Genre: Action
Developer: Ubi Soft Montreal
Publisher: Ubi Soft
# of Players: 1
Memory: 3 blocks
ERSB: Teen
Released On: April 10th,2003
Also On: Xbox, Playstation 2, PC
Features: Dolby Pro Logic II, GBA Connectivity extras
Introduction:
Splinter Cell, the Xbox game of 2002, has, after a few months of Xbox exclusivity, arrived on the Nintendo GameCube. But was it wise to stick around for the GameCube version instead of picking up the Xbox original? The answers lie below, but first, let’s get to know the history of the game a little bit better.
Well, since its debut at E3 a few years back, Splinter Cell had gamers by the throat. Even those who were biased against Microsoft’s console couldn’t help but get the green eye of jealously when seeing images or reading about the title. For some, not even Metroid Prime was enough to distract them. Splinter Cell, in its Xbox form, is beautiful and as more screens and video was shown to the public, more and more gamers began to drool over the game, eventually joining others on the Splinter Cell train, which left puddles of saliva everywhere. Of course, the gameplay aspect of the game was equally amazing, and the game’s developer Ubi Soft Montreal boasted that the game would feature a kind of stealth-like gameplay that has never been experienced before. Well, when the game was finally released in November of 2002 those who picked up the title found out that every word the game’s developer said about Splinter Cell was 100% true.
It seems that a game can feature the Tom Clancy name on the box and still not need to be a FPS to be a great game.
Presentation:
Splinter Cell is one “helluva” game, despite what console you play it on. The game is amazing from start to finish, and one of the things that makes the game so incredible is its way of immersing you into the game’s atmosphere. The game just feels like a movie. What helps make Splinter Cell feel like a movie are the excellent cut scenes featured in the game. The cutscenes are often designed to feel like live television news reports, and they get the job done flawlessly. However, due to extreme cases of compression, the quality of the cinemas are sub par, but it’s likely that if you’re a GameCube owner, this won’t be the first time you’ve witnessed grainy FMV.
Gameplay:
I remember people talking about Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty for the longest time. Stuff about the awesome stealth-like gameplay and the badass attitude of Snake left people yapping. Well, forget about Snake. He’s old news. Now you’ll get to play as a real man’s man, a war veteran with one bad attitude…that man is Sam Fisher. You see, Sam isn’t some pansy bitch with a mullet. Nah, he’s a man that will make you shit yourself first, ask questions later, that is if he keeps you alive at all. Sam’s role in the game is to basically prevent World War III, by traveling the world, uncovering key bits of information, to stop further terrorist attacks on the United States. However, the coolest part about being Sam Fisher is the fact that you have to do this without being noticed, to be a whisper in the wind…
The name of the game is stealth, actually the name of the game is actually Splinter Cell but I think you get where I’m going with this. You see, Sam Fisher is supposed to be a ghost. He’s supposed to go into an operation, and come out barely being noticed by anyone or anything and that’s basically what you have to do throughout the entire game. There’s many ways Sam can go by unnoticed. He can crouch and walk slowly in the shadows, causing little noise as possible in order to sneak by a guard, or if the opportunity arises, he could just grab the guy when he’s not looking, direct his pistol towards the guys head, and then club’em over the head with the end of his gun. It’s pretty fun, and in some instances you’ll be able to interrogate whoever you hold hostage. Getting them to spill the beans or use them to get you through to a certain area. There are just so many things Sam can do…But the coolest of them all would have to be the ability to do a leg split in areas such as an elevator shaft, which allows Fisher to stand above the unsuspected until it’s safe, or he can just drop down onto them, easily knocking them out. Unfortunately, there aren’t many times when performing that maneuver is needed.
Most scenarios in the game require for you to make it from one point to another, and there’s always more than just one way to get there. For instance, you could shoot out street lights causing the streets to be consumed in darkness, allowing you to walk by easily - you could also use your zip-line to get from one building to another, climb an ivy consumed wall to reach an open window, or scale down the side of a building. There’s just so many ways to accomplish whatever there is to do in the game, and for the sake of your enjoyment I don’t want to spoil a thing. Just remember you can utilize almost everything in your area. Like if there is a soda can lying on the floor, you can pick it up and toss it to a far side of a hallway – causing whatever NPC in that area to walk in that direction to check out what the racket was. Stuff like that is really amazing, and one of biggest reasons why Splinter Cell is such an amazing game is because you can approach a situation in just so many ways. But at times, you can be limited to your options. These types of situations will often arise when you aren’t allowed to kill any NPCs in the game. That means there’s a specific way you must accomplish a certain goal, and until you find out how – you’ll be failing missions over, and over, and over again until you finally get it right. That’s easily the most frustrating part of the game, because the way you must approach a situation isn’t usually apparent until it feels like you tried everything possible.
