Splinter Cell

Life

1 April 2005

One of the most hyped games released this year, Splinter Cell sees gamers taking on the role of a shadowy government agent, Sam Fisher.

As Fisher, you are the best field operative of a sub-agency of the NSA, known as the Third Echelon. The game is set in 2004, and the CIA has lost contact with two agents, one who was monitoring communications shortages in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia and another sent to locate the first missing agent. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to locate the agents and evaluate the situation.

The problem is, as far as the US government is concerned, you don’t exist; if you are captured or killed, the government will deny all knowledge of your existence. Tricky stuff.</p>

This affects your missions somewhat, as without official permission from Washington, you have to stay out of sight and be careful of inadvertently raising the alarm.

Starting off on the mission, the agency eases you into things with a training programme. Learn how to jump off walls to get over tough obstacles, sneak around shadows without being seen or heard and take out security cameras.

Because your mission is officially unsanctioned by the US government, stealth is of the utmost importance. Unlike other games, you can’t just charge in, guns blazing and expect to pull it off. Sometimes you might need to use an enemy to get through a certain obstacle — a retinal scanner, for example. Also, taking out the enemy silently is less likely to attract attention than shooting them. To make sure the alarm isn’t raised after you’ve left the area, it’s a good idea to hide the bodies in a dark corner to avoid more enemy operatives discovering your trail.

Each mission has a certain number of alarms that can be raised — you start off with an allowance of three, but that quickly drops to none a few missions later. Trip an alarm and your agency will pull you out of there immediately.

Thankfully, Fisher has a visibility meter included with his equipment. Players can see the meter on screen; if it completely to the left, Fisher is invisible to surveillance, movement to the right indicates a greater degree of visibility. Unless, of course, the enemy in question is a dog — they can smell you, so distraction tactics will have to be employed.

The game requires a lot of thinking ahead. Not all enemies will co-operate; only certain enemies can clear certain obstacles. Colonels can get through retinal scanners, technicians can operate computers, but not vice versa. Be careful who you kill, otherwise you could find yourself repeating the mission again because you have inadvertently knocked out your only way through.

Being a secret agent, Fisher has plenty of spy gadgets at his disposal. Ranging from the optic cable, which allows you to see under doors, to laser microphones to overhear conversations, Fisher has enough to get him through the stickiest situations. Certain doors will need to have their locks picked before they can opened, so it is a handy skill to master. He also has a number of weapons at his disposable, such as sniper rifle, gas grenades and sticky bombs.

Graphics-wise, the game looks good, making the most of the power of the Gamecube. There was very little noticeable — if any — frame rate slowdown during the game. Controls were quite easy to master, using the thumbsticks and trigger buttons to control basic movements such as walking, changing direction and firing weapons.

Gamecube fans also get a bonus: although it has been released across the games platforms, Splinter Cell has some features exclusive to the Gamecube. The game also links up with the Gameboy Advance to activate new gadgets throughout the levels, five new missions and there are 30 minutes of new cinematics.

That said, the game requires a lot of thinking, so if you are looking for something brainless to while away a few hours, forget it. Stealth and staying in the shadows requires a lot more concentration than standard shoot’em-up games. An interesting addition to the Gamecube line-up.

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