Stealth Fighter
Last updated: 10/10/2006 - 09:55
Fancy your chances on a one man covert mission behind enemy lines? Let Splinter Cell from Ubi Soft bring out your inner ninja...
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
Sam Fisher the hero of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell may like hiding in the shadows but you can't hide from his computer game which has stormed into the record books by becoming the UK's fastest ever selling Xbox title.
Your name is Sam Fisher and you are the best field-operative of the secretive 'black-ops' National Security Agency (NSA) sub-agency known only as the ‘Third Echelon’. Sent to execute desperate missions, you're the last resort of your government, on the very edge of legality and morality. Alone, yet equipped with the very latest in ultra-modern gadgetry and weapons, you are geared up to infiltrate high-security strongholds, seize critical intelligence, destroy threatening data and – where required - neutralise the enemy.
International Espionage
Splinter Cell grants players access to the highest echelons of the shadowy world of international espionage. In this world, deadly agents operate outside their nation’s jurisdiction - as well as internally – and beyond the law, where required, eliminating all who stand in the way of their mission. Silent as a whisper, deadly as a blade, you are authorised to operate with carte blanche. You exist above the law, but your name, your face and your mission must remain anonymous.
Some of the unique features you can expect from the game include :
Since its initial release for the Xbox video game system in November 2002, Splinter Cell has gone on to sell over 200,000 units in the UK alone. It boasts an average rating of 94.4 (out of a possible 100), based on a sample of 54 reviews, and was most recently awarded GameSpy's ‘Xbox Game of the Year 2002’ award.
Record Sales
"With its all-around stupendous reviews and now its record sales, Splinter Cell is blazing a trail the likes of which the industry has rarely seen. We are eager to take the run-away success of this game to an even wider audience," said Yves Guillemot, President and CEO of publishers Ubi Soft Entertainment.
Splinter Cell sold in excess of an unprecedented 40,000 units in its launch weekend alone, going straight to the number one slot and smashing the previous record held by former Xbox favourite Halo. The game also out-performed new releases James Bond 007: Nightfire and Unreal Championship on Xbox and has considerably boosted sales of the Xbox console.Sara Pelton, group brand manager at Ubi Soft, ads: "The reaction to Splinter Cell has been phenomenal and we are delighted by the sales figures. Microsoft Xbox has identified Splinter Cell as a key driver for its console...the results speak for themselves."
Splinter Cell is the latest release in Ubi Soft's highly successful Tom Clancy license, which includes the franchises Raven Shield: Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear, Ghost Recon and The Sum Of All Fears.
See also on Lifestyle: Mistress of Disguise - Enter the world of international espionage as Sydney Bristow, in the game of TVs Alias.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is available now for PS2, for Nintendo's GameCube, Game Boy Advance and for PC.
More information available in Gaming, Home Computing
General
"I Am Sam Fisher - Splinter Cell"
If the above statement ever leaves the lips of anyone you know then you can safely say they have been gripped by the same fever that has taken over me. This game is fantastic, absorbing, inventive and fresh - a semi-revolution in action/adventure gaming for me.
Up until this moment, my favourite game for looks, gameplay and all-out action was Max Payne. As you can tell from that statement, stealth has never been high on my list of priorities when it comes to gaming, but Splinter Cell has just changed all that. Crawling through fans, slinking around in the dark and the silent neutralising of enemies with a single stealthy neck-chop is simply exhilarating and you can't help but get absorbed by the tension.
According to the developers it is possible to complete this game without killing anyone, but you try resisting sneaking up on an enemy in the dark and training your gun on him from the shadows and see how long that lasts! If you can’t get into the atmosphere of this game you a severe lack of emotions!
Graphics & Sound
Where to start? OK - Let’s start with Sam. He is very well animated and smooth and the sequences where he performs actions such as jumping, split-jumping (which is one of the coolest gimmicks in a game ever!) and shimmying along ledges or up drain-pipes are all effortless and seamless.
The levels are large and very well put together with interesting interactions with the scenery and the level of detail and realistic touches surpass any game I have come across. The movies between the levels are large and even my machine found them hard to run (I have a GeForce4 Ti 4600, 1Gb SDRAM, Creative Audigy 6.1) smoothly, but they are informative and well put together.
The only slight niggle I had with the game in terms of sound is the voices. They do not, in my opinion, reflect the characters too well - Sam in particular sounds like he smokes 60 Benson & Hedges per day, which, whilst making him sound ultra hard, this is really not that realistic considering the acrobatic prowess he displays!
Gameplay
The gameplay is where Splinter Cell really comes alive. Although the premise of the game is that of stealth it is not boring in the slightest due to some very clever work by the developers. Instead of sneaking up on someone and knocking them out instantly, the effectiveness of the hit depends on the level of surprise i.e. the more surprised they are the more likely one hit is to put them down.
Staying hidden however is a real challenge, but one which really pays of if you do it right. The 'Grab Character' interaction is also excellent and it is in using this that you can force people to use retinal scanners or give up vital information. The picking up of data from computers is a nice touch and for the first time in a game that I have played I actually find myself reading the data to gather clues such as access codes or filling in the blanks in the story.
Even the shooting has been well thought out. A particularly nice touch is the 'Hold Breath and Aim' command which steadies you just before you clip off a couple of rounds from range with the sniper rifle.
One very slight criticism I had, and primarily the reason why I like shoot-em-ups so much rather than stealth games, is that some sections can get very hard and require 10-15 attempts to get past them. However the feeling of satisfaction you get from beating the machine is second to none.
Overall
I don't sleep much anymore, I stay out of the light, I hand out information on a need-to-know basis and if I think my identity may be compromised I'd rather kill than be caught! This game owns me in a way no game has since the release of Max Payne. If you have any doubts about buying this, ignore them now.
JUST BUY THIS GAME! It'll be the best thing you ever did!
Stephen Parker, posted on 16/11/2006 at 03:46