Splinter Cell is a unique stealth experience, that has many great moments, even though it is very frustrating at times.
User Rating: 8.6 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell PS2
Most games that include stealth use it only as a way to fill the gap, in terms of gameplay, and usually it is something short and simple, like walking past several guards without them noticing, or to knock out an enemy silently. Splinter Cell, however, manages to break the mold and offer a unique form of gameplay, one that utilizes stealth at all times, and can only come from the world of Tom Clancy. You play the game as NSA Agent Sam Fisher, tasked with tracking two other agents that mysteriously disappeared in the country of Georgia, and the story gets bigger and bigger as you progress from mission to mission. Sam has got a wide variety of abilities that will help you get the mission accomplished. The most useful one is his ability to grab his enemies from behind, either to interrogate them, use them as human shields, or just to knock them out cold. Unfortunately, this is not as easy as it seems, for example, if you walk behind an enemy to fast or make ANY noise whatsoever, he will turn around to investigate (meaning he’ll pull out his gun and shoot you to death). But you can do several things to avoid this. The game uses a fabulous lighting system, and if the room is dark enough, Sam is virtually invisible. Also, you can throw objects or make noise to lure a guard either toward you, or away from you, hopefully giving you the advantage. Like in all action games, Sam gets guns, but only two. The first is a basic silenced pistol, and the second is a futuristic assault rifle, that can do more than kill people, like fire small, sticky cameras onto walls, and shoot electric darts. Sam has other gadgets to use as well, the most obvious one is the glowing set of goggles on his head, and Sam uses these for both his night vision and thermal vision modes, both of which are very useful when sneaking up to enemies undetected. Sam also uses lock picks and laser microphones, just to name a few in his arsenal of gadgets. There are ten missions in all, and all of them are very, very long. Each mission can take up to an hour and a half to complete, and that does not include the amount of times that you will have to restart an area because you screwed up. With that said, the game is very frustrating, and may result in smashed controllers and strange use of profanity. Once you get the hang of it though, Splinter Cell can be very rewarding. Graphically, Splinter Cell is great. The lighting effects are fantastic and this helps create realism when you are stalking in the shadows with no one knowing that you are there. The sound is great, the voice work is superb and the in-game music is very well done. Actually, the sound in the game is extremely important, because it “informs” you of Sam’s current status. For example, when a guard sees something suspicious, the music will change and you will know that someone is coming for you. The music is also different when a guard actually sees you and begins to shoot. This seems cheap, and unrealistic, but it will save your life on numerous occasions. Splinter Cell is a great game that redefines the stealth genre as well. This is a game that other developers will try to mimic as they make games of their own. If you are even remotely interested in stealth at all, give Splinter Cell at least a rental, you will only be disappointed if you have a strong hatred for stealth or if you are a very impatient individual. If you can get past the constant frustration of trial and error, you will find Splinter Cell to be an extremely entertaining game. 
