In November of 2002, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® took the Xbox world by storm, mesmerizing gamers with its blend of refined stealth gameplay, intriguing high-tech gadgetry of the near future, and the sarcastic-but-likeable veteran hero Sam Fisher. Recently,Splinter Cell shot past the heralded one-million mark in sales, catapulting it to a level of success and popularity unmatched by nearly every other Xbox™ title, save forHalo®: Combat Evolved, of course.
While the Sam Fisher’s solo story line captivated us all, what wasn’t obvious at the game’s release—but became readily apparent over time—was that publisher Ubi Soft and its triple-A-level development team at Ubi Soft Montreal were going to be a major catalyst for the brand new Xbox Live™ online gaming service. Granted, the original Splinter Cellwasn’t released with online multiplayer (though its cousinTom Clancy’s Ghost Recon™ did launch with XboxLiveand proved to be one of the service’s most popular titles), butSplinter Cell did unleash the most ambitious XboxLive downloadable content of any title to date. A few short months after the game’s release, an entirely new mission was made available for download via Xbox Live. Titled “Kola Cell,” it offered a solid two to three hours of gameplay, boostingSplinter Cell’s mission complement from 9 to 10. Two more campaigns—the “Vselka Infiltration” and “Vselka Submarine”—came shortly thereafter, ultimately adding 33 percent to the original out-of-the-box Splinter Cell … all for free via XboxLive. This sheer volume of downloadable content is still among the most valuable extras on Xbox Live.
Now, a little more than a year later, Splinter Cell is back … and it’s changing Xbox Live again. InTom Clancy’s Splinter Cell® Pandora Tomorrow™, Ubi Soft and its Shanghai studio are bringing Sam Fisher out of retirement once again for an all-new single-player campaign that’s bigger and better than the first. But, this time, Fisher is bringing a fully-fledged multiplayer component with him, and after spending literally days with it, I can assure you that it’s unlike any multiplayer experience you’ve ever seen.
This game is gonna change XboxLive.
The game is Spies versus Mercenaries. Sounds simple enough, right? But, there’s a catch: The non-lethal Spies, whose job is to infiltrate the area and either steal, neutralize, or sabotage the objective(s), are played from the third-person perspective—just like in the single-player game. The armed and dangerous Mercenaries enter the fray from the first-person point of view, mixing things up quite nicely.
Why the difference? It’s all about keeping it fair and keeping each side unique. The Sam Fisher-esque Spies have all of the abilities and gadgets that Fisher does. They can crouch, put their backs to a wall, hang from ledges, mantle up onto higher surfaces, crawl through ventilation shafts, and more. Plus, they’ve got taser rifles, night vision, thermal vision, speed, smoke grenades, and sticky cams (to name a few). However, it’s incredibly difficult for Spies to kill their Merc foes, so they must rely on stealth and trickery in order to bypass their enemies and complete their objectives. Thus, they are privileged to the third-person camera, allowing them to peek around corners and see more of the environment.
The Mercs have plenty of toys, too, including an automatic rifle, a taser, frag grenades, proximity mines, motion-tracker vision, a gun-mounted torchlight, and more. Weighed down with heavier armor and lethal weaponry, though, they cannot climb onto objects, enter air ducts, or hang from ledges. And, by being restricted to the first-person perspective, they can only see what’s right in front of their eyes, allowing Spies to, with enough courage and silence, sneak up behind a Mercenary and grab him around the neck.
Watch your back.
Just like in the single-player game, Spies can grab a Merc (taunting them with the Xbox LiveCommunicator headset in the process) and either knock him unconscious temporarily or hold on long enough to break his necks and force him to respawn. Think of it as the ultimate game of hide and seek.
The maximum number of players in any game is four, and you can set it up any way you’d like: two-on-two, three Spies versus one Mercenary, or if you’re really up for a challenge as a Spy, three Mercenaries against a lone Spy. This relatively low cap serves to keep the tension high and the teamwork maximized. With so many ways in and out of every single area in each map, coordinating an effective plan of attack is key for both Spies and Mercenaries.
There will be at least five multiplayer maps included in the box, with more planned for release via Xbox Live Downloadable Content. With the intense multiplayer component of Pandora Tomorrow, a new star will soon be illuminating the XboxLive sky. Clear your calendar now.
By Ryan McCaffrey, Assistant Editor, Official Xbox Magazine
