Customer Reviews

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an otherwise excellent game that unfortunately uses the intrusive copy protection software known as Starforce. Normally I don't care a whit about copy protection, but Starforce installs itself as a hidden hardware driver and sits between your IDE / SATA hardware and the operating system. This causes all kinds of system glitches, crashes, slowdowns and on occasions requires a complete reinstall of Windows. Much of this comes from careless and poor programming - but the truth is, as long as the game is protected, the publishers don't care at all what happens to your system. This attitude makes little sense, really since it only takes about a month for the latest protection schemes to be broken anyway.

Oh, and as an added bonus, the Starforce garbage remains on your system even after you uninstall the game. And the Starforce folks won't tell you how to remove it.

Sam Fisher is back in the best Splinter Cell yet. I must confess that I've never been as impressed by the Splinter Cell series as other people. The hook to Splinter Cell is the interplay of light and shadows. It creates a visually impressive backdrop for Sam Fishers' skulking and SC remains the best stealth action game on the market. The improvements in Chaos Theory are mostly restricted to superior level design. Also, Sam Fisher can now slash with a knife, killing instantly rather than delivering a series of elbows to the face. There are more opportunities in CT to do the old sneak up and grab move which is always a lot of fun. Plus UbiSoft has made the game more replayable by including statistics at the end of each level. I can see myself going back and replaying CT a lot more than I did with the first two games.

My issues with the series still persist. When the first Splinter Cell came out the producers promised unparalleled interaction with the environment. In fact quite the opposite is true. Sam Fisher can no more push a rolling desk chair as push a mountain. Whether it's an aluminum cabinet, cardboard box, clipboard, shipping pallet or whatever, everything is immovable and unalterable as if the world were all carved from a single block of granite. Shooting lights is cool and all but you could do that eight years ago in Goldeneye for the N64 and unlike Splinter Cell, Goldeneye allowed you to shoot out glass.

Splinter Cell is a getting a little silly with its use of shadows. What was cool and innovative in the first Splinter Cell now seems almost like a crutch for the series. In one level Sam Fisher infiltrates a 36 man cruiser. I made my way to the engine room and found it nearly pitch black just like the rest of the ship and it suddenly struck me. Why would the engine room be so dark? Who would sail around in a completely dark boat? The engine room had three guards but it was so dark that I could literally creep within several feet of a guard and stare them in the face without them seeing me. Ubisoft should try and be a little more creative than just load every area with a ridiculous amount of darkness.

I must also say that the in game map is HORRIBLE. I used it a few times to help out but it is incredibly difficult to read. The tutorial is also very poorly done. The first Splinter Cell had an entire level devoted to teaching you the ropes. Chaos Theory only offers some boring and insufficient training videos.

When Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is good it's absolutely fantastic. The Bathhouse and Cruiser levels in particular were brilliantly done. The Seoul Korea level on the other hand was completely devoid of fun and I hated every second of it. Essentially I recommend the game but with some reservations. Hopefully the next entry in the series can actually advance the game play into some new areas.

I've owned this game for a few years now, and I must say that it's my favorite in the series. I've played every Splinter Cell title to date (except Conviction) and this one opened up some cool new options, and the multiplayer is the best in the series thus far.

I bought this game when my system wasn't really "all that", and so I suffered some performance issues. The Splinter Cell games are very resource intensive, so if you aren't running a system that's near the top of the line for the time of game release, be forewarned that you may have some frame-rate issues.

Now, here's where it gets bad. This game will not, I repeat, WILL NOT run on a 64-bit version of Windows. Period. End of story. The problem is StarForce. Specifically, the VERSION of StarForce that is on the SCCT disc is incompatible with XP/Vista/Window 7 64-bit versions. Now, this COULD be fixed if Ubisoft were to make a patch for the game, but that isn't going to happen. I contacted Ubisoft regarding this issue and they stated that SCCT will not run on 64-bit Windows, and they have no intentions of doing anything about it.

