Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

aka: Splinter Cell, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell HD, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Stealth Action Redefined
Moby ID: 7780
Xbox Specs
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Description official descriptions

Splinter Cell is a third-person action game with a focus on stealth, similar to the Metal Gear Solid series. The player takes on the role of Sam Fisher, an operative for the secret organization NSA Black Operation, part of the U.S. government. The organization deals with very sensitive missions, often taken on by a Third Echelon splinter cell division Fisher is part of. His missions are so discreet, that if he is captured the government will deny any such existence of that organization.

To get around and reach his objectives, Fisher has a variety of moves at his disposal. He can walk, run, crouch, jump, rappel, shimmy, cross horizontal wires, zip using a zip cord, and do a split jump. There are different approaches to taking out enemies. He can use weapons, but the noise might alert guards and that generally makes it more difficult to complete missions. Opponents can be stunned, killed, or subdued. Fisher can for instance jump down from the ceiling and knock an opponent unconscious. Some enemies are needed to activate a door or passcode. Therefore enemies can be taken hostage by holding a gun to their head. They can also be interrogated or be used as human shields.

Other features include the ability to peak through a door before going through or use an optic cable camera (a "snake" camera) to peer through the underside, to check what is ahead. As the focus is on stealth, the amount of weapons is rather small. There is an FN F2000 assault rifle that can be fitted with a silencer and other modifications, and there is a suppressed FN Five-Seven pistol. Ammo is limited and additional bullets are scarce. Players are encouraged to avoid danger by sneaking through shadows and hiding behind objects. Fisher has access to a light meter to check how visible he is, and night vision as well as thermal goggles to see in the dark and view warmer temperatures in colour. Other weapons are ring airfoil projectiles, gas grenades and sticky shockers.

The Xbox version is the original one, with a closely adapted version for the PC, and separate ports for PS2 and GameCube. The latter have slight changes in levels generally to make it a little easier. Each version also contains some exclusive features. The Xbox and PC versions include three additional downloadable missions (Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Mission-Pack). The PS2 version has an exclusive level, and the GameCube version can be connected with a Game Boy Advance through a link cable to view an overhead map. The PS2 and GameCube versions include additional binocular items, and the latter also has an extra sticky bomb weapon. The PS2 release also has an exclusive 5min pre-rendered intro cinematic with full orchestrated score, showing how the two agents you are sent to look for at the beginning of the game were captured.

Spellings

  • 汤姆克兰西 之 细胞分裂 - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 湯姆克蘭西 之 縱橫諜海 - Traditional Chinese spelling
  • 细胞分裂 - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 스프린터 셀 - Korean spelling (Hangul)

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Credits (Xbox version)

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Senior Producers
Associate Producer
Art Director
Lead Programmer
Lead 3D Artist/Lead Level Designer
Animation Art & Technical Director/Lead Animator
Lead Character Artist/Character Concept Artist
Scriptwriter
Game Designer
Lead Game Designer
Sound Game Designer
Technical Directors 3D Art
Production Assistant
Original Creation with Participation as Associate Producer & Creative Director
Animators (In Game)
3D Artist
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 91% (based on 95 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 229 ratings with 11 reviews)

A revolution in Espionage action games.

The Good
The shadow's are totally amazing!! No exaggeration, they worked really hard on the shadows and its an intricate part of the gameplay. The gadgets, story, the maps, the surprises all really great. The graphics are amazing in this game. They use this thing called fluid graphics for curtains and other cloth. It's really cool, the darkness and light contrast is amazing. Having to use the darkness to beat levels is really revolutionary. The weapons on the other hand are just plain fun. From what I've seen so far there is the standard silenced pistol, a rifle with a scope which you can attach many things to (tazers, cameras, distraction devices, hollow bullets, gas grenades). He also possesses a variety of distraction capabilites starting from throwing cans to flares, grenades, and the most advanced I've seen was the remote controlled camera that makes noise and shoots case at the touch of a button). Other gadgets present are the laser microphone, the optical eyeglass, grenades, lock picks, night vision goggles, thermal goggles, etc.

The Bad
Having to die a lot to beat the levels because its so unpredictable can get frustrating. Not frustrating enough to make the game less fun though. I also don't like how it doesn't make sense how just because you're in a shadow the guy can't see you although he's right next to you. But that only happens rarely to ocassionally.

The Bottom Line
It's a really good game, just have to be patient or take long breaks before you go take another shot at it. Playing it makes you really feel like you are the main character, especially with the good music integration and all.

Xbox · by Thiago Oliveira (85) · 2003

It really is "Stealth Action Redifined"

The Good
This game has the best graphics that you can find around. The shadows and light contrast each other making great hiding spots. It's totally amazing how good the gameplay is. It's hard to find a stealth game today which really has to do with stealth. The fact that his suit, weapons, and gadgets are actually being tested by the CIA and other agencies makes it all more beleivable. Although there are only 9 levels, they will keep you playing it for more than 40 hours. Beleive it or not it's that long. Theres only 1 short level. There are absolutely no glitches whatsoever. Even if you stealth games, you should try this one out anyways. It is quite addictive.

