Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell®

Is it better than the Ubisoft Connect version? In a few ways, but it has problems of it's own, so no it's not. I didn't know as I played that the in game settings were now unusable, you'll have to choose them from a different launcher with the games options. Great, though they're a bit finnicky with what resolutions you can use, some of them like 1080p won't let you choose the levels from the main menu without the game crashing. I also wasn't able to assign tab as a key to cycle around the inventory, which is the key I always use. Apart from that there are a few subtle visual glitches I noticed, like misaligned light projections, for exemple in the training, the fan dynamic shadow now appears on the wall instead of showing up in the ground and a few ground textures are glitched or missing, like on the chinese embassy level, it's noticeable that the floor texture repeats itself infinitely when in the original it isn't like that. I think this release needs just a bit more tweaking, Something I'd love to see is if the cutscene resolution was the same as in gameplay, so it doesn't have the violent switching that makes me see my desktop for a second everytime I start a new mission. Also, a huge problem with the thermal vision, it has no sense of depth or any greens to show mid temperatures, it's completely ruined from the original graphics and the part in the abattoir is nigh unplayable.

My review is based on the retail release: The game itself back in it's original release was brand new and fresh in the stealth genre. It was amazing, to use the enviroment with its lightning and background noise. The graphics were good for the time and the soundtrack was also very well done. The GoG-Version delivers you the mission pack, which adds more and good levels to the game. It's awesome to see them here, because I had to buy an used retail-version of the levels over amazon. Back in January 2009 the Complete Pack offered only Splinter Cell 1 till 4, without the missions pack. But buying the old mini-addon is not everything. I had to update (or downgrade) Splinter Cell 1 for compatibility with the mission pack. I downloaded back in 2009 the "SplinterCell13DVD.zip", which was not easy to find on the old UbiSoft-Forums. Who knows if this patch package is still online, I saved it on my harddrive. After applying this patch, you have to install the mission pack. Nice to see GoG providing it and spare us with all the patching. More I cannot say about the compability of the GoG version (because I own retail), but I thing it should run very well on modern OS. I played the retail version on Win Vista and it worked well. I give 4 stars, because the Sequels Splinter Cell 2 (Pandora Tomorrow) and 3 (Chaos Theory) are even better. On technical and completeness side I would give 5 stars (if there are no issues compared to the DVDs on Win Vista and upwards).

It's no coincidence that Splinter Cell 3 - Chaos Theory is considered the best of entry in the franchise: you had more tools to play around with and more ways to tackle every level and situation. Splinter Cell 1 is, sadly, not that type of game: yes, each and every single level is as vast and engaging as stealth will ever get, but there's also only one way to solve every problem. You'll beat it once, maybe go for a perfect ghost run but you'll most likely never touch it again.

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.

the Dialog and the political suspence is second to none. True Ton Clancy's way. just wish ubi would of stuck with Rainbow 6 the same way and not deprived it of depth. Cheers