Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell grants players access to the highest echelons of national security, where shadowy operatives have the freedom to do whatever it takes to safeguard America. The player controls Sam Fisher, a field operative of a secretive black-ops NSA subagency called Third Echelon. Sam Fisher is geared up to infiltrate high-security strongholds, seize critical intelligence, destroy threatening data, and neutralize the enemy--all without leaving a trace.

ESRB Rating: Teen

Genre: Action/Adventure

Average Customer Review: ( 333 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.

I'm a big spy-game fan in general, and we have all 3 major platforms, so I went into Splinter Cell curious about all the hype. It's gotten incredible ratings from several magazines. I have to say, after having played it, those ratings were well deserved.

First, the graphics. The amount of work that went into graphics on this game is just phenomonal. Your character goes through smoke and fire, through darkness and bright neon light, under shaded lattices, through light coming through venetian blinds, through hazy curtains, through punch-hole metalwork. It is just STUNNING. You really begin to believe that this is a movie and you're controlling the outcome.

The other senses aren't neglected. Sound is KEY and you are constantly aware of how much noise you're making while you're sneaking around. The speed at which you move, your crouching, your stance, all affect how well people notice you. Unlike other games which blast you with rock music, in this one you're so attuned that you hear the little movements of your own feet as you creep, or the movements of guards walking down the hallway.

The animation on the character is fantastic. Press up against a wall. Climb a fence and roll over the top. Slide down a wire. Go hand-over-hand across a pipe, and pull up your feet to get more traction. Slide down a ladder, jump up a wall and do a split to stay there, unseen. The way the character moves is just amazing. Some serious work was put into this effort, and it pays off.

The gameplay missions are logical and draw you along into the story. It's not exactly a ring-through-the-nose drag like other games. You are given objectives - "Get object X which is in building Y" but you aren't handed a map to follow. Instead, you're put into real-world situations and have to figure out for yourself the best way to accomplish that goal. You could try a frontal assault, you could try the sneaky back way. It's up to you, and your success depends on your ability to think through a situation and then implement your path.

The game even encourages you not to be violent. It points out that your aim is stealth, and that you should try to stay unseen and sneak by whenever possible. In most missions you can get through without killing anyone, if you use your head.

Highly recommended for any first-person-shooter fan!

32 of 33 found the following review helpful:

Best stealth action game to date, hands down.Jan 24, 2003
By Gabriel Perdue
While it lacks universal appeal, Splinter Cell (SC) is an outstanding game that provides an experience on the Xbox that no other game can. You take the role of Sam Fisher, an veteran special forces commando called out of retirement for a new, experimental intelligence initiative of the NSA. The storyline is classic Tom Clancy (as is Fisher, Clancy readers may wonder why they didn't just name the character Clark and be done with it). As far as simulating this type of experience goes, SC is remarkably well done but what will really determine if you like the game is whether or not the core concept appeals to you.

If you're considering purchasing SC then you've doubtlessly already read about how fantastic the graphics and sound are. Believe the hype. The music and sound effects are wonderfully immersive and create the sort of tense atmosphere this game needs. The lighting engine is nothing short of revolutionary. There are some clipping issues (dead bodies can poke through walls) but it is difficult to pick on the game for this considering how much power must be devoted to the best real time light and shadows ever in a game.

The gameplay in SC is excellent. The conrtrols and camera are intuitive and easy to use. Fisher can perform an extensive variety of physical actions to interact with his environment. Sometimes it is difficult to get him to do exactly what you want because there are so many options available and so many objects to interact with but practice and experience will solve most of these problems.

It is important to be clear that SC is not a shooter in the classic sense. Certianly, you will encounter some scenarios in which the only real course of action is a full blown fire fight with automatic wepaons, but they are rare. Ubi Soft did a fantastic job of conveying how chaotic and disjointed such combat must feel. Fisher's aim worsens drmatically if you try to move and shoot at the same time and both you and your opponents will miss a lot. In addition, everyone is realistically fragile - it only takes a few rounds to put someone down and head shots will always kill. But SC is really a stealth game. The point is to sneak through a dense thicket of security without being caught. The game's finest moments are found while you wait in the shadows, timing the complex patterns of a group of guards, waiting for the exact second to move to the next pool of shadows. Or when you sit in the darkness, mere feet from a pair of guards with machine guns as they stalk by, your heart stuck in your throat as you wait to see if they discover you. Depending on the way you choose to approach the game, you might kill every guard you come across or kill virtually no one. It is almost like there are two games in SC. You can play through as a cold machine, dropping every guard you come across, or you can take the self-imposed challenge and try to minimize the body count and the game will never really punish you for choosing one over the other.

Overall the level design and widely ranging methods of attack give SC a great deal of replay value. There are only nine levels, but each one takes several hours to complete and expansion levels will be available through Xbox Live or the Official Xbox Magazine game disks soon. The path through the levels may be a bit too linear. There is often really only way to travel from the start of a level to the end. The designers did this intentionally to keep the levels from being confusing, but it would have been a better simulation if it included such uncertainty. You can only save your game at certain check points in a given level and this is a good thing. It keeps the tension higher than it would have been if you could save your game anywhere.