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!



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After being disappointed by Pandora Tomorrow's thoroughly mediocre single player campaign, I was highly skeptical of this title. However, Chaos Theory is vastly improved over its predecessors in every way. The level design is much better, production values rival any game on any platform, and the co-op mode is a fantastic addition to the series - provided it actually works. If the co-op mode had a few more levels and hadn't been so terribly buggy, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory would have been the best PC game in years. As it stands, it is still one of the finest stealth/action games ever made, and every fan of the genre should own it.

The cornerstone of this game is still the single player campaign. The previous titles have featured strictly linear levels with small maps. Chaos Theory features much larger maps and a much larger degree of freedom. It also boasts a much higher degree of interactivity with the environment. The levels are still not open-ended by a long shot. They are best described as "semi-linear". Each level features a linear series of mini-challenges that usually have two or three solutions to them. You might be able to enter a room through the front door or by a vent that comes from a storage room, but you still end up in the same place. On average though, the design and flow of the levels is excellent. The game keeps you moving towards your objectives without ever making you feel like you are on rails. The best part about each level is the size. The levels are very large and typically last you an hour or more, depending upon your style of gameplay. The game's ten levels will probably take you between 10 and 15 hours to finish.

Each level also contains one or more optional objectives, and a scoring system that rates you based upon how many alarms you set off and how many objectives you accomplish. This system works much better than the "three alarms and you fail" or "one alarm and you fail" system of the previous games. It also gives you incentive to replay each mission until you achieve a perfect score.

In addition to the better level design, the single play game features some other improvements. Chief among them is much improved audio - namely, a huge number of sound bites and well-written lines of dialog. The terrific voice acting from the first game has returned. You can interrogate most guards, and most of the interrogation dialog offers some amusing moments, as well as some useful gameplay tips. The atmospheric sound is superb as well. The terrific audio complements the game's gorgeous visuals, which easily rank amongst the best that the PC has to offer. Sam is decked out in detail all over his body and all of his moves look very cool. The environments are beautiful and the lighting is simply perfect. Chaos Theory sports arguably the finest production values in any PC game to date.

Does the gameplay have any faults? A few. One of them is inconsistency in the AI. The sharpness of the AI occasionally changes, based upon the level. Sometimes guards won't notice if their buddy gets knocked out three feet away from them. Other times, they will notice their KO'ed buddy when he is in complete darkness 35 feet away. Another minor flaw is that the game favors an overly aggressive approach versus a nonlethal approach. For most of the levels, You will have to self-impose a "no-kill" rule to give yourself some challenge. Also, like its predecessors, the campaign lacks lasting value, and the story is average.

Once you are done with the single player campaign, a true treat awaits you on-line with the game's innovative co-op mode. This assumes that you can actually get it to work. More on that later. The game mechanics of the co-op mode are largely the same as the single-player campaign, only this time you have a partner, and there are more guards. The game also throws some high walls at you that can only be scaled using special co-op moves. For example, you can give your friend a boost to the top of a wall, and then he can let you climb up his back to get up over it. The result is usually quite thrilling. The co-op mode is full of "you take the guy on the right and I'll take the guy on the left" moments. Quietly taking out a room full of guards with your buddy is an experience that is a unique and very memorable This part of the game is a long, long overdue addition to this genre, and you will probably be left hoping for an exclusively co-op game in the future.

Unfortunately, the co-op mode is riddled with so many bugs that there is less than a 50% chance that you'll actually be able to play it. Ubisoft has patched the game twice, but I wouldn't rely on being able to play co-up just yet. Plus, there are also only four co-op levels, and you can't save your progress. If these issues didn't exist, Chaos Theory would be worthy of a 9.3+ score. Nonetheless, co-op mode adds a lot to the overall package and helps elevate the game to elite status.

"Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory" has breathed new life into a series that was on the risk of going stale. It sets high standards for production values and, in the meantime, provides an innovative new gameplay mode. The single player is by far the best of the series, and co-op is pure ecstasy --- if you can actually get it to work. As an added bonus, you can get the DVD-ROM version for this game, instead of some clumsy 5-CD job. Sooner or later, you should own "Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory".

The splinter cell series on the whole has gotten a lot better with each installment. It manages to bring a little of the stealth entertainment value. But, and this is a big one, It is no Thief. Thief TMA and DS were the ultimate stealth action games. The splinter cell series has a long way to go to providing the immersive experience that haunts you for weeks afterward like thief. For those who don't believe me, get a copy of the latest (thief 3) and try the cradle level. There has been no stealth level made that will get under your skin like this.

So although I applaud splinter cell for trying to further what has quickly become my favorite genre (stealth/action) they need to keep working on it.

For those who played the previous Splinter Cells, you don't want to miss #3, and for those who have never played any S.C., here's your chance to catch up.
The overall gameplay is improved, with more moves and more possiblities, and so are the graphics, which are just fantastic.
As a reference, I am playing this with a Nvidia 6600GT and 1GB of RAM, and it looks absolutely gorgeous while being perfectly fluid.
The only critic I would have so far is that, once again, the solo campaign is too short. It's so enjoyable that it's a shame it can't last (the new possible moves and choices, like breaking locks, contribute to that unfortunately).
Other than that, that's a classic, run for it, you won't be disappointed.

I first owned this game for X-Box and loved it. It was the first experience I have ever had with Splinter Cell and it couldn't have been a better one. there is not much negativity i have towards the game play itself. There were, however, two things I noticed while playing:

1. The controls are very difficult to learn. There is a vast extent of gadgets and maneuvers available, which is great fun once you know them all, but learning them can be a chore. In my experience, this was mainly due to the fact that there was no tutorial. I have not yet played any other game in the series, so I do not know if that is typical, but I found that it really hampered my experience. There ARE short videos that explain a lot of the controls and the heads up display and such, but it is very brief, and does not give you the opportunity to try them for yourself before you are thrust into a combat situation. Many of the controls must simply be learned by application.

2. The story, good though it was, was very hard to keep up with. Even after I had played two or three times, I got lost at some point or another. Some of you may not care too much about that, but I had a problem with it.

Having said that, a word of caution: if you are planning on using a high-end machine, do not bother with this game. I made the naive mistake of attempting to run this program on a computer with very recent hardware that greatly outdated the game. Do not make that mistake.

does not work for windows vitsa. i have tried to fix it but keep on hitting dead ends. the only way that it seems to run is through windows xp or eralier.

I couldn't find any specs on this product about if it would run on Vista before purchasing it, but for the price, it was worth a try. After installing, my pc crashed. I had to do a restore to get everything back to normal. I'll be willing to bet it's the protection software that caused the problem. Some PC's w/Vista will take it, some won't. I might have been able to eventually make it work but didn't want to mess with it. Gave it to my friend who uses XP, it worked perfect. I couldn't give it a rating only because I couldn't run it. Not upset tho.

Splinter Cell- Chaos Theory is a great game. If you are a Splinter Cell fan already, you have to pick this one up. If you haven't played any of the series, pick up the first Splinter Cell. You will know after one level whether this is a game scheme you will enjoy. If sneaking through an entire level and not shooting anyone is your idea of a good time, you will love this game.

The graphics are vastly improved from the first two games. However, this was the game that forced me to have to buy a new graphics card, so make sure your computer exceeds the specs. I love how you can choose to silent kill with a knife, knock out, or shoot enemies. Several levels will force you to be very strategic to get by them and not be spotted. I had to refer to the internet walk-throughs a few times for tips on how to pass a level, or details I may have forgotten. The textures and lighting are amazing. It's incredible to be able to choose to view a scene in nightvision, thermal, and a third option i'll let you find out about.

Great game, and you can pick it up cheap these days...