PlayStation 2

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow

Even though your OPSAT cautions against lethal kills, you may use your discretion in certain cases, especially if the person you are supposed to rendezvous with is about to get killed. You must take any measures necessary to ensure the completion of your mission. However, some of these helpers are more than they seem and may come back to haunt you. This is war – all tactics can occur, even killing unarmed women. You will understand what I mean when you get to that specific mission.

With nothing to go on other than the Tom Clancy name, the Splinter Cell franchise has become one of the biggest from Ubisoft, who’s arguably the fastest-rising publisher in the business. The original Splinter Cell was a tremendous success on its native platform, the Xbox, and had similar success on the PlayStation 2 (and to some extent, the GameCube). With success like that, Ubi could have easily rehashed their success, riding on the now-franchise to another million sales and critical praise. But they didn’t do that – entirely, anyway. Developed by the same team that handled the PS2/GCN conversions of the original SC, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow takes the next logical step in stealth-action games: online play.

Encore meilleur que le premier Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow réalise la performance de nous surprendre encore tout en respectant les bases établies il y a plus d'un an. Que ce soit pour son mode solo ou pour le multijoueur, ce titre mérite votre plus grande attention. C'est ce que l'on appelle une réussite totale et indiscutable.

When the original Splinter Cell hit the Xbox in late 2002, the game's pristine graphics were seen as a testament to the console's supremacy over the competition. But a few months later, Ubisoft released the almost identical looking PlayStation 2 port, so Sony fans got the last laugh. Now the sequel, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow is heading to PS2s everywhere, and while Sony's console has lost a bit of ground to the Xbox in the graphics race, it's still looking sharp.

Unless you're a single-system devotee to the point of wearing blinders when you walk into a game store, there's a good chance you've heard of the immensely popular multiplayer mode in Pandora Tomorrow. It successfully integrates stealth gameplay into a multiplayer setting by pitting spies against mercenaries in a four-player, two-team competitive game, and we love it.

Pandora Tomorrow may seem like yesterday's news for Xbox owners, but for PlayStation 2 and GameCube fans, the latest chapter in the espionage adventures of super-spy Sam Fisher has been an event worth waiting for. Fortunately, their patience has paid off as this new version of Pandora Tomorrow delivers all the shadow-sneaking fun of the successful Xbox original plus a number of exclusive extras, including alternate pathways in some stages, the ability to disable booby traps, a post-mission statistical scoring screen, and listening to in-mission situation reports via the PS2 USB headset. The best and most substantial addition, however, is the new Jungle mission in which Fisher must maneuver through a beautifully rendered Indonesian forest of death.

Pandora Tomorrow on the PS2 might not be as perfect as the Xbox version but it comes really close . . . close enough that it will impress gamers that didn’t think the PS2 was capable of bringing a game like this to life. Okay, so there might be some imperfections that are hard to ignore but they hardly come close to keeping you from enjoying this amazing title. And with an online mode that’s just brilliant, you can’t go wrong. This one should be in any gamers’ library.

Poor GameCube. With Pandora Tomorrow, Ubisoft has released one of the most fun and engaging multiplayer experiences ever, and it’s only included on the Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions of the game. Sure, the ‘Cube features connectivity, but it simply can’t match the glory that is Pandora Tomorrow’s online mode. Fortunately for Nintendo fans, the single-player mode is engaging no matter what console you’re playing on, and the story simply can’t be beat.

Judged solely on its single-player offering, Pandora Tomorrow would still be a pretty good follow-up to its predecessor. But then there's the fascinatingly complex multiplayer mode, which truly is one of a kind and potentially gives Pandora Tomorrow much more lasting value than its predecessor. It's true that this version of Pandora Tomorrow isn't as great as the other versions out there. But if you don't have those other versions as a frame of reference, and you approach this latest version of Pandora Tomorrow with an open mind as well as a desire to fully explore both its single-player and multiplayer portions, you'll likely have a great time with it.

Ubi does some good things -- some very good things. What we find continually amazing is the level of technical quality its PlayStation 2 games effortlessly exude. It's a rare form of visual and aural splendor that most people associate with Xbox titles and only Xbox titles. Pandora Tomorrow is no exception to this demonstration of talent and understanding, and how its proper application can create something that shouldn't plausibly exist. Still, when directly compared, Pandora Tomorrow PS2 is but a shadow of its X-born cousin, however deep and sharp that shadow may be. But, this comparison does pose a most important question: does technically faltering behind its counterpart make this one a bad game on its own merits? In some cases, no. In other cases, yes.

The original Splinter Cell is similar enough in both scope and design for you to use it as a gauge for how Pandora Tomorrow will grip you, it can no doubt be picked up for a pittance after entering the budget range some time ago. That is the sensible course, but if you truly trust yourself as a gamer then you really need only ask this question; Do you play games to escape from the rigid, constricting reality we have all around us? Or as games become more familiar, and closer to our everyday lives, in their search for realism, do you find them improving, rather than diminishing, in enjoyment and value?

In this era of multi-format releases, is there much point spending hours looking at numerous different versions of the same game? In the vast majority of cases the game's been designed at the lowest common denominator level - i.e. the PS2 - and every other format falls in line. It's the gaming equivalent of reviewing an audio CD, then the Minidisc, then the cassette version. It's becoming pretty pointless. But when a game like Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow comes along on Xbox and PC first, we're always curious to see how Sony's increasingly ageing warhorse is keeping pace with its more powerful counterparts. The news for PS2 owners is good.

When Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow premiered on the Xbox a few months ago, gamers around the world hailed it as one of, if not the, best games on the console. Sporting beautifully dynamic lighting, smooth animations, and a surprisingly innovative multiplayer mode, the game is still one of the top titles on the system. Now that the game is coming to the PS2, a new (and considerably larger) section of the game-playing public will be able to enjoy the same stealthy fun as their Xbox-owning brethren.