Title	Game Info	Screenshots	Gamester Score
	Publisher: Ubisoft   Developer: Ubisfot   Genre: Action   Release: 11/17/02   Rating: Teen		Control 5/5 Graphics 5/5 Sound 4/5 Orginality 5/5 Value 4/5 Overall 5/5

It’s rare to see a game that creates a near seamless blend of elements, drawing upon style, story, graphics, and design to make a truly enjoyable game. It’s even more impressive when that game knows of its own frustrating elements, and still provides an experience that keeps you coming back for another slice.

Splinter Cell is just such a game, and what it loses in frustration, it makes up in spades with style. You play Sam Fisher, a typical Tom Clancy action hero, freshly recruited by Third Echelon, already familiar with tradecraft and espionage. Third Echelon is a CIA backed government initiative to conduct covert operations critical to national security. Splinter Cell operatives are gifted with the Fifth Freedom—the freedom to break laws, spy, and do other nasty things in the name of national security. Held to the strictest standards and trained to accomplish missions by stealth, they survive by wits alone, supported in their missions by a remote field team.

Make no mistake, this is a stealth and espionage game first and an action game second. Quiet, stealthy operations are your key to success. Being discovered is not. As a more realistic game, your character can’t stand up to that much in the way of damage. You’ll get weaponry that is capable to do the job, but most of the time, you should find yourself using bullets to destroy lights and cameras, rather than shooting people. In fact, for those of you that want it, most of the time, you can resort to completely non-lethal methods to incapacitate your foes.

While it’ll take some getting used to, as many of the missions can be flubbed with the smallest of mistakes, I think I’ve enjoyed the Splinter Cell control system more than any other. With no radar to alert you to the presence of enemies, you’ll come to appreciate the free and easy to use camera system. The rest of the controls are easy to pick up, and there’s next to no time required to master them, including the split jump and the Jackie wall jump.

Graphically, Splinter Cell stunned me. The environments are lush, if not always completely believable, and are usually packed with the small details (like a big screen TV in a room with furniture and empty liquor bottles) that make a scene believable. Additionally, unlike previous stealth titles, Splinter Cell has really nice lighting effects, from the harsh light of a bright and sunny day, to the spilled light effect from a street lamp. These effects play a large part in the gameplay as well, as light will help the enemies see your character, hindering your mission.

Aurally, I was similarly impressed, from all around high quality voice acting to excellent sound effects. The sound effects play a particularly important part in your stealth, as footsteps and gunshots are the first and most noticeable things that will attract the attention of the enemy. Whether it’s landing from a fall silently, or creeping up quietly to a guard, conspicuous sound is always your enemy.

As an added bonus, Splinter Cell is supported on Xbox Live, which means we might see extra downloadable levels sometime in the future.

Really, the only things I could knock Splinter Cell for were a few moments where the designers obviously bowed to game design, and not to realism. For one thing, you’re wearing a set of night vision goggles that have three bright green points on them. Three bright green points that don’t ever attract the attention of an enemy when you’re on the job. Still even with a few small points against it, I’m still putting Splinter Cell on my shelf. It’s a great title that’s worth playing, even if this sort of game normally frustrates you.