Visuals:
The Xbox version of Splinter Cell is a visual beast, easily one of the best looking games around on any platform, but since the GameCube version Splinter Cell is indeed a port of the Xbox version, I wasn’t exactly expecting much. It seems that my expectations were met.
No, the GameCube version of Splinter Cell doesn’t look as great as its Xbox brother, because the game does suffer from poorer texture quality, particle and lighting effects. However, the game is still good looking. The lighting and particle effects are still commendable; there’s just something so cool about crawling into the shadows, becoming one with the darkness, and then creeping out to knock some poor victim out cold. Of course, that affect would be more efficient if Sam didn’t have those 3 green lights on his headgear shining all the time, because they make things a little bit too obvious.
“Hey, what was that?”
“I don’t know, but it sounded like we’re being watched…”
“Oh, over there in the shadows! There seems to be 3 small green lights moving in this direction”
“Quiet you moron, you’ll ruin the game for this kid! Pretend like you don’t notice it…”
It’s unfortunate that Ubi Soft Montreal couldn’t have handled the GameCube version of Splinter Cell themselves. Perhaps, if that was the case, the GameCube hardware could actually have been utilized because there is no doubt in my mind that Splinter Cell, if done right, on the GameCube could look just as good as its Xbox counterpart.
Audio:
As you creep down a dark hallway, you walk over some shattered glass; making crackling noises as each one of your feet come in contact with the remains of the broken window. There’s just too much glass, so you slow down your pace immensely, just hoping that no one will hear you coming. Your adrenaline is pumping. You begin to sweat, and as it seems that you’ve almost made it across… “CRACK!” They hear you! The music begins to quicken, representing the pulse of your pounding heart. Now, you quickly rush to find safe haven as you hear gunfire and Russian shouts coming from what seems to be in every direction.
Now, what in the blue hell did I mean with all that crap? Well, that’s a simple question to answer.
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell features one amazing soundtrack. It does an excellent job of getting your adrenaline pumping. When you’re in a tight spot, the tone and rhythm of the music intensifies, and when you’re all cozy and safe, it will slow down informing you that everything is okay. Another awesome feature is the fact that everything has its own unique sound, especially the type of surfaces you walk upon. The type of surface determines the amount of noise you make when you tread across it, and depending on what kind of surface it is you’re walking on, you’ll have to adjust your pace in order to keep your presence a mystery. On top of all that the game features excellent voice acting, with the voice of Sam Fisher being provided my Michael Ironside (Top Gun) who perfectly fits the persona of Sam Fisher.
Final Thoughts:
Before playing the GameCube version of Splinter Cell, I spent a crapload of time with the original Xbox version. I was so immersed with the game that I would walk around my own household, at night, in a stealthy manner, crouching low to keep the noise of my footsteps as quiet as possible. Well, guess what? My time with the GameCube version of Splinter Cell caused me to do the same thing once again. Hell, I was doing it just a few minutes ago! However, I’m not quite as pleased with the GameCube version of Splinter Cell as I was with the Xbox original. The game has been toned down to become less difficult. It seems that the game has been chopped up into smaller pieces, and items such as medkits have become more abundant in the game. I found this somewhat disturbing, since the difficulty of an already short game (approx. 10 hours) was the key factor to the game’s appeal. Though, in the end, Splinter Cell is an amazing game, regardless of what console you play it on. Of course, it still plays best on the Xbox or PC, since those versions are visually the best looking. And personally, I don’t find the GCN/GBA connectivity features too worthwhile, and the toned down gameplay doesn’t help the Cube version much either. But, unless you have Microsoft’s console, or a high-end gaming machine, I would suggest Splinter Cell for any and every GameCube owner.
