Sam's back ... bigger and better than before. A greatly improved and fun Splinter Cell vehicle.

User Rating: 9 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory PC
SCCT is a much improved addition to the SC series. There are many new (or different) ways for Sam to bypass the various security devices. Reading the manual and/or watching the tutorial videos, especially about hacking, is essential even for the experienced SC player as there are many subtle changes in how to get the best out of Sam's capabilities. The combination of newer and smoother mechanics makes this the most satisfying outing for Sam since the original groundbreaking game.

Like its predessors SCCT is more about the missions than the man and there are indeed some pretty tough missions in SCCT. Your performance statistics for each mission in the single player campaign are evaluated. The emphasis within the performance evaluation system is on stealth and getting a high score means you tended to avoid the guards and various detection systems as well as completing the main and subsidiary tasks, rather than eliminating enemies. Indeed taking out the guards is something to be avoided unless absolutely necessary as this will negatively impact your score.

Each mission allows Sam to choose one of three mission equipment kits: a recommended one, one empasising stealth, and the other assault. I don't believe the equipment selection plays any role on the evaluation score itself. Obviously some missions lend themselves more to either stealth or assault and the pre-mission briefings from Lambert, Grimsdottir and Redding will clue you in, although I generally went with Redding's recommended load out. For example the Seoul mission, being in the middle of a North Korean invasion of that city suggests an assault load out is the best kit, although you can still focus on avoidance rather than confrontation but will have the tools if required. Whereas the Bank mission which is meant to look like an inside job is definitely a stealth mission.

Sam's EEV, that's Electronically Enhanced Vision, is now greatly enhanced from the earlier games and indeed has replaced a suite of gadgets Sam needed to take on his previous missions. Apart from the various vision modes (normal, infra-red, EMF and zoom/binocular) the EEV is now wi-fi enabled for remote hacking of computers, and also comes with laser microphone and laser designator. The OPSAT still provides the usual in-mission information but now also comes with a 3D map which unfortunately is not very intuitive.

Sam himself has a few new moves for dispatching enemies including the inverted stranglehold and the ability to grab them and pull them over railings to their doom. The save system is a generous as the earlier games and basically unlimited in Normal difficulty mode.

Once again Sam heads off on a great set of globe trotting missions to covertly forestall the enemy's plans to trigger a major war. Again, for me, the narrative flow seemed a bit muddled however each mission is neatly self contained so trying to fathom the plot is not essential. SCCT has ten missions as follows:

1 ... Lighthouse: Punta Blanco Lighthouse, Outside Talara, Peru (beautifully rendered cave network and lighthouse in a storm).
2 ... Cargo Ship: Pacific Ocean, 90km Southwest of Panama Canal (the obligatory ship-bound mission improved with some eerie environments)
3 ... Bank: MCAS Banco de Panama, Panama City, Panama (Sam does an Ocean's Eleven style bank heist, an excellent stealth oriented mission)
4 ... Penthouse: Manhattan Garment District, New York City, USA (at times reminiscent of Max Payne's dark city)
5 ... Displace: Offices of Displace Int. Midtown Manhattan, New York City, USA (one of the more challenging missions)
6 ... Hokkaido: Private Retreat Outside Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan (beautifully rendered Japanese villa complex)
7 ... Battery: NKA Coastal Battery, outside Pupori, North Korea (infiltrate the enemy base, another challenging mission but with multiple objectives)
8 ... Seoul: Seoul, South Korea (recover data in the midst of a war torn city, some amazing visuals, watch out for those UAVs, a rather tough mission)
9 ... Bathhouse: Shinjuku District Bath House, Tokyo, Japan (a difficult mission in places)
10 . Kokubo Sosho: Japanese Defence Ministry, On Tokyo Bay, Tokyo, Japan (infiltrate enemy military defence HQ)

As in previous SC games the graphics are of a very high standard and indeed more customizable through an array of advanced settings that will suit individual GPUs capabilities better without performance loss. All the single player maps are beautifully rendered with close attention to detail. Each mission's environments and moods are very well captured through the combination of visual and audio effects. One area the SC series does excel at is the "you are there" feel.

Character development, sadly, is pretty limited. The verbal interplay between Fisher and Grimsdottir is much more entertaining than in earlier SC games. The story seems to follow on from the earlier SC games, focussing on information warfare and the events from earlier games and missions. Sam finds out that one of the key conspirators with the enemy is one of his close friends and fellow SEAL. Replayability is high as there are always a number of solutions or pathways for Sam to try to "solve" each mission. The mission performance statistics, I found, adds to the replayability as you try to outdo your previous scores.

Glitches? None encountered. Not having tried them, I cannot comment on the co-op, versus or other multiplayer modes.

SUMMARY: The best Splinter Cell game (so far) with plenty of tense stealth action and adventure. If you've never tried a stealth game before this is an excellent enry point to the genre.

My next foray will be Double Agent ... I have decided to forego Conviction due to the many issues with it, espcially the invasive DRM.