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Review: Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory
- Title: Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
- Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
- Publisher: Ubisoft
- System: Xbox
- Reviewer: Zonk
- Score: 9/10
As such, the entire game is steeped in realism to preserve the flavour of the modern day experience. The graphics and lighting are gorgeous, and the fluidity of motion that the game's character portray is extremely impressive. The artificial intelligence of enemy opponents, while not perfect, is certainly better than many other titles in the stealth genre. This allows for some lovely emergent gameplay, as you can take actions in the game world and can plan on a logical reaction taking place. The first mission allows you a perfect opportunity to try this out, with two mercenaries patrolling near a tent. Taking out the merc outside the tent allows you access to the generator for a large lighting system nearby. By turning off the generator, you make the guard inside the tent curious...a vice which gets cats and guards in trouble.
The need for stealth in the game is paramount, but not as rigorously enforced as in previous titles. You can set off as many alarms as you like, and until you are slain the mission isn't over. This, and nearly every other, addition to the Splinter Cell gameplay library was made to make the game more accessible to players. The addition of a knife to Sam's arsenal allows him to take out enemies in a single thrust in near silence. Gunshots are noisy and attract attention, but laying out your opponents with deadly fire is an accepted way to complete a mission. The previous titles were extremely punishing of mistakes, and Chaos Theory counteracts that by allowing Sam to take on a more kick-ass take-names approach. If you've played the previous incarnations a great deal, you may find the going easier than you expect. Higher difficulty settings are provided to challenge the more skilled. This eased gameplay also allows for more than one way to complete a mission. Even if you decide to kill the captain of the cargo ship without interrogating him, you can still sweep the ship with your weapon drawn looking for your target. Arbitrariness and gameyness have been deliberately reduced.
That sense of realism is extended by the story and voice acting. The tale centers around a series of missions which take you from one end of the earth to the other. Each mission has a good deal of background to it, and the depth of the Chaos Theory story is entirely at your discretion as the mission briefings are entirely skippable. Each portion of the mission briefing is handled by one of the memorable non-player characters, each with their own area of expertise. The memorable nature of these characters is solely based on the quality of the dialogue writing, which comes off very natural and spiced with quality humor, and the skill with which the voice actors portray their roles. Fan favorite Don Jordan returns as Irving Lambert, and Michael Ironside returns to the tight fitting bodysuit of Sam Fisher.
The score, by Amon Tobin, nicely accentuates the mood and temp of the game with a modern vibe that never feels as though it was composed by software. Tobin's composition, his first for a videogame, is very promising. I hope to hear more from him in the future.
Like the previous title, Pandora Tomorrow, Chaos Theory isn't something you have to enjoy alone. Multiplayer via Xbox Live is once again a unique experience. The four-player Mercenaries vs. Spies gameplay returns, with some tweaks and refinements. To ensure that you're briefed on the objectives of the multiplayer game, you are required to go through a training scenario. The maps allow you a range of several types of gameplay, including a deathmatch, a disk capture mode that is a variation on keep-away, and a new story mode. Story mode is probably the most interesting addition, forcing the mercs and spies to complete several missions in sequence and tying them all together with a workable plot. Chaos Theory has a lot of living room local multiplayer potential as well, with four cooperative levels available. There are several moves that two spies working together can accomplish, and the gameplay is accentuated by a story which works the co-op levels in as part of the backstory to the single player campaign.
Nothing is perfect, of course. While I enjoyed the game, my previous experience with Splinter Cell titles is limited. I found the game challenging on Normal mode, but players who have honed their skills on less forgiving titles may view the single player campaign as a cakewalk. The darkness mechanic can start to feel slightly contrived after a while, as you move through areas that wouldn't be as dark as the game allows them to be. The realism of other areas of the game makes it a jarring experience when you find a well guarded part of a bank in pitch blackness. The co-op mode, finally, could have been more fleshed out. Cooperative play is one of the most interesting aspects of modern gaming, and I would have liked to see a more developed co-op aspect for this title. Minor complaints, but the attention to detail that the game takes in all other areas makes weak points stand out.
For fans of the previous games, and players who enjoy modern tales, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is a perfect fit. It has a sensibility all its own, and the high praise it has garnered around the industry is well deserved. If you're looking for a stealth action title, Chaos Theory will fit your needs with military exacting precision.
Screenshots are from Microsoft's official Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Xbox site, ©2005 Microsoft and Ubisoft.
FG - First time for graphics on slasdot?
"Nothing for you to see here, move along". Yeah, right. Jedi mind tricks won't work on me, Mr. Fisher.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Stealth games always have the first two items on that list.
The slashdot advertising department in cooperation with Microsoft (c).
Surely he meant to say, "which started to gain attention with the likes of Metal Gear."
