Customer Reviews

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (Mac)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Tom Clancy has long been on the leading edge of theoretical conflicts. Rainbow Six series hunted terrorists before September 11 and now Splinter Cell explores information war.

Available for the PC, X-Box, and Play Station 2 for some time, Splinter Cell was only recently released for the Mac. Though similar in many respects to previous Clancy games, Splinter Cell does away with complex team planning and control in favor of detailed control over a single character.

You play Sam Fisher, the first operator in a new NSA unit intended to exercise the "fifth freedom" - "the right to protect all other freedoms, by whatever means necessary." Under that premise Clancy outlines an information war on a grand scale - something our military is anticipating. Basically, the new president of Georgia begins secretive attacks on his neighbors and the US and Fisher gets caught in the middle during his very first intelligence-gathering mission.

The larger geopolitical conflict that stems from your missions unfolds in quality pre-rendered news clips while the details of your part in the war unravel primarily through in-game radio dialog. Veteran actor Michael Ironsides provides the voice of the protagonist. Like most of the parts, his is well acted, but it doesn't seem to fit Fisher's face. Data sticks collected along the way provide supplemental plot information, but can only be read during the current mission.

The espionage focus of the game is reflected in an innovative control scheme that emphasizes stealth. Success in this game is more a matter of controlling how Sam moves than switching weapons, performing combos, or similar rapid actions that are common in shooters.

A third person perspective with a movable camera allows you to see Fisher at all times. When using a weapon, the camera moves to an over-the-shoulder view that works very well. But if you're playing the game well you shouldn't be using your weapon very often.

Instead, you use the speed control to keep Sam from moving to fast and alerting enemies with his footsteps. You also stick to the shadows so they can't see you (there's a handy light meter that gauges how well hidden you are). A third option is just to be someplace the bad guys won't look. Maneuvers like rappelling, hanging, climbing, peeking around corners, and some advanced film-inspired moves will keep you well out of sight if used properly.

The same techniques are required just to navigate the beautiful and highly detailed levels. Exploiting pipes, ledges, and zip lines is essential to reaching your objectives. And since the controls were designed for console controllers, they are surprisingly simple. The use of a contextual "action" key and a pop-up objectives display when you're not moving are particularly well implemented.

There's even a great tutorial at the start of the game in the form of an obstacle course. Having run many of those myself, I can tell you they're not as easy as super-agent Fisher makes it look!

But boy, does it look good! Even on the low-end. The character animations are the best I have seen anywhere. The pouches on Sam's belt even sway with his body. The level of detail and realism in room interiors is laudable and the use of wind and lighting for ambiance is impressive. Realistic shadows are everywhere and paper, blinds, and sheets of vinyl flutter in the wind and slip over your body as you pass.

All that realism is functional too - if it makes sense, try it. Almost every room has a light switch you can turn off to aid infiltration with night-vision or infrared. You can drop on enemies from above, shoot while hanging or rappelling, and follow footprints from puddles.

When using many tools such as lock-picks and keypads, you are actually presented with a large functioning view of the items to interact with rather than just watching an animation of the character performing the action.

You can't help but feel immersed in the character. There is a sense of action even when sneaking and more when you must take a hostage, shoot a guard, or trigger an explosion. It's a challenge though, so save often.

There's no multiplay, but you can get a lot out of trying to use more stealth and less force or vice-versa as well as switching between the two difficulty settings, "normal" and "hard." In addition to saved games, you can start at the beginning of any level you've completed and load times are short, so replaying a particular mission is easy.

If you're looking for a high-quality action game or are just a fan of Metal Gear Solid or Tom Clancy games, check this one out. Here's hoping the subsequent sequels will also find their way to the Mac soon!

The main thing I love about this game is that you can now save at ANY moment during the game...an invaluable tool for making progress. I picked this up for the mac b/c I was getting irritated by the ps2 version, which has only particular checkpoints where one can save.

Saving is critical in this game b/c it's really easy to make mistakes, so it's great not to have to run through a particular sequence 5-6 times in a row just to reach a save point.

Anyhow...this game took forever to get onto the mac, but I really am enjoying it. It's too bad that the forthcoming MGS3 won't adopt some of the things that are found in Splinter Cell.
For example, I tried out a demo of MGS3 yesterday night and I found myself longing for the ability to move the camera around (which I couldn't). It's hard to navigate the jungle and really see what the hell is going on...(or maybe this's just the demo but I'm not keeping my hopes up too high).

