Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow

By TheWugg

Months ago, I could be heard yammering on to my friends about how cool Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow was. Looking back, not a lot has changed since then, except apparently when I talk now, all my friends hear is the "wah wah wah" noise akin to that of Charlie Browns teacher.

Okay, so this "build your own review" guide tells me that I should have used a "hook line" – something to make the readers unsure about whether the game is good or bad and compel them to read further. Seeing as how I've already given that away, if you'll please humour me, I'll tell you what exactly it is that makes Pandora Tomorrow so great.

Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (herein referred to as merely SC:PT) is the complete package. It's a rare combination of an engrossing single player experience coupled with an intensely addictive multiplayer mode.

Single Player

While I don't want to play down the merits of this side of the game, I'm just going to come right out and say that this review isn't going to focus long on the single player aspect, and since probably 90% of my time with the game has been multiplayer, I think it's a fair move.

SC:PTs single player campaign sees the return of Sam Fisher in another series of wacky globetrotting adventures of espionage, continuing on from the original Splinter Cell game. Speaking of the original, this is what SC:PT is very much like, to the extent that you might think that the sequel is a small evolutionary step, sort of like a monkey that shaves himself to look a bit more like a human.

Looking deeper however, SC:PT addresses nearly every niggle or annoyance I had with the critically acclaimed original. Everything within SC:PT that has been left untouched is simply a case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". On the flipside, everything has been touched is a case of "well, it might not be broken, but we could supercharge it and make it look super fly".

The control scheme has been altered – those accustomed to the originals scheme might lament this at first just as I did, but after I gave it a few minutes, I was willing to give them the Wugg Seal Of Approval.

The difficulty has been somewhat toned down – it's still not a complete walk in the park, and it keeps itself in the upper echelons of skill-requirements, but it's done away almost entirely with the frustration factor that plagued the first game. For instance, instead of alerting a guard and having to deal with him and his buddies (inevitably leading to your death), you can evade your pursuers a little easier and they'll give up the chase, but call in to their command to raise the alert level – to which all your enemies will don protective gear.

The graphics have been tweaked, from excellent attention to detail, to superb attention to detail.

The variety in the levels is an obvious head-turning feature of SC:PT, instead of dreary indoor areas, Sam will repeatedly find himself sneaking in more and more interesting places, from outdoor jungle grasses to the top (and side) of a moving train!

Multiplayer

You'd be forgiven for thinking that a multiplayer game of Splinter Cell would be pretty lame, since the idea of a deathmatch featuring a host of Sam Fisher clones sneaking around a level seems to contradict the true stalking, high tension nature that is the essence of what Splinter Cell really is.
Fortunately, the guys in charge (side note: I heard that the guys responsible for the multiplayer game is an entirely different crew to the single player) realised how daft the mechanics of such a game would be, and took a rather unconventional approach.

The situation pits two teams of two against each other, one pair of Shadownet spies versus one pair of Argus mercenaries. The spies are attempting to achieve an objective that ties in with the single player game quite well, and the mercenaries have to stop them by either forcing the game to its time limit, or by eliminating the spies.

The kicker is that the mercenaries are in first person, limiting the awareness of their surroundings, while the spies are in third.

This, I tell you, is what Splinter Cell is all about – someone has to play the hapless goon to the badass Sam Fisher. Don't get me wrong – playing as the mercenary doesn't mean that you're doomed to live in fear of the spies, quite the opposite – the default is that the spies get four lives each, whereas the mercs get a paltry three each.

In the course of a round, the capabilities of each side becomes quite clear. The mercs are outfitted with gear and gadgets which boils down to detection, and search and destroy. The spies on the other hand have less lethal equipment, suitable for misdirection and neutralization.

The levels are well designed, there are certain areas that are for most purposes only accessible by one or the other – a lot of this is more the spies than the mercs, since their lithe physique allows them to truly exploit the area of engagement, hanging in shadows, moving around above the ceiling... the mercs on the other hand, while lacking the physique (not to mention toting around an arsenal to put Rambo to shame), have a handy dandy all access pass which lets them pass through doors which might be inaccessible to spies (or at least cause them to use up precious seconds out in the open hacking the access panel), allowing them free flowing patrol routes to the designated objectives.

The way this plays out in practice is nothing short of remarkable.
On the mercenary side of things, the tension will be almost tangible as you wander around the level, shining your torch into the dark corners, your teeth chattering to the beat of anxiety. You switch to motion tracking view (one of the many perks of working for Argus Corporation), and it highlights something in the distance, you move to investigate and make visual contact with a spy moving towards an objective. You start to pull the trigger, but before you manage to squeeze of any shots the ground comes up to meet you like an admiring Japanese fan. In your rush to meet the threat, you'd neglected to check the pipe above you, from which a spy was apparently clinging waiting for the opportunity to drop down and knock you out cold.

As a spy however, you'll be cautiously making your way towards an objective, disabling cameras and motion detectors, then you'll remember to switch to infrared vision mode to spy the sneaky invisible lasers littered around the room. You switch it on and pause a moment to decide the best route towards the objective – the less the amount of lasers you have to disable, the quieter and quicker your job will be. Suddenly a single shot rings out and you find yourself clutching your beautiful, beautiful face – not so much because of its ruined beauty, but rather the brains that seem to be spilling out uncontrollably. Evidently you made too much noise fumbling with your weapon as you disabled the cameras, and switching the IR vision just allowed you to show up on the mercs EMF scanner like the Ghost Of Christmas Passed, allowing him to zero in on your cranium for the classic "one shot, one kill" maneuver.

Okay, so hopefully after all this gushing you will have a vague grasp on what a great game this is, but in the interest of fairness I'll present a small handful of downsides.

Firstly, the constraints of the multiplayer is rather harsh the number for a proper game is four, no more, no less. This makes games harder to organize than your simple fragfest, but given the experience, it's easy to consider this a necessary evil.

Secondly, glitches. Occasionally the multiplayer game will do something that it's no supposed to. To date I've encountered two, maybe three cases of "stuck in a box and can't get out" syndrome, and one case of an out of body experience. Thankfully, I've played this game quite a lot, which makes the occurrence of such glitches rare and almost humourous when they happen.

Lastly, exploitation. There are a number of places in certain maps where mercs can go where on paper they simply shouldn't, and there are a couple of things that spies can do which mercs are almost helpless to avoid death. Ultimately if you play with friends you can all play under an understanding that no one commits these heinous acts of exploitation, but it does mean that if you're strapped for opponents, you might end up playing against somebody with less scruples than you.

All in all, it's a title well worth nine thumbs up.