.: Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory review

Publisher Platform Developer Release Date ESRB Rating Screenshots

Ubisoft PC Ubisoft 0000-00-00 M 21 (view)

By Jim Drewes - September 14, 2005

Review

I have a confession to make: I've never really liked stealth games. I've played at least part of most of the critically acclaimed stealthy games over the past several years, and only a few of them managed to hold my interest for long. For the record, I only made it through the first level of the original Splinter Cell before returning to some mindless, amusing game like Halo or Super Smash Brothers. You play as Sam Fisher, an operative assigned to find a scientist who has knowledge of the Masse Kernels, a powerful computer algorithm that has something to do with weapons systems. Naturally, things don't go as planned and soon you're down the rabbit hole of crazy plot twists. As far as game plots go, Chaos Theory is a cut above. If you like Tom Clancy's style, you'll no doubt enjoy the story. If you're not a fan, skip the cutscenes. You can tune out the plot entirely and still have a blast playing through the game. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is a stealth game. You creep around, hide in the dark, and sneak up and knife people. And you know what? It's a lot of fun. The gameplay is much more open ended than I expected. You can take the obligatory sneaking around, never killing anyone approach, the hybrid "I'll knife people who look at me funny" approach, the "We are now playing Quake; you are all going down in a shower of gunfire" approach, or a combo of all three. Being a stealth game, you're obviously rewarded for taking the stealth approach. Knocking out enemies instead of gutting them like fish raises your rating at the end of the level. Raise too many alarms and the guards bust out the body armor and start to fortify strategic positions. On the whole, levels are well designed and imaginative. The Japanese Bathhouse and Cruiser levels in particular stick out in my mind. There are typically many routes to your objectives, which often change mid-level, and how quickly you move can directly affect your path later in the level. Stats at the end of the level are good encouragement to replay the level and try harder. My biggest complaint is that the levels were sometimes [i]too[/i] dark. There were always excellent hiding places available when you needed them, which turned stealth combat into a waiting game, instead of an honest challenge. A few lighter spots in levels would have been welcome. Another disappointment was the lack of interactivity with items around you. Yeah, you can shoot out lights and blow out candles, but many times when I expected to be able to do something to my surroundings, they turned out to be static. The sounds in Chaos Theory are a treat. Ambient noises are plentiful and tasteful. The voice acting is generally quite good, though the accents sometimes get a bit ridiculous. Like your many enemy interrogations, overheard guard conversations have just the right balance between realism and campiness. You'll rarely hear the exact same information from during an interrogation, and most of them are clever as well. The guards "I hear something!" chatter gets a little repetitive. It's a good incentive to stay hidden. The music, when it gets going, is your typical techno-bass thriller line. It's nothing extraordinary, but it's not obnoxious either. The visuals are well done, especially the characters. They're detailed, well modeled, and have fluid, believable movement. The environments are colorful and varied, and you don't see the same textures and models repeated over and over again. That said, the graphics are not jaw-dropping, but they are immersive, as they should be, while you're creeping around in the dark. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory an enjoyable game with some honest replay value, both single and multiplayer. The A.I and varying difficulty levels will give you a real single player challenge. Knifing people with your friends in co-op is always an enjoyable way to kill a couple hours. If you have Xbox Live, you have access to Versus mode: Spies vs. Mercenaries. Sadly, I don't have Live, and can't comment on the versus experience. If you're a fan of the stealth genre, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is worth your time. It's not genre defining, but it is a lot of fun to romp through the game. If you've never gotten into stealth games like me, Chaos Theory is at the very least worth a rental. Don't forget: If you get tired of creeping around, you can always just whip out your shotgun and blow people away.

Graphics:80/100

Sound:85/100

Gameplay:90/100

Originality:80/100

Fun-factor:90/100

Overall:85/100

Comments(10) | Post a Comment | Forums

.: Comments on Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory review

Lith (January 19, 2006):Not Genre defining? This, and MGS, are THE stealth games, there are no others even worth a mention.

And, the versus mode..it's behind genre defining, it is a COMPLETELY new type of mutiplayer gameplay. Everyone should try it out.

Noone should be allowed to post a review for a game, or ESPECIALLY give it a score unless they've played, even a little bit, every aspect of it. This game's aspects being, SP, Coop, and Vs.

Jodet (February 26, 2006):WARNING: This game installs STARFORCE on your system.

kevin (April 9, 2006):it sucksssss and you suck too

nick_emon (September 5, 2006):ok some1 tell me how u go to the cheats in the game plz send bak