Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow Review for Xbox

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, the sequel to 2002’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, arrives as a bit of a mixed bag. The original Splinter Cell offered a fun if flawed single-player experience, and for better or worse, Pandora Tomorrow offers exactly the same. However, it also offers a fantastic online multiplayer component in addition to the new single-player campaign, and it would not be wholly inaccurate to say that the single-player and multiplayer portions of Pandora Tomorrow are essentially two entirely different games altogether. While the multiplayer component of Pandora Tomorrow is so inventive that there is literally nothing else like it on the market, with the single-player campaign Ubisoft seemed content to offer only more of the same with a few marginal improvements. The result is not quite a case of Ubisoft taking two steps forward and one step back, but more like taking one brilliant step forward while firmly leaving their other foot lingering behind.

That the single-player campaign in Pandora Tomorrow is so similar to the first game isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because the original Splinter Cell had a lot going for it. There still isn't a stealth game out there that gives you such complete control and a wide variety of moves as the original Splinter Cell—and now Pandora Tomorrow—does. Sam Fisher controls just as well as he did in his first mission, if not better, and he looks just as good too. The first game was famous for its fantastic visuals, specifically the amazing lighting, and Pandora Tomorrow is no different. It’s unfortunate that some of the animations for the other characters in the game (such as when enemies turn around in place) still look kind of stiff and unnatural, but that’s just nitpicking considering the game generally looks so great. The sound in the game is pretty good too, and just as important to the gameplay as it was in the first game since you’ll need keen ears to hear oncoming guards. The voice acting, while generally of high quality, is a little strange since everyone seems to speak perfect English whether you’re in the U.S., France, or even Indonesia.

The only new additions to the gameplay are a few new moves for Sam, all of which are very cool although not entirely useful. His best new move is his “S.W.A.T. turn,” which is simply an easy and discrete way for Sam to spin past an open doorway when he’s pressed up against a wall (as opposed to having to take his back off the wall and run past the door). His split-jump has also been modified a bit, so now Sam can lean toward one side when he’s propped up in his split-jump, and then make another small jump to reach higher ledges. There are also some new animations that make some of Sam’s actions easier, such as slowly lowering himself down an opening, lowering a body to the floor after knocking the person out, or being able to open doors while holding dead/unconscious bodies, but none of it changes the game in any meaningful way.

Another new aspect of the single-player campaign is a couple of missions almost entirely set in outdoor locations, such as a mission where Sam has to infiltrate a U.S. Embassy in East Timor or a mission that takes place in a mercenary camp in an Indonesian jungle. These outdoor missions do provide a nice opportunity for the graphics engine to flex its muscles (producing, of course, some of that amazing signature Splinter Cell lighting), but in terms of any significant alterations to the gameplay, the change in venue is a little lacking. The outdoor missions are still very linier in their design, so that you can only go on the pre-set path the game wants you to go. Besides being able to hide bodies in tall grass, there really isn’t much difference in the gameplay whether you’re indoors or out. You’ll still be shooting out lights and sticking to the shadows, with no new stealth tactics specific to the outdoor environments.

Lamentably, the fact that single-player Pandora Tomorrow is so similar to the original Splinter Cell also means that the same problems that sometimes derailed the first game often rear their ugly heads once again. Since the structure of each mission is identical to the first game—in that they basically consist of a series of individual challenges that you tackle in a linier order, with multiple checkpoints interspersed to save your progress—it again causes the gameplay to devolve into simple trial-and-error, where you’ll replay certain portions of a mission over and over until you finally get it right. The fact that the missions are not very dynamic and have a lot of scripted sequences only stresses trial-and-error gameplay all the more. There was some hype about new missions that would offer a variety of ways to get through them, such as a mission set on a train where you could supposedly choose between going through the train cars, under them, over the roofs, or hanging on the sides. Whether or not that was ever the case, the final version of that mission is just as linier as any other Splinter Cell mission, since only one of those paths is available to you in a scripted sequence as you make your way through the train.

Another misguided game design issue that shows up once again are extremely frustrating missions where being seen just once ends the game. Sure it may be realistic for a mission to become impossible to complete if the enemy spots you even once, but it’s also simply not fun, and sometimes realism has to be forfeited in favor of entertainment. Part of the pleasure in playing stealth games is trying to run and hide when you get spotted, and that’s something that these ill-conceived missions negate completely. It becomes even more frustrating since you can’t save your game at any time (only at the specific checkpoints), which is just strange since Ubisoft does give you that option in the PC version of Pandora Tomorrow.

It’s really kind of amazing how groundbreaking and novel the multiplayer component of Pandora Tomorrow is, considering how little was changed in the single-player campaign. This is the first multiplayer game ever to be based entirely around stealth, with a team of spies pitted against a team of mercenaries. Depending on which of the three game modes you play on, spies either have to deactivate, extract or sabotage certain devices in a map while under a time limit, while mercs have to protect those devices until time runs out. The spies play almost exactly like Sam does in the single player game, with a few alterations such as climbing up ledges faster and being able to do a long dive instead of Sam’s short roll. The mercs, however, play entirely differently. Mercs are played from a first-person perspective, which makes them control similarly to most first-person shooters (while also simulating the limited field of vision that enemies always have in stealth games).