Tenchu? Late and lame if you ask me. MG (even the old 8 bit jobs) was what made the genre.
Given a choice between free speech and free beer, most people will take the beer.
Maybe I'm just to violent *Loads up Red Orchestra"
"I may be full of crap about this game, and I may be wrong, and that's fine." -Jack Thompson
I too am a big fan of Amon Tobin and own almost all of his albums (aside from this new soundtrack), but come on. Read thoroughly, next time.
shame on us / for all we have done / and all we ever were / just zeroes and ones
It's not an xbox game. It is on PC as well. The demo has been out for a while. I believe it's also on PS2.
Oh, and instead of $200 for a limited console, you can pay $300 for a video card and your other upgrades. I just don't understand "consoles have to be purchased and maintained for years to come". What maintenance are you talking about? You mean, like swapping out cards, adding memory, and the like? Oh, that's right, consoles don't require that at all. In fact, last I heard, that was one of their big value propositions.
Somehow, the idea that consoles involve forking over too much money and maintenance during their lifetime doesn't ring true at all, and less so when you say that in comparison to PCs.
Excuse me? If I recall I was playing games co-op with my friends back in the NES and SNES days. In fact, a heck of a lot of games back then had some form of co-op. Only in 'modern gaming' has co-op taken a backseat to lots of run of the mill style deathmatch. So no, co-op isn't an aspect of modern gaming; modern gaming is finally reintroducting the co-op back into the game.
With that said, I find the co-op enjoyable. Two issues: needs a save function (there is one, but only while youre playing; if you quit and come back you have to restart the level). Could use more levels, oh, and less slowdown. Sometimes it gets downright awful.
The co-op mode, finally, could have been more fleshed out. Cooperative play is one of the most interesting aspects of modern gaming, and I would have liked to see a more developed co-op aspect for this title.
Were we playing the same game? The simple fact that these four HUGE levels (with more to come, eventually) were developed specifically for co-op and require you to work together directly with a teamate (or you can't pass the mission) demonstrates who incredibly well the co-op was designed. I don't thing I can even name another co-op game (aside from Phantasy Star Online) where it was impossible to get through a level without your teamate timing something with you perfectly. Each level has at least one moment where you and your teammate must do something simultaneously in order to get past it, like disarming bombs, mixing chemicals, etc. And several other places where you can't move on to the next area of the level without help from your teammate. On top of that, you can play through these huge levels differently every time if you so choose. Aside from some occasional disconnect and slowdown issues on co-op, I've never seen a better co-op mode in any game, ever, hand's down. Heck, even the simple fact that guards can hear the two of you talking is something special. A less-developed co-op would've been to simply give us the single-player levels and allow two people to play on them (which I'd gladly take as content download).
And admittedly, Zonk says he doesn't have a lot of previous Splinter Cell experience, but this one is hands-down easy if you want it to be. No more trial-and-error gameplay, alternate paths, added knife ability (which makes it really easy to kill armed people even after they've spotted you), more accurate guns (also easier to kill), and a handy save anywhere feature, this one is pretty easy to get through compared to the other two games. As a result, I've managed to get 100% ratings on a couple levels the first time through, without really even meaning to (which means not being detected, completing all objectives, and not killing anyone).
"9/10"
- Slashdot Daily -
[Fade to Black]
...and it should be known by now
Tom Clancy's jingoistic pro-military, pro-police-state propaganda and lackluster dialogue aside, the game is beautiful and it really hits its stride when you plug into the internet and start testing out their multiplayer modes.
:D
The co-op play is a real joy to behold, and the versus play is a really original take on multiplayer "shooters." You wouldn't think a 2v2 where one side has guns and the other side is devoted to stealth would work. It's not perfect, but it's surprisingly successful, noticeably balanced, and deep.
There is just nothing quite like sneaking up behind a merc as he saunters past you down a corridor, grabbing his neck, holding down the button and whispering something offensive into his ear before you snap his neck. Or for that matter, watching a spy do a 20 foot header through the air from a grenade you dropped right at his feet while he was trying to sneak past you.
When you see an alarm go off, and are rushing through some dark basement area towards it and think you catch something moving in the shadows, but it disappears when you shine your flashlight on it, you feel real fear.
Congrats to Ubisoft. No dobut they'll make the mint selling extras over the XBox live channel to boot...
Tired of Political Trolls? Opt Out!
The only thing I found lacking in the game was knowing where to go in Co-Operative play. In addition to removing your binoculars you do not have access to a map. This was frustrating on the first co-op level in trying to figure out how to get into the big fancy server room to end the mission, without really knowing where you had to go.
With the game being so new there were no walkthroughs for the co-op mode either. But I am pretty sure that has changed by now.
