When the Splinter Cell series debuted in 2002, it was more or less under the radar. Not many people knew about it, and it arrived at a time when the market was glutted with “tactical espionage” games. It took a little while for people to realize that it was, in fact, an excellent game. Splinter Cell melded your basic “don’t be spotted” gameplay with one of the best “Clancy-esque” storylines I’d ever seen. UbiSoft pulled a classic move with Splinter Cell: taking a formula already popularized by games such as Metal Gear Solid, and polishing it to a fine sheen. Indeed, SC was, and is, one of the finest games of its genre.
So it comes as nothing but good news that Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow makes its predecessor look like a rough beta test.
Pandora Tomorrow takes everything good about Splinter Cell, ups the ante, and adds some new gameplay elements that make the single player campaign a joy to play.
For those new to the series, you play the role of Sam Fisher, voiced by the outstanding (and Canadian!) Michael Ironside. Fisher is a semi-retired Special Ops agent called back into service for the Third Echelon, an ultra secret agency endowed with the fifth freedom – the freedom to kill anyone who threatens America and the world.
With the “Georgian crisis” put to rest in Splinter Cell, Sam is called back into action following a brutal terrorist attack on the American embassy in East Timor, Indonesia. The chillingly plausible story (set in 2006) unfolds in true Tom Clancy fashion at a breakneck pace, and I was riveted the whole way. Sam is whisked all over the globe, with the world unaware of the mortal peril in which it finds itself.
There are a few gameplay elements added that make life a lot easier. When trying to cross a doorway in Splinter Cell, Sam would simply have to cross to the far wall, crouch, and hope he isn’t seen. Not anymore. When “peeking” around a doorway, simply press the A button and Sam will execute a SWAT turn, flipping past the door to the other side. He can also hang by his feet when crawling across a bar on the ceiling, enabling him to maintain a low profile while still dispensing hot lead suppositories. His pistol also comes with a laser sight, which makes pistol sniping a great deal easier.
The phenomenally designed levels are also full of deadly little traps, not to mention the buffed-up AI of the hostiles. A motion detector on a wall sets off an alarm as well as unleashing a blinding flash of light that is disorienting.
Graphically, the game is even more gorgeous than the first. The locales are especially fantastic, with tall grass swaying convincingly, water surprisingly liquid, character models and animations realistic and subtle, such as bored guards yawning or unconscious bodies twitching spasmodically.
Since Pandora Tomorrow is a game of waiting, silence, and stealth, there is very little music, but the ambient sounds do a great deal to flesh out the locales. I found myself cringing every time Sam’s boot crunched on some broken glass, potentially alerting a guard. The voice acting is fairly good, for the most part – the main characters are well acted and full of life, but the conversations between minor characters like police and guards are often stilted, unrealistic, and actually sort of funny. (Listen to the two police officers about halfway through the Jerusalem mission… yeesh).
There are, sad to say, only about seven missions altogether in the game. Granted, they are very long and full of challenges and variety (such as one point in which Sam must stay in a spotlight in order to evade a guard who just so happens to be wearing night vision goggles), but I left the game feeling that it was too short.
Luckily, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow comes with a saving grace – the absolutely astounding online multiplayer component. This could be a game in itself. Multiplayer is a face-off between two teams of two: the spies versus the mercenaries. It’s the ultimate showdown of stealth vs. brawn. The spies have all of Sam Fisher’s moves plus a few interesting gadgets, including a stun rifle (Spies are generally non-lethal – the only killing stroke they have is to grab a mercenary and break his neck). Their job is to use back routes and shadows to avoid the mercenaries and complete their mission.
The mercenaries are almost the opposite: They have a powerful automatic rifle, fragmentation grenades, and heavy armour. They move slowly but pack a big punch. To help them catch their prey, the mercenaries, who play in first person perspective, have three vision modes: A head lamp, an electromagnetic detection filter (which lights up anything using electricity, such as a spy using goggles), and a motion detector, which highlights anything moving above a certain speed.
There are several multiplayer maps of varying size and complexity, making teamwork essential. Using the Xbox Live headset is a humungous asset, as is working with a committed, professional partner. This is a game in which your own experience is enhanced if everyone plays his or her best. There’s just something almost spiritual about charging a spy, knocking him down, and drilling twelve rounds into his face, or grabbing a mercenary and whispering a bunch of crap into his ear before dropping him like fourth period French.
With an excellent single-player experience, and an innovative and nearly peerless multiplayer mode, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow is an early contender for game of the year.
