GAME REVIEW: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (XBox)

[MrMacabre]

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell has everything a game can could possibly want - action, espionage, 5.1 sound and graphics (which I'll delve into in a moment).

Oh, did I mention it can be horribly frustrating, repetative and hard?

From the go, let me say that I thought this game was somewhat over-rated (The one inevitable aspect that comes with hyping games). Everyone would talk about how strategic it was, and how the graphics were fantastic. Well, I'll agree on the strategic nature (as with most Tom Clancy games), but the graphics? I thought there were slightly better than average... but nothing I would rave about.

The gameplay can be fun if you know what you're doing. However, as mentioned - the slightest slip up causes Mission Failure. I guess this adds to the realism so it ain't that bad; but it causes a lot of frustration. As a plus, there are a lot of 'save points', so if you conk out or trip an alarm, you don't have to go back far...

As mentioned previous, the graphics aren't that bad. However, as with the game in general, I felt they had been somewhat over-hyped. As far as I see, I think the graphics this game displays is on par with other XBox releases, such as 007 Nightfire. In fact, the cut scenes on 007 looked much cooler / realistic as opposed to those of Splinter Cell.

The sound was good, but once again not as good as 007 Nightfire. I don't mean to hold this Bond game on a pedistool, but using it as a comparison seems to be doing the job as they're both 'spy' games of sorts, similar yet completely different. The 5.1 sound on Splinter Cell is good; and has the directional audio of guard's speaking which adds to the realism of sneaking around in the shadows. I've played up to mid-way of the third level, and there hasn't been any 'major' action for the audio setup to show itself off with (Hey, it's a 'spy' game, not an action game) apart from the occasional muffled snip of a silenced gun, or the thud of cracking a barrel against the back of a guard's head.

Anyway, am not much of a fan of this game and plan to put it on my XBox Trade List.

6/10