The final point to touch on is the game AI. Overall, it is quite good, especially on a room to room basis. Enemies react realisitcally to your discovery and will investigate any sounds you may make. However, the game AI does have its faults. First it is possible to do things like shoot out a camera and then simply wait out a guard's investigation. If you stay hidden, eventually the guard will just figure it broke or something and forget about it rather than raising an alarm. It is also odd how you can stalk into a building, leaving in your wake nothing but broken lights and carefully hidden bodies, and no one on the radio network operated by the security notices the growing silence. It is also odd nobody ever notices a camera going offline when you shoot it, but the moment a camera sees you, all hell breaks loose. In the sequel Ubi Soft should try to address this, perhaps by upping the overall state of alarm every time a camera or radio equipped guard goes off the air.

In the end, SC is a game that anyone who finds the idea of slowly sneaking through shadowy compunds while dodging cameras, security guards, and dogs appealing should flat out purchase. You won't be disappointed. If you are unsure whether or not you would enjoy a video game where the tension and excitement come from the portions of the game that aren't action driven, then you should definitely rent first.

35 of 41 found the following review helpful:

Great game! Not sure what "Druff" was thinking...Nov 08, 2002

Druff called this game "horrible. Very horrible." This is untrue. Splinter Cell is one of a kind. Metal Gear Solid 2: Subtance, is good, I don't deny that, but Splinter Cell is better in every aspect. In Splinter Cell, you can interrogate civillians, use human shields, and many other original things. Hey you don't have to take my word for it. Look at the XBOX Magazine. Splinter Cell was rated 9.6 (out of 10) and on the cover it states [Splinter Cell] "BETTER THAN METAL GEAR!" Splinter Cell is the new king of stealth games, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

12 of 12 found the following review helpful:

The best single player game to come out in yearsJun 16, 2003

Splinter Cell is quite simply the best single player game to be released on any platform or console in years. This review will be based on the XBox release.

GRAPHICS
Splinter Cell is widely regarded as one of the few games to fully leverage the superior graphics rendering engine of the XBox because the visuals and level of detail are astounding. UBI Soft invested a great deal of time in the little things such as lighting and the movement drapery and it shows. The only minor flaw is an occasional "clipping" glitch, where the heads of bodies you are tucking into corners will appear to go through walls. Other than that, this game is beautiful.

SOUND
The soundtrack for this game is impressive. Music plays softly and in the background when you are stealthy, fast paced and loud when you are on the run. Additionally, the character voices are well cast, including Michael Ironside (of Total Recall and Starship Troopers fame) as Sam Fisher, the protagonist. Sound is a critical part of this game, as it is one of the ways in which you can be detected, and here again UBI Soft does not disappoint. Conversations vary in volume according to distance, floorboards creek, and Sam grunts and breathes like a real person when performing the physically taxing tasks.

GAMEPLAY
Gameplay is incredible. Sam is capable of performing numerous moves, all of which are very intuitive to execute. Your movement is carefully controlled by the amount of pressure you put on the thumbstick; a little bit and you tiptoe quietly through the darkness, a lot and you're running from trouble. Advanced moves include dropping down on bad guys, a split jump (where Sam dues the splits between two walls), and interrogation/human shield, where you can sneak up unsuspecting bad guys and grab them from behind. Sam is also equipped with numerous fun gadgets, including cameras that you can shoot ahead of you to scout out trouble. The plot is engaging and the path to follow is pretty straightforward, a relief for me from the endless and mindless running around in circles I did when playing Jedi Outcast trying to figure out what the heck to do next. The best part of the game, however, is clearly the mental component. Much like games like Thief, stealth is the key; rather than blasting your way through levels, you will find that you spend a great deal of time devising - and executing - clever ways to distract or get past your adversaries when you are clearly outnumbered, using everything from the items in your inventory to your environment. Saving is checkpoint based, so if you die mid-level you have to restart from your last checkpoint.

REPLAYABILITY
Replayability is not this game's strong point. Although there are two difficulty levels and there are multiple solutions to the same areas in the game, the plot - and how to get through obstacles - remains the same. New levels can be downloaded if you have XBox Live.

Overall, every gamer should experience Splinter Cell. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

7 of 7 found the following review helpful:

Amazing game, only one flawDec 31, 2002

I agree with what the other reviews say. The graphics in this game, especially the lights and shadows, are breathtaking. The AI is really good, though still pretty fallible and exploitable once you learn their reactions. The missions are varied. One mission you're going around killing everyone in sight and dont have too much time for secrecy. The next, your not allowed to kill ANYBODY, and cant even be detected. This makes for extremely intense, varying gameplay.
The music works perfectly with the game's sounds. When lurking about in shadows you hear every noise around you and all those that you make. When you are detected or are in a fire fight, theres this awesome bass and drum stuff that goes right along with your mood and the action.
Overall, I see one problem with the game. The control style while shooting. AT all other times the controls are fine, but as soon as you draw your weapon the controls become sluggish and unresponsive. However, the overall effect of this is that you cannot run around shooting people because YOU WILL LOSE! Theres no James Bond or HALO type running in and shooting up 8 guys. In this situation you will lose every time unless youre a god. The game forces you to be creative and seek other solutions. Distraction cams are my favorite. They make noises until the guards come close, then you can release poisonous gas to knock them out. Very fun.
Overall, great gameplay, graphics, audio, controls, etc. The only complaint isnt really a complaint because it really helps the game in the end. A must have for any gamer who likes to think things through before hand. Youll know when youre plan hasnt worked almost immediately, because youll be lying on the ground dead.

See all 333 customer reviews on Amazon.com