The key element that makes this set up work so well is that the two different teams are balanced just about perfectly. The balance between the spies and mercs is actually not unlike the balance between factions in a real-time strategy game, in that each side is specialized to be played in a certain manner due to their unique abilities, and yet these entirely different abilities keep the other side’s strengths in check. For instance, spies have access to the same night vision and thermal vision modes that Sam has in the single player game, which let them see in the dark or spot infrared lasers and other heat signatures from various security systems, respectively. Conversely, mercs only get a helmet-mounted flashlight, thus giving the spies a clear advantage in the dark. Not to be outdone, the mercs have two special vision modes of their own. Their electromagnetic view bathes the screen in blue, while highlighting any electromagnetic sources (like, say, spies when they are using their night or thermal vision) in white. Their motion-sensor view bathes the screen in red, and anything that moves fast enough gets highlighted with a grey box. These vision modes not only look really cool, but they also give mercs the edge in hunting spies down.

The other major difference between the spies and the mercs is that spies only have non-lethal armaments, while mercs have a plethora of deadly weaponry. While the merc’s main weapon is an assault rifle with multiple rates of fire, the spy’s main weapon is a rifle that fires a non-lethal electrical blast that’ll temporarily stun mercs or disrupt security devices like laser trip wires or motion detectors (which, if triggered, will advise mercs of which area of the map you’ve been detected). The only ways a spy can kill a merc is either by dropping on them from a high enough altitude, or being sneaky enough to actually creep up behind them and snap their necks. In an extremely cool touch, the spy player can actually talk with the merc player when they get them in a headlock, just to add insult to injury right before making with the neck-snapping. But while the spies may not be able to easily kill mercs, they are able to get to portions of a map that mercs can’t access, like climbing up poles or climbing into air ducts. The whole idea here is to make it easier for a spy to stay hidden and have the advantage when they’re unseen, while making it easier for the mercs to hunt for spies and giving the mercs the advantage when a spy is spotted and out in the open.

It’s really a remarkable game design, and it’s equally remarkable that it’s been executed so well. And this is to say nothing of all the cool gadgets for both the spies and the mercs, like spy bullets (which can be shot onto a merc to make their position show up on your radar, and even let you listen into the mercs’ conversations), or spy traps (which mercs can set around a map, and if a spy trips one it’ll mark the spy on the mercs’ radar and let them listen into the spies’ conversations). The final factor that makes the game work so well, which is almost as important as the balance between the two teams, is the brilliantly designed maps. There are eight in total, and they’re all designed with lots of shadows, multiple routes to almost every location, and multiple devices for spies to deactivate/extract/sabotage, all of which makes it impossible for the mercs to simply camp for the whole game. If mercs don’t move out and actively try to find spies, they’ll lose. The game is limited to only four players at most, and while that may seem rather primitive compared to games that offer 16, 32, or even more players to compete at once, it’s actually deliberate. Limiting both teams to only two players keeps the maps less populated, and if there were spies and mercs running around in every room, any tension that the stealth-oriented game design creates would fly right out the window.

There’s only one downside to this thoroughly fantastic multiplayer game, which is that it carries a steep learning-curve. You shouldn’t expect to be any kind of a challenging opponent right from the start, as either a spy or a merc. Not until you fully understand how to best use either side’s unique abilities and gadgets, and then furthermore learn all the ins and outs of each map, will you start winning matches and rise in the online rankings. It’s a testament to how well balanced both teams are that neither one is blatantly easier for new players to play with, although admittedly the spies probably take just a little more practice to get accustomed to.

Considering the extremely different approaches Ubisoft took with the single-player and multiplayer components of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, the final game as a whole is a bit difficult to rate. Although not much has changed and some old problems still linger, the single-player game isn’t terrible by any means. But when the multiplayer is so fun, so engaging, so well-conceived, and so innovative, the fact that there are also eight single player missions ends up feeling like some ancillary bonus Ubisoft decided to add, just to sweeten the deal. This essentially creates two categories of prospective Pandora Tomorrow purchasers, which are those who don’t have Xbox Live and those who do. If you’re in the former category, but were a big fan of the original Splinter Cell and didn’t mind its quirks and design faults, then you’ll probably enjoy single-player Pandora Tomorrow at least as much as you did the first game. Otherwise, you may want to wait for a price drop to get a better value. If you’re in the latter category, this is a no-brainer. Pandora Tomorrow is easily one of the best Xbox Live games to date, and one of the best competitive multiplayer experiences available in general.

Review By: Kris Pigna - 5465 Reads

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow Review Scores for Xbox :

Gameplay

9

Graphics

9.5

Sound

8

Replay

10

Overall

9

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February 19, 2006

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