Chaos Theory 3D E3 2005 Hands-On

Gameloft's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is our highest-rated N-Gage game, and deservedly so. The game's impressive 3D visuals helped it achieve that score. Now, a portion of Sam Fisher's adventure is making its way to V-Cast phones. We tested the game on an LG VX8000, and are happy to report that the BREW version of the game ran at least as well as its predecessor, and it loaded up a bit more quickly.

Porting is a huge deal in the wireless world, and it occupies a significant portion of every mobile game's total development time. Gameloft, having recently expanded its workforce, has a division expressly relegated to this daunting task, and its expertise shows. Chaos Theory 3D is of an audiovisual quality unparalleled on V-Cast, or on mobile phones in general.

Sam Fisher has a fairly robust repertoire of spy maneuvers, and these can be difficult to execute on a phone's keypad. The game was quite playable, but (although we never thought we'd say so) we immediately missed the N-Gage's digital control pad.

The V-Cast Chaos Theory does have a couple of notable drawbacks, however. Firstly, it only includes the first level of the N-Gage version's lengthy campaign. Two megabytes just wasn't enough space to include more gameplay. Fortunately, Lighthouse was a long level in the N-Gage version, and it may well be worth the $9.99. Secondly, there assuredly won't be any Bluetooth multiplayer in this version of the game. It remains to be seen whether a Splinter Cell scoreboard system, similar to the one featured in the N-Gage Arena, will be implemented on Verizon.

We were definitely impressed with Chaos Theory 3D, and we're looking forward to getting stealthy later this year.