Playing the ps2 and mac versions, I don't really notice any graphical difference. Maybe the ps2 has less jaggies. I'm not really that picky about that sort of thing, just as long as the game doesn't look like it came off of a ps1. So if anything, the translation from PC to Mac came off fine.

i like it, but it is a little short with about 9 missions it is cool to be doing stealth instead of just shooting everyone you see and you have to think about it.

The game is getting a bit old in terms of years since release, but the graphics remain surprisingly sophisticated and the gameplay still feels pretty new. Other games released around the same period usually feel noticeably older than newer games. I had a huge amount of fun playing the game through straight the first time, even though I had played selected levels previously with a friend or watched him play the levels. Unfortunately, the biggest downside to this game is that there are only nine levels (not including the training level), and while there are sometimes various alternative ways to play them, they generally unfold the exact same way each time, which means it's less fun each time you play the level over after the first time. Because the first time was much slower and cautious and involved frequent do-overs, I became very familiar with each level, and so it became less interesting once I had finished the game to go back and play it over. If there were more than nine levels this would be less of an issue (especially if certain weapons weren't restricted in early levels, at least after playing through once), but it gets repetitive. The AI in the game is decent, but much of the game involves sitting in alcoves or shadows and timing your rapid movements across open spaces to avoid attracting attention. After you've played each level once, you can generally remember the routine of each security guard or soldier to capture/kill/sneak past him, and that makes it less strategic and challenging. And if you run out of ammo by not conserving, for a game based around stealth, there are a surprising number of opportunities where you can simply run up to an AI unit and punch his lights out instead of making yourself non-existent. But these are mainly the negatives because it's easier to critique, not praise. As stated, the first time through is a blast, with heart-pounding stealth missions when you can't predict who's waiting behind the next corner or door. There were a few places where I had to seek online walkthrough visuals to find my way around the building or city, but generally it's subtly intuitive -- there's no neon arrow or map pointing the way, but it just feels right so you go. With a variety of weapons and stealth gear, you can test various strategies to save time or save ammo, depending on your preferences. The game ran very smoothly on my machine with excellent graphics display in each mission, and I only found one bug (in the final level you can take an elevator back up when you're not supposed to and things got weird). I might not play it over and over like some games, but it was an enjoyable way to waste a weekend and part of a week.

Splinter Cell cheats for mac
Same as on PC:

CHEATS

Press F2 to display the console window, then type one of the following codes and press Enter to activate the corresponding cheat function.

Codes

Enable God mode - invincible 1

Disable God mode - invincible 0

Full health - health

Invisibility - invisible 1

Disable invisibility - invisible 0

Full ammunition - ammo

Flight mode - fly

No clipping mode - ghost

Disable flight and no clipping modes - walk

I'm always looking for games that'll run on my 1st generation MacMini. This does a good job of building a suspenseful environment. While it hasn't been easy by any stretch of the imagination, it doesn't take detailed note-taking either. The in-game tools automatically track uncovered information and missions, so the player doesn't have to remember what was learned from interrogating a "bad guy" or what the code was to a keypad lock. I've only had time to spend several hours on it over the course of about a month, but am enjoying it. I've even found my heart rate going up at times despite myself.

What I like most about this game is that it is a tactical shooter. In other words, obscurity is your best weapon, and you only shoot when you have to. In this way it is a strong problem solving game. I found it to be very suspenseful and challenging, even on the normal setting (I like to play through on hard frist). The story line was entertaining, and far more realistic than other tactical shooters that I have seen. I especially liked the realistic touch in areas such as finding med kits and additional ammo. The med kits hang naturally on the wall, and the ammo is in boxes on shelves, and in other places where you would expect to find them. There are no unnatural floating and spinning boxes of bullets, hovering in the corners.
The only real problem I had with the game was that there is usually only one way to get through a situation. In this way it is like a puzzle, which makes it a bit unnatural. I would have liked it more if there were multiple ways to achieve an objective.
As far as the rating goes, the violence obviously comes from the fighting you will encounter. While there are several non-lethal ways to neautralize opponents (shocking them, knocking them unconscious, etc.) there are times when you are forced into a gun fight. In these gun fights there is very little blood and gore. Even when grenades are set off, there is not gushing arteries and dismemberment that is so common in many shooter games. While this is less realistic, I greatly appreciate the restraint.
The bad language is usually said by the bad guys when they find you have snuck past their security, or your handler when you uncover startling information. There is usually a little language on each mission, but the characters are not swearing with every other word. I am rather sensitive about swearing, and it did not bother me too much.

i like it, but it is a little short with about 9 missions it is cool to be doing stealth instead of just shooting everyone you see and you have to think about it.

i like it, but it is a little short with about 9 missions it is cool to be doing stealth instead of just shooting everyone you see and you have to think about it.