Splinter Cell

Whilst Splinter Cell might have made a pretty good game for the Xbox, it simply is not up to the standard expected by more discerning PS2 owners.

Whilst it absolutely is not in the same league as MGS (1 or 2), the game itself is actually more akin to Syphon Filter on the PS1 - which it has "borrowed" greatly from in many areas.

Most annoying of all, it keeps the S-Filter approach to stealth - in that once you are spotted then it is game over on many levels (!!) Wheras in MGS, Solid Snake had to deal with the consequences of being discovered.

So in S-Cell you find yourself repetitively going over and over the same sections of the levels.

On the levels that dont have this drawback, the AI is so stupid that you can simply charge through as if you were playing a shoot 'em up.

And as for all those fancy moves you see on the box, forget it, I completed the game and not once did I find anywhere to perform the promised moves - they simply arent required.

And also, the box says "creat your own darkness path" - ie all lights are supposed to be shootable - rubbish, very few lights are shootable.

The game is very very linear, you simply can only take the route laid out for you, you cant climb on stuff that the programmers dont want you to - even though they are low enough.

This game could have been so good ! But quite frankly it is just plain ordinary. If you have never played MGS then you might think this was pretty good, but otherwise just rent it from Blockbusters (PS2 owners) before you consider buying it.

And poor PC owners need a 1gb, 256mb, 64mb GFX PC to run this !! Talk about sloppy coding !! It runs with all the same FX on a 300MhZ PS2 - the only difference being in a lower screen rez ! When will PC programmers learn to code as efficiently as Console coders ? Probably never.

Even though the game-play is great the story implies a world view which gives me the creeps. The essential freedoms and the human rights can only be protected if the "good guy" break undermine these rights? Terrorist and unliked politicians have to be executed. Not even the government is being informed...because it is just the right thing. Even though many games use these ideas the normally don't promote them in such a naive propagandistic style.

With such naive distinction between good and evil implicating that the end always justifies the means, promotes fascistic ideas. it is a shame that such a great game is being destroyed down by the infantile world view of its designers.

game-play 4.5 out of 5 story ought better be banned

8 out of 10 - The Game That Lit the Shadows

The original Splinter Cell wasn't just a stealth game. It was a statement. Released in 2002 during a time when action-heavy titles dominated, Ubisoft's Splinter Cell did something bolder: it made you slow down. It made you think. And it brought shadows to the forefront in a way gaming hadn't truly seen before.

The Birth of Sam Fisher

This was the world's introduction to Sam Fisher, voiced with grizzled perfection by Michael Ironside - a no-nonsense operative for the NSA's ultra-covert Third Echelon. Fisher wasn't a superhero. He was a ghost. No regenerating health, no bullet-sponge bravado. Just a man, some gadgets, and a grim mission to stop a geopolitical catastrophe.

Set during a fictional uprising in Georgia (the country, not the state), the story spirals into international espionage with cyberterrorism, military coups, and the threat of global destabilization. It was a political thriller delivered with grit and realism - and it set the tone for the series.

Gameplay: Light and Shadow Redefined

Splinter Cell's greatest innovation was how it weaponized light. You weren't sneaking in darkness just for style - you needed it to survive. The light meter became your gospel, and every flickering fluorescent bulb or exposed hallway became a puzzle.

You could shoot out lights, crawl through vents, use fiber-optic cameras under doors, and deploy non-lethal gadgets like sticky shockers and ring airfoil rounds. You weren't encouraged to kill - you were encouraged to evade, extract, and disappear without a trace.

It was challenging. Brutally so, at times. But when it worked, it felt incredible. You weren't just controlling a character - you became an operative.

Level Design: Industrial, Tight, Tactical

From CIA headquarters to oil refineries and foreign embassies, the environments were tight, cleanly designed, and built to support stealth. They weren't open-ended playgrounds like later entries - they were missions, with very little room for error.

It was linear, yes, but deliberately so. Every corridor had a purpose. Every guard had a patrol path. And it was your job to crack the code without ever being seen.

Presentation & Audio

For its time, Splinter Cell was visually stunning. The use of dynamic lighting and shadows on the original Xbox and PC was a generational leap. Ubisoft built an atmosphere of tension through minimalist music, ambient sounds, and Ironside's iconic voice work.

Every interaction had weight. The sound of a guard's footsteps, the hum of a nearby security camera - it all mattered. This was immersive stealth done right.

Why 8, Not 10?

Brutal Trial and Error: The game demanded perfection, sometimes to a frustrating degree.

Limited Save System: Some missions could be punishing due to sparse checkpoints.

Linear Paths: Unlike later games in the series, there was little freedom in how you approached objectives.

No Multiplayer: This was a solo affair - and while gripping, it lacked the innovation Pandora Tomorrow would later bring with Spies vs. Mercs.

Final Verdict

8 out of 10. A foundational stealth classic.

Splinter Cell (2002) wasn't perfect, but it didn't need to be. It invented the modern stealth blueprint for Ubisoft and introduced one of the most iconic operatives in gaming. Its atmosphere, challenge, and use of shadow-based stealth were years ahead of their time.

It's not the easiest game to revisit now, but it commands respect. Without it, we wouldn't have Chaos Theory, Conviction, or any of the greatness that followed.

It's not just where Sam Fisher began - it's where an entire genre evolved.

When I was off work for many months with broken leg, I had nothing to do, so I brought an xbox, splinter cell is a budget games with everybody saying how good it is, believe me, it is good! For the xbox and P.C., the graphics are very good, I believe for PS2 they turned the graphics quality down, but they were still very good by PS2 standards. This game took ubisoft five years to develop, and it shows! The controls are easy to master on the xbox version, it totally gripping, very believable, running around with lots of guns will never happen in real life, hence why in splinter cell, for the first few levels, you get a silenced pistol, with very limited ammo, so ideally you don't use it, you have to think around how to get somewhere, how to moves to a certain locations, avoiding guards, knocking guards out, cleaning pipes and walls, action blending nicely with real life problems you might except in the real world of espionage, the object of each level is basically get in, get out, without anybody knowing you are there at all, tricky, mistakes either let the guards know your there, or get you killed. I'd recommend this game to anybody, and as it's so cheap on most formats now, trying it won't dent your wallet either!

What can i say this game is awesome the graphics are great the music is suspenseful the action not the greatest but are still cool violence well there is no blood but why should there be it's kinda gross Michial Ironside did an amazing job for Sam Fisher's voice the game may be kinda old but if your a Spy/Espinage fan then you should pick it up at your local game store it's worth it and most of all the storyline is excellent the game's weapon inventory is cool the the sticky cam the sticky shocker and the pistol and Frag Grenade are all my favorite and the loading screen is looks good it shows what date and time of your current mission