randini1977's Full Review: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell for PlayStation 2
I have slowly been getting games of this type. SPEC OPS-type games. Sneak around and kill people, government conspiracies and cover-ups. Fantastic. I love it. On to the review.
Synopsis
You are Sam Fischer, an ex-government agent, now working for an under-the-table, secret government contractor, designed specifically for carrying out covert operations throughout the world. It is an agency that can never be mentioned, and the government disavows all knowledge of. Even after success in a mission, other agencies are credited with your accomplishments.
Gameplay
Definitely takes some getting used to. The game opens up with a training session to get you used to all of Fischer's moves, controls, and abilities, of which he has many. He is nothing short of a ninja. He merely replaces his sword and throwing stars, for a gun and assorted gadgets.
The game revolves around 90% stealth, and 10% all out assault. On screen you have a meter that tells you how visible you are to others. You can become virtually invisible to guards, and other personnel throughout the game, by sticking to shadows, and not moving. This requires a lot timing, skill, and sometimes nerves. You WILL play a certain area more than once trying to get past a particular scenario within a level. Fortunately, you can rest assured that after a difficult situation, there is a checkpoint, so you don't have to do it all over again.
Your actions during a mission can help, or even hinder you throughout the missions. Killing or incapacitating a guard, instead of sneaking past him, can result in someone discovering the body (even if you have hidden it). This is particularly bad in a game of stealth for obvious reasons. In some missions, you cannot alert ANYONE to your presence. Most others though, you have a 3 alarm cushion, meaning someone can discover you, or a body you have left behind, 3 times, before you fail the mission altogether.
All of this is wonderful. A nice relief to the straightforwardness of most games, especially FPS's, that require little to no stealth at all.
My only real complaint, is the method in which you use your weapon. Your movement is very hindered, and when you are fighting against very mobile enemies, this is not a good thing. Why they set this up the way they did, I will never understand.
Controls
The left analog stick is used for character movement, while the right is for adjusting the camera angle. This is a very helpful, and innovative, setup. As stated before, it takes some getting used to, but once you have it down, it's just fine.
Sound
The sound is pretty good. There is no actual "level music", as this would not make it easy to hear any sounds you are making, or sounds the enemy might be making.
If a guard sees your movement, but doesn't really see you, he will say something like, "who's there?!", and this strange music will play while he goes to investigate. If you can hide away from him long enough, eventually, he will think it was nothing and go back to his regular patrol. You will know when he has done this, because the music will stop and it will go back to the in-game sounds. Also, if you are flat out seen, the music becomes high tempo, "we're-gonna-get-you" kind of music. You had better be ready if you here this.
The in-game sounds are really good, as well. If you walk on a steel grating, your footsteps are louder, and a steel sound rings out in the air. Same goes for a wood floor. Everything has an authentic sounds. From walking over broken glass, to opening a window. No complaints here.
Graphics
Well, this is where they seem to fall short. If you have not seen, or played the XBox version, this game should be fine, with the exception of one thing; thermal imagery. The thermal image shots are pretty bad, especially when you are directed to look for fingerprints. That part is nothing short of horrible.
If you have played seen or played the XBox version, you will not the PS2 version has been chopped to bits, graphically. There are guards missing, rooms missing, even entire environments missing. The lighting effects are nowhere NEAR what they are on XBox.
Conclusion
Don't bother with this if you own both an XBox and PS2. If not then go ahead and get this game.
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