Without further delay, then, let us take a look at some of the more intriguing—and better yet, confirmed—tricks and gadgets that we'll have at our disposal in Chaos Theory.
Don't Make 'Em Angry The mercenaries now have a new ability for counteracting snap-happy spies. (Cursed agro spies!). If a mercenary knows that a spy is coming at them from behind, they can use their "Berserk Mode" to spin rapidly around and knock the spy on his unlucky keister. While the spy probably won't be killed by this type of maneuver, it does perfectly position him to get roasted by a merc.
I Can Breathe! Little else is more frustrating in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell® Pandora Tomorrow™ than having to plow through an entire corridor filled with toxic smoke. Not only is your vision completely obscured, but you're likely to pass out before you can get to the sweet fresh air on the other side. But, no longer! Well … if you pick the gas mask anyway …
Just keep in mind that the gas mask doesn't last forever. The spies' smoke grenades are evidently packing some industrial strength chemicals, so the filters in the mask can eventually be saturated and become useless.
Storage The ever-popular Argus mercenaries have begun to get wise to the fact that they are constantly running out of equipment when fending off those pesky spies. Their solution is as ingenious as it is simple: a backpack! Who knew?
For those of us who get a little grenade happy, the backpack will quickly become out best friend. Simply place an extra set of grenades inside, and when your first group runs out, you can open the pack and put them in your inventory.
This can be done with any piece of equipment. Not sure you need those flares? Put them in your backpack. If you need them later on, you can always switch out something in your main inventory.
Jolt of Adrenaline This little beauty has been confirmed for the Chaos Theoryco-op mode, and I can only hope it makes its way into the Spies vs. Mercenaries.
You can bring along a little syringe that will boost your partner back to life! Imagine getting riddle by a merc and then calling out to your comrade in stealth to come stick you with the magic syringe and bring you back from deaths door.
Thump Thump … Thump Thump Our friends in Shadownet will also have access to a heartbeat monitor. Trigger this little bad boy, and you'll be able to pick up the heartbeat of enemy mercenaries. It also increases and decreases in intensity depending on the mercenary's distance from you.
Imagine sitting near an objective, listening to the pounding heartbeat of a mercenary. You don't see him, but you know he's close. Then, ever so slowly, the beat decreases in volume until it's unheard. You may have never seen the merc, but you nowknow he's far enough away to at least get a fair amount of the objective.
Predator! While other gadgets and gizmos may eventually prove to be more pragmatic, nothing beats the new Camo Suit for pure coolness. This Thermoptic Camouflage Suit allows the spy to virtually turn himself invisible—and subsequently nearly undetectable by the mercenaries.
Note, I say nearly, for although it approximates invisibility, enemies can still see a bit of shine and shimmer around the spy as he moves about. Also, bad weather and hostile actions (e.g. shooting someone or even just running fast) will deactivate the Camo Suit.
This is just a small sampling of what's available for the mercenaries and spies in Chaos Theory. It's enough to give you a taste of what to expect as well as to show you just how radical some of the changes are going to be. Ubisoft is not sitting on its laurels. It's making changes that will fundamentally alter the way we play as both spies and mercs … for the better!
