The Splinter Cell series has been the pinnacle of all stealth/action games in recent years. The first one really changed the way we play games and spawned a bunch of knock-offs. After playing the sequal, I wasn't as impressed with where the series seemed to be going. The one-player experience didn't improve much & they seemed to focus mostly on adding a multi-player aspect. Well Chaos Theory eased my concerns because this is the best game in the series and actually does both (single & multi-player) correctly.
After playing Pandora Tomorrow, I really wasn't salivating at the mouth to play another Splinter Cell game. The graphics hadn't improved much, if at all. The game still had WAY too much trial-and-error gameplay. There was a frustrating lack of save points. And you won't need more than one guess as to where the storyline went. It's a Tom Clancy game, so you know there is some terriorist activity, etc., etc. The second game just felt like a reason to bring the multi-player aspects of the series to the forefront. The single-player game was more of the same and pretty much unchanged from the excellent first game. Sure I liked playing it, but I was expecting more from a sequal.
Ubisoft then brought back the group that developed the first game (a development group from Montreal instead of Shanghi, who did the second game), and you can tell that refining the one-player game was top priority. The story is still pure Clancy-esque. But this time around there are some nice twists that help the plot along. And Sam himself just seems more 'human', which I liked quite a bit. He jokes around more and doesn't seem as robotic as the other games. Make no mistake though, you are still a bad-ass spy and that is the real reason you play this game.
The visuals are still top-notch, of course. There is a definate upgrade over the first two games and the lighting is amazing. I can't even count how many times I stopped what I was doing in the game just to check out the lighting. As usual, Michael Ironside does a great job voicing Sam Fisher. I think this guy is a great badguy in movies and his voice is absolutely perfect for the Sam Fisher character. So much so, that I couldn't imagine a Splinter Cell game without him doing the voice for the lead character. All of the other voices are well done too. There isn't much music here, but I did like what music there was. I really liked the sounds of the shotgun and sniper attachments when you shoot them.
If you played the previous two games, then you will know the gameplay here. To be honest, not much has changed in the way you actually play the game. There are just a few more choices during the missions that you can do to make the game feel less linear than it actually is. I don't know how to put it into words, but this game was just more fun to play. Like I said, there aren't many drastic gameplay changes, it just seems more refined and they improved in a few, but crucial areas.
For one, you can save anywhere now. This was a huge thing for me, as I HATE replaying part of games I already have. So I welcomed this addition. To some people, it might make the game too easy, but I didn't mind. They also got rid of a lot of the trial-and-error gameplay that hampered the original and Pandora Tomorrow. The game just seems to flow better and it makes for a better overall gameplay experience. You can tell they tried to make this title a little more accesable to a wider audience, as the difficulty was a bit low. Combine that with the save anytime feature and I blew through this game in under ten hours. I would normally complain about that, but the game didn't seem too short and this isn't some epic RPG.
I just felt like Ubisoft definately took what they learned from the first two games (good & bad) and used that in refining the third game. Sure there are no drastic gameplay changes, but this game just is more fun to play. Plus the uprgrade in the graphics was a nice, and needed, touch. Of course, if you didn't like the previous games in the series, this may not change your mind. If you like stealth/action games, however, I recommend that you give this a shot. It's a great deal at $20 and one of the best games on the Xbox.
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