of the original SC, rather than an all new gaming experience. I have Chaos Theory is waiting in the wings and perhaps we will finally get to know more about what makes Sam Fisher tick ... well I'm hoping.