The Bad
There are only three bad things. First, the levels asre incredibely hard and long. Second, the enemies s pack a bunch of punch. Third, you will die a bunch so don't get it thinking that you can beat it the first day.

The Bottom Line
This is probabely the best XBOX game yet. It can be annoying in some levels, but ovverall it is an amazing game. Buy it if you can.

Xbox · by Jester236 (34) · 2003

Not bad.

The Good
I'm naturally suspicious of anything called Tom Clancy's Insert Pretentious Title Here. But on the other hand, there was the tantalizing prospect of feeding my Thief addiction.

The biggest downside of the Tom Clancy label is, as you'd expect, the patently ridiculous story taking itself far too seriously: Georgia suddenly decides, for no apparent reason, to wage "information warfare" on the US; cue cutscene of TV news detailing the dangers of a computer virus spreading into the water supply. Which is perhaps all too representative of how real newscasters treat computer threats - now, it might be "technically impossible" as you say, but imagine the chaos that would ensue if people came down with general protection faults in the middle of traffic!

--in fact, you're probably best advised to skip the faux broadcast collages altogether and concentrate on the meat of the game.

The game itself is basically right in the middle of the intersection between Thief and Deus Ex, with bits of Project IGI thrown in. You do carry a gun, but it's rare that you fire more than a hundred bullets on any level. A new twist is that, in addition to knocking people out, you can grab them by the neck and put a gun to their head - and then knock them out with your elbow when they've told you what you need. Amazingly, everyone in the game are smart enough not to cry out in surprise at having the barrel of a gun against their temple.

Our hero isn't quite as suave as Garrett; he's called Sam and is some middle-aged guy with stubble - though he does look good wearing night-vision goggles, something the packaging revels in. Since this is based on some Tom Clancy nonsense, he works for the NSA, but at times, he has an almost gentleman-thief air about him. A gentleman thief with black fatigues and military hardware, that is.

Being a specialist in infiltration, Sam has a wide range of special moves like sliding on steel wires, rappelling, climbing pipes and hugging walls. Which is all very nice, but it does give that flight simulator feeling of hunting around for rarely used keys at times. This is especially true for the "split jump", the athletic feat of bracing your legs against two opposing walls: while it looks very cool in screenshots, it's hardly ever used, and by the time you need it, you'll have forgotten it among all the others.

The best of Sam's moves is easily peeking around a corner and drawing his pistol. From this position you're minimally exposed, and can take on three times the numbers you'd normally be able to. This isn't just a cool move culled from the movies; it also helps you feel more part of the environment, less like a heavily armed upright soapbox on wheels. It's also a word in favor of realism, as the first thing you look for in a firefight is good cover.

In what might be a first, you control walking speed with the mouse wheel. There are four speeds; you'll probably spend most of the game crouched on the second-slowest speed, but there's a time and place for all the combinations of crouching, sneaking and running, which gives a nice feeling of nuanced control.

Your goggles provide two additional modes of sight, night vision and infrared. Both look pretty cool; the 3D engine observes the way bright light "bends around" edges - I think "bloom" is what the industry calls it - anyway, it means a 40-watt lightbulb shines like the sun through night-vision, while a well-lit room is blinding bright. The infrared is primarily useful for seeing people through bookcases and such, though it does look very nice and has received adequate attention; notably, you can use it to see which guards are unconscious and which are room-temperature - pop a bullet in someone and you'll see the body heat fade away. All this makes the game feel bigger than it actually is, since each level can be seen three ways.

Splinter Cell has the most play on shadow and light I've seen yet, almost to the point of a ridiculous number of scenes with the sun shining through blinds, lamps through grilles, etc. Sometimes, things in a bright light exhibit that plastic toy look, but most of the game is spent in the lovely gritty light-amplified mode, or the graphically impressive infrared. The night vision is in black-and-LCD-cream, which is quite attractive; and the added video noise works well, surprisingly. The fact that I spent a lot of time looking at the game in monochrome, hardly even noticing, should tell you just how well it works.

The Bad
The title movie. When I saw the sheer amount of people who had worked on it, I wanted their job. I mean, I could do it better. Most ten-year-olds could do it better. And that music! Agh!

The ingame music is, unfortunately, not much better. You'll be wishing for cheesy Deus Ex tunes before soon.

The blend of sneaking and shooting while not giving the same degree of freedom as in Deus Ex means the game winds up being a bit off; by far the most enjoyable level is the one where you're not allowed to kill a single soul, yielding the tightest, most intense gameplay. On most of the other levels, the easiest route is often to just shoot people from a distance whenever you have the opportunity and then stroll right past their dead eyes, picking goodies out of their kit.