First of all, let me tell you, I think you should let game reviews for other web pages, personally I like Metacritic a lot.
Secondly, although I have not played the game, after reading some user reviews from the above page I found someone who stated:
the no blood thing is terrible for a game like this. This is an Adult game so why no blood?
I can just say come on! why the heck there is no blood??
Also, if the bad guys spawn in predetermined places, as the same reviewer states "kind of like the first Super Mario Bros. [...], you know exactly when and where to move the second time around ( either dying and spawning over or just playing the game a second time all together )"
So, maybe the replayability levelfor this game is low, but anyway I a fan of the Hitman series, lets see if there is a new Hitman sequel and, how is it going.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Don't know why they had to change the Interface 3 times in 3 games. IMHO the first one with the PDA was the best. It obivous they were going by sponsors, ie Palm 1st game, Ericsson 2nd game, 3rd game ????. The "in-game" interface for the 3rd game is slow and looks just like some shitty menu. It just make me feel like I'm back at the game menu as opposed to a spy looking at the pda on his wrist.
:) They HAVE to do expansion packs. Beyond them wanting your money with reagards to the single player game there is just no reason to keep putting out entirely new games. All the tools they need are already done, just put out expansion packs for $19.95 every 3 months and trust me people WILL buy them. Shit if they just put on expansion packs for the 1st game I'd pay again what I've already spent on games 2 and 3.
Also I preferred the night vision from the previous games where once you switched it on the whole screen just went "green". Now when you turn on night vision you look through a green fisheye lens. Its still useable, just not worth doing and not and improvement.
Finally I have to say if you've played the 1st two games even on Expert this game is just way too easy. I tried to challenge myself, but even though I didn't set off 1 single alarm nor get seen by guards the game was just too easy.
Finally, finally,
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
The single player is excellent. They fixed a lot of little problems in the previous games. You can switch shoulders for your weapon (which was the biggest UI change I saw, which was great). Unfortunately, you can't switch your firing mode for your SC-20 now. It's "pressure sensitive"--so good luck not accidentally squeezing off a few bullets instead of one.
That being said, the multiplayer is impossible unless you play with someone you know and you're using a mic. Also, the multiplayer isn't the same executable as the SP game, and it's probably nearly unchanged from Pandora Tomorrow. Which is irritating because I mouse with my left hand, but the multiplayer doesn't recognize left mouse button mappings.
Also, make sure you've got the latest drivers. I kept getting a BSOD until I realized my audio drivers weren't up-to-date.
Plays great on my laptop. Specs: 3GHz HT processor, 1GB RAM, ATI Radeon Mobility 9600 (128 MB).
Oh, and the Collectors Edition isn't worth it.
. . . are great. "Supermodified" is very catchy, but nowhere near as polished as "From Out of Nowhere." I have the soundtrack to Chaos Theory and I like it a lot, but it doesn't really show off how insanely detailed his compositions can get.
Monster Zero is the reason we cannot live on the surface, but must live forever live underground like this.
For those who have never played any of the splinter cell games, Chaos Theory does not lend itself to the pick-up-and-go person without a little frustration along the way. I consider myself somewhat proficient at figuring stuff out with unfamilar games, but I actually had to *cough* break out the manual *cough* to figure out how to do most everything. I'm assuming the 'how-to' stuff is covered in previous games. The only other complaint is - what is with game developers not supporting at least 480p? Regardless, the game looks pretty good for not being any flavor of HD.
Once you get the hang of it, it's actually rather fun and a nice change of pace from the run-around-and-blow-everything-up type games that are generally prevalent.
First off, I must say that I truly enjoy Chaos Theory as a game. However, I have to bring up the fact that I believe the Ubisoft tried to ruin the game with a number of other problems. For example, the extensive DVD checking which takes place during each and every launch of the game. Apparently, it has an issue with my DVD drive, such that it takes several minutes to perform the check. On my brand new AMD64 laptop, it refuses to run, since the GeForce 4 440 is apparently not good enough. However, I understand it to run on lesser GeForce cards. And last, but not least, it includes two (poorly printed) serial numbers required for play. The install key appears to be the same (on the three copies which I have seen) and the serial number has never been asked for (perhaps for online play?). Why do they insist on making this so diffucult? In summary: Great game...once you get to play it!
I don't really see your reasoning on that one. "Thief, The Dark Project" was released in 1998, and is more centered on using magic and other interesting extraordinary abilities to accomplish some number of goals.
"Metal Gear 1", on the other hand, was released in 1987, and is basically the epithome of the first stealth game. While I do see the whole "hide in the shadows" aspect of "Thief," it seems that sneaking around in MG1 with a knife, pistol, full-body suit, and pair of night vision goggles really defines "stealth game" to me a lot better.
