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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Michael Ironside should play Sam Fisher in the movie, March 13, 2007
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
PROS:
- Unreal Engine
- No forced grab cover as with many new games.
- SAVE ANYWHERE!
- Excellent main character voice acting, especially Michael Ironside. It really helps.
- Excellent music. This really helps too.
- Complicated story with interesting morality. I never understood irrational "ends-justify-the-means" ethics, which this game obviously employs, but it's certainly realistic to our ultra-nationalistic, ultra-militaristic government, so using it as a plot device in this game makes perfect sense. The enemy is mostly domestic so no one can claim anti-Arab, anti-Muslim or racism. Branching storylines and alternate endings as in a special edition DVD.
- Very very interesting psychological training levels (although this is far too brief and actually doesn't really train newbies on most weapons and gadgets).
- Sammy gotta girlfriend. Awwwww.
- Map - don't know where to go? Look at the map.
- I never once had to consult the internet due to bad design, didn't know where to go, what to do, glitches, etc. Double-plus good on that.
CONS:
- Deplorable recycled enemy voice acting during combat. Your enemies will even switch from new voice actors to completely different (old) voice actors if you enter combat. They'll say things like "let's try something different, fall back!" and other various quotes from older Splinter Cell games (Chaos Theory). Tons of them are from the exact same voice actor, which again is from older games and there is not even an attempt to make him sound like a different guy each time. How much effort could it take to get some voice actors into a studio to some new lines. You could get a bum off the street to do this.
- infinite health nonsense like in Call of Duty 2, Gears of War, Rainbow Six Vegas, etc. no med kits, health packs, etc. I don't get this with the new games. It's a revolt against the old Doom health/armor tradition. Logically, it only makes sense if you have some sort of Halo character with a recharging shield or something similar. Sam ain't got that, WWII soldiers certainly didn't, neither do characters in other games - you might be able to give Gears of War a pass because they are wearing some sort of goofy suit in the future, but they really should either explain it (or explain it away) for this and other games. Infinite health changes the context of gameplay. There is no urgency to get to a health kit or be more careful if your health is down. Get shot a bunch of times? Just duck down for a couple of seconds, no prob.
- too many timed missions (entire levels are timed in this game in which you must complete complicated tasks and aren't even able to run - you're forced to walk). It's annoying.
- they took away the light and sound meters in favor of a lame traffic-light Homeland Security style color system. I miss the light and sound meters, they were cool. The color system is also redundant (they have it permanently on screen in 2 different places) -- why not have only 1 color alert (on his shoulder strap) and the light/sound meters for flavor. The light meter allowed you to see when you were APPROACHING vulnerability of exposure. Now they just have a yellow light which indicates only the exact moment of vulnerability, not when you are getting close. The sound meter similarly allowed you to see when you were able to surprise enemies more easily due to loud ambient noise.
- grenade throwing system downgrade. They used to show you an exact arc of where the grenade would land - this was realistic because throwing stuff into an exact location is fairly easy in real life. Even children can do it, so I gather an expert military veteran can do it. Not anymore because it's gone. Why?
Still an excellent game and I'm sure they'll give it a sequel. Chaos Theory was a little better IMO.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Game but nothing drastically new!!!!, November 2, 2006
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
How is it possible to write a bad review for this game. The graphics are awesome. The storyline is interesting especially since in this game you are a double agent. Like all past splinter cell games, you cant complain. Even though that's true, while playing I cant get away from the feeling that I've played this game before. There isnt anything really that different from this title compared to the others. Sure the xbox 360 graphics are great however I've always believed that splinter cell on the old XBOX used that console's graphics capabilities very well. So taking that into account the upgrade isnt that drastic. The double agent storyline is interesting but I cant say it is an upgrade compared to other storylines in the past. As for a storyline, there's only so much they can do in a game like this.
So bottom line, this is a great game. If you have never played this title before you will be blown away!!! If you have played this before, you'll still enjoy it, however, you may get a feeling of wanting a little more.
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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Falls Far Short of Previous Splinter Cell Titles, November 3, 2006
Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars
As a long-time Splinter Cell fan who has owned and enjoyed all of the previous Splinter Cell titles, I eagerly anticipated this latest release. Unfortunately, I have been highly disappointed.
The graphics are improved over the last version, but not substantially. I appreciate that the game designers realized that the game's superb graphics were lost in previous versions, because you had to spend most of your time in night-vision mode and not able to appreciate them. In this iteration, you can creep around the dark and still see around you, without night vision.
The game play and storyline, however, are just not as good as the previous games. As well, the game is extremely buggy, as any visitor to the Ubisoft message boards will quickly deduce. While the online gameplay is fun, I am disappointed in Ubisoft's reliance on online patches. I have owned the game for a week after its release, and already it has downloaded two software patches. Yet problems persist. In my case, the game freezes at the beginning of the third level and there is no way to get past it. I can cross my fingers and hope that Ubisoft updates the problem soon, but I am disappointed that I spent $60 on a game that only lets me play two levels. I can't help but think that Ubisoft rushed the game out the door without checking its quality, relying on its ability to patch it later.
If you are new to the Splinter Cell series and own an Xbox 360, I'd recommend that you pick up the Xbox version of "Chaos Theory" instead. It's cheaper, the graphics and online play are great, and it will work on your Xbox 360. Avoid this disappointing title until several months from now. Hopefully, by then, the price for this buggy product will reflect its true value, and some of the bugs will have been fixed.
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