Murder is usually justified, e.g., after seeing a gang of mercenaries gun down an office full of helpless programmers, you're handed a bunch of grenades and a license to kill, but towards the end of the game, you just don't care anymore; I eventually found myself shooting security guards out of laziness and annoyance.

The sound effects are competent, but they're not as delicious as either Thief 1 or 2's; Splinter Cell is more visually oriented, for better and worse.

Oh, and there are a couple of jumping puzzles which call for the annoying-to-perform move of kicking off walls.

The Bottom Line
Adequate snack for sating Thief abstinencies, with some fresh gains of its own. Certainly worth it at reduced price.

Windows · by Ola Sverre Bauge (237) · 2004

[ View all 11 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Downloadable Content

On March 13, 2003, the first downloadable level, Kola Cell, was released. It can be played whether the game was beaten or not.

Development

The PS2 version was ported over by Ubisoft Shanghai in China. It was developed within 4 months.

Fifth Freedom

One possible source of the Fifth Freedom concept is Noam Chomsky's preface to The Culture of Terrorism: "U.S. international and security policy ... has as its primary goal the preservation of what we might call “the Fifth Freedom,” understood crudely but with a fair degree of accuracy as the freedom to rob, to exploit and to dominate, to undertake any course of action to ensure that existing privilege is protected and advanced." FDR's original Four Freedoms are Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.

Hacking

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is one of the three Xbox games that, with the help of Action Replay, can hack into an unmodified Xbox. The other two being 007: Agent Under Fire and MechAssault.

Novels

Penguin has published novels inspired by the game; Sam Fisher's adventures continue in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2004), Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda (2005) and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Checkmate (2006), all (perhaps confusingly) written by Raymond Benson under the pseudonym "David Michaels".

References

  • The vehicle that picks up Sam outside the police station at the end of the first level is a delivery van from St-Hubert, a popular restaurant in Montreal where the game was designed. Just look at its logo and compare it to the one on www.st-hubert.com.
  • On the level Chinese Embassy, Part II (the second time playing in the Chinese Embassy), go down the back alley (not through the front door of the restaurant) and use the optic cable on the door. The chef can be heard humming If I Were a Rich Man from the movie (or play) Fiddler on the Roof.
  • In the original Chinese Embassy level, Sam is told to meet with a mission contact. Once he comes into contact with him, he is to introduce with the code phrase "A bright cold day in April", which is the first line of the novel 1984, written by George Orwell.

Third Echelon

In the game, Sam Fisher works for Third Echelon. The real world ECHELON is a global intelligence initiative run by the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. While ECHELON's full capabilities (and intentions) are unknown, the ACLU reports estimates that the network intercepts up to 3 billion messages (phone, e-mail, Internet) daily.

Version Differences

The PC version of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is fairly closely based on the original Xbox version. Both were made by Ubisoft Montreal. The GameCube and PlayStation 2 versions, which were developed by Ubisoft Shanghai, are similar to each other, but have many small changes over the originals with the result that they are generally easier. Some doors are moved around, guards are less likely to notice gunshots, etc.

Each version of the game, except for Windows, has some exclusive features. The Xbox release has two new missions downloadable via Xbox Live which involve a Russian nuclear sub. The PlayStation 2 version includes an exclusive level which takes place in a nuclear power plant, new cinematics, a new intro cinematic with original music by the Prague Orchestra, and many behind-the-scenes interviews and documentaries both about the new intro and the game itself. GameCube uses the Game Boy Advance link cable to give you a real-time overhead map and a new sticky-bomb weapon. Additionally, both GCN and PS2 include a new binoculars items.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2002– Best Xbox Game of the Year
    • 2002 – Best Xbox Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
    • 2002 – Best Xbox Action Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
    • 2003 – Best PC Action Game of the Year
  • Computer Gaming World
    • February 2006 (Issue #259) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
  • GameSpy
    • 2002 – Xbox Game of the Year
    • 2002 – Xbox Game of the Year (Readers' Choice)
  • Golden Joystick Awards

  • Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (Entertainment Software Association Germany)

    • August 31, 2003 - Gold-Award for selling more then 100,000 (but less then 200,000) units in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. (PS2 version)

Information also contributed by Ace of Sevens, Alexander Misiti, Karthik KANE, MegaMegaMan, Olivier Masse, piltdown man, Pseudo_Intellectual, Reborn_Demon, Terrence Bosky and Xoleras.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by JPaterson.

Macintosh added by Corn Popper. GameCube added by Kartanym. PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 added by MAT. Xbox One added by Eufemiano Bullanga. Windows added by Rantanplan.

Additional contributors: MAT, Unicorn Lynx, Corn Popper, Sciere, Ace of Sevens, Zeppin, Patrick Bregger, Rik Hideto, FatherJack, 一旁冷笑.

Game added November 19, 2002. Last modified March 4, 2024.