Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory

"Yes, it's that good."

To begin, this review is going to be broken up into two different parts: a review for the single player game and a review for the multiplayer games (reviewed as one). I normally wouldn't do this but the multiplayer is such a big part of the game and deserves it's own review. So, let's begin.

**Single Player**

Gameplay
The basic gameplay is you, Sam Fisher, sneaking around gathering information and completing specific objectives as proficiently as possible. There is a certain amount of linearity if you want it but if you don't then there are always several paths you can take, and different weapons for the type of gameplay you prefer.

You can go through every level without having anyone notice you and not kill anyone and complete the objectives 100%, which is always great because your heart is always racing, knowing that anyone could show up at any time catch a quick glimpse of you or hear you make a peep and all your plans can be ruined if you don't think of what to do in literally no time at all. This way of playing the game is a ton of fun because of realism and excitement and the amount of satisfaction you get from completing the game without anyone even knowing you were there.

Or you can play another way, go in quiet, and come out with a bit of blood on your hands. Walk in, take out the lights, whistle, or get the guards attention, turn on your night vision and watch the guard walk around confused, get right up in front of him and shove a knife into his belly, or get up right behind him, grab him and toy with him a bit. or just walking in and popin' him i the head, such fun. Both ways to play are fun (along with the other ways you can do things) but playing the assault type lets you fool around a bit and get a good laugh.

But any way you play it, you will experience some flaws, for instance, I found the game a bit too easy, my friends found it way too hard, so difficulty varies from person to person, which isn't a big problem because the game has different difficulty levels. But one thing I noticed with people who have difficulty with the game is that for them it's sort of a guess and check game: go somewhere, get shot, try it again, and again, and again until you memorize the enemy movements, and finally realize how to do it right. This probably will turn some people away that are new or not very good at gaming. Also, the guards aren't the brightest people on the face of the earth, if it's completely dark you can be half an inch away from the guard and they'll have no idea you're there, which is extremely cool, but not so realistic, which is something they clearly went all out on, realism.

The game also has a ton of new moves gadgets/tools and weapons all of them are great and add to the experience, but the most important is the knife, you can break locks, use it as a weapon and do other cool things with it, but what I was really hoping for was being able to equip the knife and use it at your will, sort of like RE4, that would have made a huge difference, but it's great just the same.

The gameplay spreads over 10 missions all of which take quite a while to complete and each have different objectives, and all of which may need different strategies to complete.

This is by far the best Splinter Cell in terms of gameplay so far, very impressive on all levels-10/10

Story
The story is alright but nothing spectacular, but this isn't a type of game you would play just for the story, but if you're looking for it, it's there. The story is expressed through cutscenes, your briefing menu which has about five people that tell you your objectives for the mission as well has why you're on the mission. The story is also expressed through interrogating enemies and getting info from Lambert during the mission.

The story is about Asians hating each other and the US getting involved, it's not great, it just gives you an idea of why you do everything you do in the game. Meh-7/10

Graphics
Wow. That's the best way to say it. Wow. The lighting is great, the character designs are great, the level design is great there's nothing not to like about the graphics in the single player game. Wow-10/10

Replay and Playtime
As I said you can play the game many ways which adds a lot of replay, but thats about all, no unlockables, no sweet codes, nothing like that, but the thing is, I found it impossible to play the game just once, in fact after I beat it it still hasn't come out of my XBox, even after beating it, i play it nonstop, to me that's worth a-10/10

**Muliplayer**

Gameplay
In Co-Op it's pretty much the same game as single player but better because you get to share the experience with a friend and you can pull off tons of other moves as well.

New depth is added in the mode because if one person messes something up, it's easier to get out of because you could have one person at one side of the room and another person at the other side and taking care or enemies is much easier in this situation, and this is always great, I never get tired of it.

Versus is just a completely different game, and a great game only if...you're a spy, Mercs are never fun to play as but always fun to kill. But you have to know the maps pretty well to be good at it so it takes commitment, but it's worth it. Definitely worth paying for XBox live for-10/10

Story
N/A. There is none but that's fine with me.

Graphics
The graphics for multiplayer are just like singleplayer, but without the good stuff. It's grainy. Very grainy. Either mode that you play is not very impressive, especially compared to the single player, and this breaks my heart. Multiplayer would be so much better if they didn't blow off the graphics. It's by all means playable but they really let me down with this-7/10

Replay
The best part of the multiplayer is that you'll play it for a very long time because each time you play versus it's always different. If you play with different players, they may have different strategies, so it's a different game everytime you get on Live. This keeps you on your toes and makes the replay on on the best parts of the experience-10/10

Final
BUY-10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/30/05