Spilter Cell: Popcorn eyeglasses
Unix is mysterious, and ancient, and strong. It's made of cast iron and the bones of heroic programmers of old -
I have the first Splinter Cell on my XBox. I feel like it was a waste of money (the game, not the XBox ;)) It's all eye candy and no substance. Realism is touted as one of the games selling points, but let's be honest, it seems to be restricted only to the graphics, not to the actual plot, etc.
The AI is extremely simple. Enemies have no memory what-so-ever. That's so realistic! Disturb them a couple of times and after a while they'll always go back to what they were doing. Somehow they seem to be able to see in the dark too! And how many people on a level must disappear before others start noticing that it's become awfully quiet? How can they shoot so accurately when I've taken out all the lights, and I've moved around?
The game is also extremely linear with a very constrained map. Furthermore, this is another game (like Halo) that I completed in under a week. It has less substance and real game play than most of the FPS games I've played over the last 10+ years. It's all fancy graphics and nothing else. That's my opinion... so will somebody please tell me what the attraction is?
Why are these games so damn dark. I'm not a nocturnal animal. I need light to see.
Which is exactly why the good folks at Ubisoft took the time to outfit you with night vision goggles.
I have played all three SCs and I can say I have enjoyed this one the most.
Pros:
Best cut scenes and voice acting
Great storyline
Addition of the soundmeter has added a great deal of skill necessary to complete some missions
Better AI (still pretty average overall)
Mission statistics
Detailed levels and character interactions (those going through Japanese house through the floor shaft know what I mean)
Sam's mannerisms change when moving close to objects (creeping up on people)
Better and more realistic weapon selection
The EM jammer on the pistol (no need to blow out every light)
Breaking, kicking in doors
Primary, secondary, bonus, and opportunity objectives
Hacking computers
Changing weapon shoulders
Jumpy NPCs when you have spooked them a couple of times
Misses:
Mission statistics subtract for all kills but not for knocking everyone out...would like to have seen this modified to at least deduct from the mission score if a NPC was not guarding a particular computer or target. Mission scores should reward pure stealth.
No back-to-the-wall shooting
AI still is pretty bad, but is getting better. For instance, I take down a buddy and the other NPC does not try to look for him. Also, everyone seems to have radios but NPCs are not worried when someone doesn't check-in. However, it has gotten better, if doors are left open or closed the NPCs will get suspicious also the NPCs will at least use some squad tactics when challenged.
In all I have enjoyed SC:CT a great deal. Also, I will be crawling back through the game again because the mission statistics now make it a challenge to try to go through the entire game unnoticed and unseen.
Not Wolfenstein 3d, but the original 2d 8-bit Castle Wolfenstein that was released for Apple II and Commodore (and probably more platforms, I'm sure).
While I give credit for the writers for trying to spice up the cliched subject matter (which, like all Tom Clancy material, revolves around terrorism) with a little infobabble (we've moved past portable nukes), I've broken down laughing many times while playing this game.
I can't speak for laymen, but as a guy who has taken quite a few classes on formal languages, algorithms, and the theory of computation, terms like "weaponized algorithms", the mystery of "512 encryption", the forbidden secret of "recursive functions", and having to steal (and use) "access algorithms" on servers always gets me going.
The writers of this game would have you believe that the fate of the world rests in the careful control of these so-called "Masse kernels", capable of some sort of uber-intrusion. I don't see how any of the possible interpretations of that (popcorn, OS, or sigproc tool) are such a threat, but maybe these writers know more than we suppose at first.
The end-all, very best line in the story (and I won't spoil it by providing the context) is the startling realization that the villians have access to an INFINITE STATE MACHINE!!! I suppose the surprise this is met with is justified, since we'd have to rewrite a lot of textbooks (and not just CS ones) to accomodate that. The only problem is, they didn't specify if it was deterministic or non....
Still, the game was a treat on almost every level and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to play it.
njord
This is what I do. I build a new bleeding edge pc and every other year I sell it to my friends for cost in new parts - 150.00. This usually gets me enough cash to build a new bleeding edge pc for 300-450.00.
I feel that 450.00 to play the newest games and do all my job functions as well as all the other things I do with my pc (game mods, internet browsing, programming, etc) is well worth it compared to the 200.00 I spent on my xbox.
That said, as keyboards and mice become more common for consoles, and as I get older and find myself playing less and less games, it makes sense to keep a older computer and just update the consoles. I find myself buying less and less games each year and renting more games.
So time will tell, but I suspect I'll soon be a slave to Microsoft in a different manner than a OS (Unless I'll be using GNU/Box sometime soon to play console games, but I dont see open source hardware taking off anytime soon).
So how did you conclude that you agree with the rating?