Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory

"Best Splinter Cell yet."

In Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, you again play as Sam Fisher. This time, he will head across the Pacific for another mission, even though he is 50 years old. CT is probably the best in the series.

GAMEPLAY

Splinter Cell games are based on stealth, not a shoot-everything-that-moves game. Even on the easiest difficulty, Sam can be killed easily, which is why you never go charging into a room with 3+ guards(I'm looking at you Halo) Fisher has several tools at his disposal to get through a mission completely unnoticed. First, the new things. Sam will be briefed before each mission, which isn't new, but this is: after he is briefed, you can choose from three different settings for the mission. Stealth gives you more Less Then Lethal rounds, such as Sticky Shockers, Sticky Cameras(Diversion and Sticky cameras have combined) and the like, but you only get one full clip for your weapons. Assault gives you more bullets for your SC-20K and SC pistol, along with frag grenades, wall mines etc. Redding is your field agent, and he will make a recommendation for you, which is a mix of the two. There are also different secondary attachments for the SC-20K. The SC-20K sniper attachment turns your assault rifle into a highly lethal but very loud 20mm sniper with up to 3.5x zoom. Foregrip doesn't do anything but make shots more accurate. The launcher uses the Less Then Lethal rounds I mentioned above, and the shotgun is loud, but turns your SC-20K into a powerful close range shotgun. Regular bullets can still be fired from the SC-20K when these attachments are on too.

Levels are more non-linear then they were in previous Splinter Cell games. You will be presented more then one path to take a lot of the time, and will affect your objectives; you might have to get your info from a different source. If you accidentally KO the only guard that knows a Key code or can use a retinal scanner, you can either get it from a computer, a note, or you can hack it. Hacking is also new and can be hard to understand at first, but gets very easy when you know how to do it. Also, Sam is equipped with a knife in CT. If you're near a guard, simply press R to cut his throat. The knife can also cut through paper thin walls, leading to a possibly easier way to sneak up on enemies. The pistol now has an OCP on it. Pressing the L trigger will activate it. It can be used to shut down lights, TVs, cameras, computers, and other electrical appliances for a short time. Be warned, they will reactivate after this time is up. Also, the OCP takes some time to recharge. Sam also gets EMF vision. By pressing up on the Dpad, everything will turn a deep blue. Anything that has an electromagnetic field will glow white. With Sam's Binoculars, he can now scan things. So things like computers can be used from very far away.

Enough about the new things. Sam can use all of the above to complete his mission objectives and get to extraction safely. There are Primary objectives, Secondary objectives, and opportunity objectives. All objectives must be completed to get 100% in a mission(in addition, you can not be detected, can not kill anyone, no alarms set off, and no bodies found). At the beginning of the second mission, Sam says "Don't tell me, three alarms and the mission is over?". Lambert says this is no videogame(crack on earlier SC games). He's right; it's no longer three alarms and Lambert pulls the plug. The max alarms possible is four, but each alarm will decrease your mission rating. CT passes here.

10/10

GRAPHICS

EASILY some of the best graphics on Xbox. Heck no, easily some of the best graphics in videogames. The lighting is unbelievable in Chaos theory, and the textures in the game look excellent. The guards character models look pretty similar, but Sam looks good, as does Lambert, Grimsdottir, Shetland, and Redding. You can see the fear in the enemies eyes when you have a knife to his throat. The cutscenes in between missions look awesome. Enough said, this game puts the Xbox's graphics power to its limits.

10/10

SOUND

Awesome. A lot of cracks on other videogames are made in CT, such as HL2 ("whatever, crowbars are for geeky video game characters"), earlier Splinter Cells(see my comment above in gameplay), Prince of Persia(two guys talking about it in the Displace mission), and MGS(don't recall exact conversation, but it was similar to "what, you think you can shake me and ammo will fall out of my pockets?"). Michael Ironside returns as the voice of Sam Fisher, and still sounds excellent. Sam will make remarks based on something happening. If he misses a light with a bullet, he might say "****!". If he turns off every light in a courtyard(mission 3), he might say"darkness..." In the first level when he enters the room with the dead Morgenholt, I've heard him make remarks about the smell in the room. While picking a lock, he'll say things like "come on..." and "hurry!" The other voices in the game sound great. The music is good in all levels, except the Cargo Ship mission; I didn't like that too much. All the weapons sound great too.

9/10

STORY

I didn't understand the story very well, but I'll do my best. A guy named Bruce Morgenholt gets kidnapped by Koreans. Sam Fisher is sent to go rescue him, considering Morgenholt knows something that can't fall into enemy hands. Turns out that Morgenholt was tortured to death. Sam is sent to find a guy named Hugo Lacerda and interrogate and kill him. This leads to a long string of finding out about a rouge missile that was launched and Sam is even forced to kill one of his old friends. Oh yeah, Japan is the US's ally in CT. Or are they...

Not rated/10

AMOUNT OF VIOLENCE

Unlike the previous two SC games, rated T, Chaos Theory is rated M for Violence, Blood, and Strong Language. Guards in CT have a more "colorful" vocabulary then in earlier SC games. Splinter Cell and Pandora Tomorrow had the D word, @$$, and more of the "mild" ones. One time, a guard detected me in CT and he said something like "COME OUT YOU SON OF A ******!" while shooting at me. Lots of cursing. If Sam gets shot, blood comes out of him sometimes. Same thing for the guards. There is shooting, constant fighting, and some torturing(first level). Not a game for little kids.

4/10

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory doesn't get the respect it deserves. The third game in the SC series is great, and I would recommend this a buy for anyone.

10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/05