Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell®

This rewiew is written by someone who didn't play the game back when it came out and views it through the lens of other stealth games. Personal preference: I like my stealth games to give me freedom (how do I incapacitate guards, what gadgets do I use, which route do I take). This game though, doesn't give any. The levels are very linear, usually only one way to sneak through an area. Every now and then this route involves some bad and frustrating platforming. Gadgets also disappoint, almost nothing that would allow to manipulate guards, intead when I want to distract them, I have to eiter sprint for a while, or allow myself to be seen, which is kinda jank. The rifle on the other hand is in a weird place, it has a lot of cool munitions it can fire, but it's weird and disorienting that player recieves access to all of them at the same time. All in all, I'm kinda disappointed.

Just a warning to my fellow retro PC enthusiasts out there; The version of the game you get here is the 1.3 version that has removed EAX functionality completely. The option will remain greyed out in the options menu, and even if you manually set EAX=True in the options menu you will only get basic sound. This is a major bummer! Great game otherwise, too bad about the missing retro hardware compatibility.

The elements in this that most respect Tom Clancy (RIP) are simultaneously a positive and a negative; the former because of how authentic this is and the coolness factor, the latter because of how restrictive it is. A lot of this you are patiently sneaking, not shooting. And both of them just are not quite as engaging as its immediate competition. These are greatly improved in the sequels. However, using gadgets is addictive. The light and sound-based stealth is not quite what it is in the Thief trilogy; it's especially frustrating that this is extremely linear, unlike The Metal Age. Proceeding in this too often means "figuring out what they intended for you to do". Not only that, no, you spend much too long *just finding out where you're supposed to go*. The graphics are great albeit not quite as good as the Prince of Persia games that came out starting just one year after this one was released, and are also Ubisoft products. Movement is awkward, particularly jumping. As far as I can tell it's because they wanted to tailor it to implement the split leg suspension, which along with the signature goggles are the biggest contributions to pop culture of this franchise. Ultimately you don't end up using it all that much and I think they should have just made a separate function for it. The AI is great, part of why this is very challenging. Except for when it is really easy. The two weapons, fitted with silencer and flash suppressor, pistol and SC-20K(to know it is to love it) are a ton of fun to use(when the time is right), as is all the equipment. Diversions that can also render foes unconscious, a reusable reconnaissance camera, the Sticky Shocker, and that's not the only *launchable*(!) stuff you get to use. Optic cable for looking under doors, wall mines, lock-picks, flares, grenades, and I could go on. The tactical opportunities is another thing where this really shines. Night and Thermal Vision(and trust me, it is perfect) demand mention, as well.

This game is so excellent way back in 2000s, it was one of the most learning curve experience, like if you want to pass the guards successfully you must know when to proceed with timing or if you wanna kill all those in your way will ok but doesnt feel satisfying since the design of game caters in more play like a casper(ghost) or ninja style approach with lots of trial and error :D, But as its stands today it suffers glitches, clunky controls and very linear design like mission you get into forced firefight and have limited options. On the other hand this game still holds up day. I recommend this game especially on sale and im waiting for pandora and chaos theory in GOG.

A classic in the stealth genre but i do think the base keybinds kinda suck and you have to fiddle with the settings for 1080p but ive come to accept that by now for these older games definitely pick it up if you have the chance