As mentioned before, and to steal one of the games mottos, you are Sam Fisher. Sam is part of a group called Third Echelon that is so secret the US government denies it exists. You are basically a one-man operative that goes to do the dirty work that the government cannot otherwise accomplish using more traditional methods. While you are physically by yourself during the missions you are not totally alone because of sophisticated communications with other team member of Third Echelon that provide valuable information about your surroundings and mission detail. Of course Sam being in the field by himself isn’t all that bad because Sam is a Stud (notice the capital “S”). He has just a ton of moves to creep around with including rappelling, shimmying, zip lining, wall jump and a host of others. And don’t forget the gadgets, which Sam sure didn’t. Among them are a really nifty optic cable, so you can see in a room before opening the door, the camera jammer to stop those pesky surveillance cameras from seeing what you’re up to, a sticky camera that you can slap on a wall and see what’s going on without needing to be there all the time. Sam has many more groovy tools and weapons that can be used in a variety of ways.

Sam doing his Spider-man imitation.

The control is top-notch. Some of the moves you do rely on very precise movements and you always feel that you are in total control. The music is fairly sparse but what is there is good and really does add to the dramatic feel of the game. Now we get to the biggest difference in the PS2 version when compared to the Xbox and it’s an important one: graphics. There is a huge difference in the overall quality between the PS2 version and the Xbox. Now don’t get me wrong, when standing on its own the PS2 version is a wonderful looking game. It’s just that when you compare it to the original Xbox version, it just doesn’t, well, compare. Now in a lot of games the graphical quality between systems might not be that important, but in this case it kind of is. For example, as mentioned you area very sneaky agent and that means a lot of hiding in the shadows. Unfortunately, without the use of your onscreen visibility meter, it’s very difficult to determine when Sam is in a really dark area. The PS2 just doesn’t give you enough “darkness”. This sounds a little odd but when you see how the Xbox handles this you can better understand the faultiness of the PS2 in this area. And while the lighting effects are really good, they just don’t hold a candle to the Xbox. Only because this was one of the hallmarks of Splinter Cell when it came out do I bring it up.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 91%.  Splinter Cell is a wonderfully stealthy and atmospheric game that, while not on the same level graphically as its Xbox brother, will be a sure fire good time for all of you budding secret agents.

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