Splinter Cell wasn't a game I grew up with so I can fully say that I don't have my nostalgia goggles on for this one. One important bit is that if you're buying this to relive that PS2 or GameCube game you only played when your brother wasn't home, this will be different. The Xbox and PC versions came first and are missing changes from the PS2/GC versions. Some say for the better, others disagree. There are plenty of comparisons online you may want to peruse before buying. + Solid story, classic Clancy + Enemy AI surprisingly good for it's time. Better than some later gen games I've played. + Like many old games, it tries a non-standard control layout but you get used to it really quickly. All actions are with the left hand on the left side of the keyboard, plus your mouse. - Noticeably linear level design with little option for how to tackle a problem. This is likely to prevent players from getting lost and confused and to keep the level going as they can be quite long. For example, there's one way to enter a room or building or window. If there is a rappelling point or zip line, you will need to use it. At no point will you need to weigh the options of interrogating someone for a code or using some cool gadget or Ramboing the front door. There is one solution to every hurdle, and I feel that this was the beginning of a trend for Clancy games going from tactical shooters to just following the level in a straight line, ticking objectives off as you go. The few times you can go off the beaten path, it's a very short hall to an extra medkit or lockpick and that's it. - Oil rig level has game breaking bug as soon as you climb the first ladder and step on to the green pipes. I got past it by running over the pipes onto the boards, then proceeding without stepping on the pipes at all. - Like Clancy's novels, anyone who isn't American is a bad caricature of how Americans think that demographic speaks.
My first time starting it, my character's texture didn't load properly and my hands looked like I was on acid. I threw a football at a guy which hit him in the bag so hard that it crashed to desktop. Perfect Vietnam simulator. Every subsequent run has worked as intended. The gameplay is solid, there's a variety of guns that all have satisfying sound and feel, the story is great, the voice acting is decent enough, the soundtrack's a little pretentious but I'll take that over boring or annoying. Overall, a decent game. I only have two complaints: The first is that some levels have ammo-a-plenty and others don't. Usually you can pickup enemy weapons but there's one level in particular where you're stuck with the Thompson and you only get what ammo you get minus a pickup mid way through. I beat the level by choosing which enemies really needed to be shot so I could clear a path and just finish the level. The second is that the VC are borderline racist caricatures of how they were depicted in American propaganda, they don't do hit-and-run tactics but instead just stand out in the open to be shot, and jungle traps are only story related set pieces rather than actual punji pits that you need to avoid. All in all, it's a fine enough linear shooter for the time with zero replay value. Pick it up on a sale to kill an afternoon or two and then forget about it.
First, F2 will turn off the absolutely grating PC speaker "music" but leave the sound effects on. Other than that, all you'll need is the arrow keys and Insert. Second, read the manual. This is a mini-game collection and they aren't self explanatory. Once you understand what you're actually supposed to do, it's decently fun and simple enough that anyone can pick it up and try. GOG has this game filed under "Arcade" and that's honestly the best descriptor of the difficulty: I can very easily almost beat each game except for that one final step is nearly impossible in a way that, if this were an actual arcade game, I'd be frustratingly and addictively plugging entire mortgage payments of quarters into it. Bottom line, this isn't a game you're going to waste an entire afternoon on for it's riveting storytelling; it's a game you and some friends can crowd around the PC with a couple drinks and compete against each other for an evening and then forget about. Or fire it up for 20 minutes when you're just not sure what to play to crush some time.
Fans of any other SCUMM games will love this. It's everything those others games were, plus quality of life improvements. Puzzles were good without being obtuse, coupled with a built in hint system that ranges from subtle hint to spoon feeding you the answer. My only complaint is that some of the things in the story either didn't line up or weren't fully explained, but this could have been to me playing on Casual mode (simpler puzzles and dialogue trees) or missing things. I'd understand keeping content behind a difficulty barrier, so that I need to step up to get the extra content, but this should be specific to just that: extra content. I will eventually revisit this game on Hard mode and see if that fills in some blanks for me.
+ The weapons are all satisfying. They hit hard, they sound good. Stellar work. I just wish that every gun had an aim-down-sights function. + Enemy AI is usually decent. They utilize cover, don't run around like idiots. + The score is stellar as always. = Level design is hit-and-miss. I loved any primarily indoor levels. Pop around corners, shoot guys, pop back, reload, throw grenades. Great fun. Primarily outdoor levels often have you walking long distances with nothing happening. If there's a fork in the road, you can take a wrong turn and have to walk all the way back. Without a sprint function, this is detrimental. - The direction of enemy guns has nothing to do with their bullet trajectory. This means that as an enemy pops from cover, as soon as the center point of their gun passes the wall, they shoot at you, even if they're pointing their gun straight up in the air, or you can't even see them yet. - Plenty of times I've watched enemies push their guns through car roofs and shoot through the whole vehicle, leaving me to take a few hits while I try to accurately knock their helmet off with a 30-06 because that's all I can see of their model. - More than one scripted turret sequence where enemies come running at you from only two spawn points on the other side of a wall. There are two buildings on either side of the street. Why not put a spawn point in there and have some guys pop out windows to shoot at me, mix it up a bit so I'm not just alternating between two spots. As said above, some levels feel great. Others feel lazy.
Most of the time, I'm able to immerse myself. People are varied and plentiful enough that I actually feel like I'm walking around a real dystopian city. The city feels like it was designed to be a city and not to be an arena which was one of my biggest gripes with just about any Ubisoft game. On a half off sale, I would certainly recommend it. + M+K control is incredibly fluid, feels great + Stable 60 fps on medium settings at 2560x1080 with a GTX 1080 + Amazing soundtrack - Still multiple annoying but non-game breaking bugs (Press space to skip intro movie only works half the time, I frequently punch people so hard that they T-pose, people drive like they're from the Saskatchewan). - If a friend had a car that shook as much as these, I'd tell them to get their struts fixed.
If you played and liked Rogue Trooper, you'll like this. It's exactly the same, but with improved graphics, lighting, and ultrawide monitor support. As a benchmark, I'm using an overclocked 970 and I'm able to run a solid 60 FPS at 3440x1440. The story is a little hokey, the foreshadowing is blatant and the controls don't feel as smooth as they could. It pretty much feels the exact same as the original, it just looks much better.
