Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell is a stealth game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Shanghai, and the first installment in the Splinter Cell series. It was initially released exclusively for the Xbox by its parent company, Ubisoft, in 2002. Versions for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo GameCube followed in 2003.

The game follows agent Sam Fisher, who works for the fictional American intelligence agency Third Echelon of the NSA. He is sent on various missions, mostly behind enemy lines. The focus of these missions is less on eliminating enemies, as is typical in shooters, and more on stealth and undetected operations.

Splinter Cell is set in 2004 in Asia, primarily in the Transcaucasus and Myanmar. It centers on the fictional Georgian president Nikoladze, whose plan is to conquer neighboring Azerbaijan. Third Echelon, implicated in the case by the murder of two of its agents in Georgia, dispatches Fisher to prevent the planned attack.

A sequel, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, was released in 2004. A remake of the game is currently in development by Ubisoft Toronto.

Story

The story takes place in 2004. The CIA contacts NSA emissaries after losing contact with one of their agents, Alison Madison. A second agent, Blaustein, has been sent to Tbilisi to re-establish contact with Madison, who has just disappeared. When he too vanishes, Third Echelon dispatches secret agent Sam Fisher to assess the situation and try to contact the missing agents.

However, the bodies of the two agents are found at the Tbilisi police station. Their implants have been removed. The evidence points to the Georgian Ministry of Defense, so Sam immediately goes there. He learns that the new Georgian president, Nikoladze, is behind the whole affair. His plan is to conquer Azerbaijan "undetected" by force. The trail leads Fisher to an oil rig in the Caspian Sea. There, he has to track down a technician who possesses a crucial computer containing vital information on contacts. The technician, however, must first log into this computer. Meanwhile, NATO, anticipating Nikoladze's planned attack, travels to Azerbaijan and attacks the oil rig. After a change of plans, Sam must overpower the technician and retrieve the computer. Since Third Echelon has analyzed this computer, they now know there's a mole within the CIA. Sam hacks the CIA's main server and discovers that this mole is named Mitchell Dougherty. He has to overpower Dougherty and bring him to his colleagues, who are waiting for him outside. Interrogations reveal, however, that Dougherty simply has a habit of storing important data on unprotected computers. Meanwhile, IT specialist Anna Grimsdóttir tries to locate the source of the hacking attacks, but her attempt fails, and she is discovered. However, the location of the attacks is now known. A company building called Kalinatek. The terrorists inside the Kalinatek building have now realized their cover has been blown and are beginning to destroy evidence, including their own computer technicians and hackers. One of these hackers possesses vital information. Sam must find and interrogate him.

Next, he must infiltrate the Chinese embassy in Myanmar, as a Chinese general named Feirong is suspected of being in cahoots with Nikoladze. He overhears a conversation between Nikoladze and Feirong and learns that three captured American soldiers are to be executed at a slaughterhouse. Nikoladze and his men intend to broadcast this execution worldwide. To prevent this, the transmission antenna must be disabled and the soldiers freed. During the mission, Fisher encounters Chinese diplomats who inform him and his team that the Chinese general belongs to a splinter group and is not acting on behalf of the government. Therefore, Sam returns to the embassy, ​​this time to capture the general and find evidence of his rogue actions. The general orders all hard drives destroyed to eliminate the evidence. He also plans to ship nuclear weapons by truck to invade Taiwan. Sam manages to prevent the destruction of all the hard drives and the shipment of the nuclear weapons. He overpowers the now-drunk general to hold him accountable and expose evidence of his connection to Nikoladze. He tricks him into logging into his computer and reveals the evidence. Shortly afterward, the general dies of alcohol poisoning. His final mission takes him back to Georgia, to the Georgian presidential palace. He must capture Nikoladze, who has since lost his presidency and all his power to a CIA puppet, and find the detonator of a portable nuclear bomb, the so-called "Ark." Nikoladze is already in Sam's hands, but he is freed by a special forces unit. Sam takes out the special forces soldiers and reaches a balcony. There, he discovers and kills Nikoladze. Sam's work is now complete, and he quickly escapes the palace and jumps into the Osprey, an NSA aircraft.

Gameplay

The game is a stealth shooter, so camouflage plays a crucial role. The prevailing lighting conditions are essential for effective stealth. The player's head-up display shows how visible their character is to enemies. Staying in dark corners renders them virtually invisible, while near lights makes them easily visible. Therefore, the player constantly strives to keep the environment as dark as possible, primarily by turning off light sources.

To navigate in darkness, the player is equipped with night vision goggles and a thermal imaging camera. Furthermore, since missions rely on cunning and speed rather than brute force, the player has a limited arsenal of weapons, primarily silenced pistols, rifles, and grenades. Ammunition is very limited, and opportunities to replenish it are rare. Therefore, the player is often forced to launch melee attacks from ambush to incapacitate the opponent. An incapacitated opponent can then be interrogated, searched, or used as a shield against enemy fire.

DLC

Three expansion levels were offered as a free download for Xbox via Xbox Live. The same levels were sold for PC as the Splinter Cell Mission Pack. However, with the release of the Special Edition of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (which was only released in North America), patch version 1.3 was made publicly available, installing these levels for free. The levels continue the storyline of the main game. The DLCs were also available in the Classics and Platinum Hits version on a second disc. It was also given out on Official Xbox Magazine discs.

Differences

The PC and Xbox versions and the GameCube and PlayStation 2 versions differ slightly. For the GameCube and PlayStation 2, levels were shortened and the difficulty was reduced. Furthermore, due to the lower processing power of these systems, various lighting, shadow, and particle effects were toned down. Conversely, the PS2 version featured completely re-rendered cutscenes and an additional, exclusive level. The GameCube version, due to the smaller storage capacity of the mini-DVDs, lacked these additions.

A 2D version of Splinter Cell was released for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance, N-Gage and mobile phones, which lacked the atmosphere of the original.

In 2011, Splinter Cell, along with its two sequels, was released in a graphically enhanced version for the PlayStation 3 as Splinter Cell Trilogy HD. This port was based on the PC version, which is why the re-rendered cutscenes from the PlayStation 2 version were not included. The additional missions from the Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions, which were released as a mission pack on the PC, were also not integrated.

Limited Edition

Ubisoft released a Limited Edition of the game on Windows. It came as a Disc binder and contains the game, the DLCs and a bonus DVD containing game trailers and cinematics.^[5]

Reception

The games Xbox and PC versions received "Universal Acclaim" and the PlayStation 2, GameCube and GameBoy Advance versions received "Generally Favorable" reviews due to Metacritic.^[6]

Gallery

References