CES 2003: Splinter Cell PS2 impressions

We had our first chance to play Splinter Cell for the PlayStation 2 today at Dolby's CES 2003 booth, where the game is being demonstrated for its use of digital audio. The playable demo being shown is a short section of the game that allows you to use many of Sam Fisher's moves and gadgets.

The splash screen for the demo states that the game is still in development and will be released in 2003. Even in its current state, the game looks surprisingly good, although it's noticeably inferior to the Xbox version. The level of detail in the environments, characters, and objects is fairly decent, and the night-vision and thermal-imaging effects look about the same. The fantastic lighting effects seen in the Xbox version of the game look like they'll be at least similar in the PS2 version, albeit quite a bit less impressive.

The level available for play in the demo allows you to take Sam Fisher through a restaurant, where he has to deal with a couple of enemies and eventually make it up onto the roof. The level allows you to make use of many of Sam Fisher's moves, like using a pipe to climb up the side of a building, using a cable to slide from one building to another, and using weapons to dispatch enemies. The controls of the demo we played definitely worked well on the PS2 controller. The gameplay in its current state is responsive and seems to be very similar to the Xbox version's gameplay.

It'll be interesting to see how the final version of Splinter Cell for the PlayStation 2 turns out, especially after seeing this fairly promising demo. We'll have more on the game as we approach its release date.