Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Reviews for Xbox at Gamepublic.Com

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory review: Sam Fisher is swiftly becoming a household name, in a stealthy kind of way. Very soon, Sam is going to visit Hollywood for his very own movie, but right now he’s busy with his third video game Chaos Theory. It’s better than its predecessors, it’s better than its competition, and it’s definitely in the running for game of the year. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory shows that snake eating is something amateurs do, and the real work should be left to the Third Echelon.The year is 2007, Japan has developed an Information Self Defense Force which has been deemed a violation of international law. With an imminent war developing between Japan, China, North Korea and South Korea, the United States are forced to help their Japanese allies, but you’d better prepare for twist after twist, as the butterfly effect changes the chaos theory sporadically. Sporadic terrorists and confronting algorithm geniuses will keep you on the edge of your chair throughout this exciting new addition to an already action pumped stealth series.GameplayFisher is back, and better than ever. He’s learnt some new moves, and got some awesome new equipment to help you through the intriguingly awe-inspiring missions. Ubi Soft have gone all out to ensure the third game of the series was better than Pandora Tomorrow, as it was developed by a different faction of Ubi Soft, the same faction that developed the first game of the series. When you have in-house competition, you know the series is just going to continue to get even more exciting than one could ever imagine.Ten action packed missions will keep you busy for the better half of 10 – 15 hours depending on how slow you take things. Although the game is linear in a sense of you must complete this mission, there are lots of alternate ways of doing things, which proves to be a lot more entertaining and intense than just running through in a green suit with a gun shooting aliens that have suddenly learnt how to speak English. The missions range from a penthouse at the top of a building to a traditional Japanese house. The different scenery is truly amazing in a sense of realism like no other.In case you haven’t seen any advertising for Chaos Theory at all, Sam has a new move where he hangs from a railing and breaks his enemy’s neck. Fortunately, there is absolutely nowhere in the entire game where you need to use it. It’s entirely up to you, and they’ve just thrown that new move in for the fun of it. Sam Fisher is now ambidextrous, as with a simple push of the analog stick, you can switch to a left handed position. This is a replacement for the fact that Ubi Soft has removed the ability to shoot around corners. You can still go up against the wall and move slowly along it, but you can’t poke your arm around the corner and use the camera to your ability anymore.Your EEV (those cool goggles that Fisher wears) has been massively updated, and now includes all scanning and recording equipment. To listen in to conversations all you need to do is turn on your EEV by pressing in the right analog stick. You can also hack computers from a distance, and do plenty more damage without anyone suspecting anything. Hacking is now a major part of Splinter Cell, and Sam loves to hack. Some missions are full of computers waiting to be hacked, and the system they have set up for it is brilliant. We won’t ruin working it out though; it’s more fun trying to hack something and not knowing how. You can of course watch the training videos if you get stuck anyway.MultiplayerGrab a friend and pull them in to the game as quickly as possible, because Chaos Theory has a co-op mode to die for! There are all new missions (different to those of the singleplayer campaign) where you’ll need the help of a second Splinter Cell in order to reach different places. The story actually inter-twines with the singleplayer campaign, and at some stages you actually get to listen in on what Fisher has to say! The fun doesn’t stop there either. You can also do versus mode which is a pretty elaborate first-person shooter, or you can go online and verse or help out Splinter Cells around the world. The amount of variety to be had when playing Chaos Theory is astonishing, and Ubi Soft have definitely shown that the series can continue to flourish in more ways than just a singleplayer campaign from heaven.GraphicsSplinter Cell: Chaos Theory is basically fully utilizing the power of the Xbox. It doesn’t get any better than this, and it doesn’t look any better than this. It will be interesting to see how good the Splinter Cell movie looks, and whether or not they show any images or art for Splinter Cell 4 at E3 2005. The environments throughout Chaos Theory will keep your jaw firmly on the ground. Ponds with traditional Japanese fountains, massive cities, nuclear missiles being fired and even massive wars don’t stop Chaos Theory from producing a thrilling game with a constantly smooth framerate, and it only gets better from there. The game now has plenty of reflections, and the guards are alert to mirrors, etc so you’d better make damn sure that you’re covering yourself from all possible points at all times, or life is going to be hard for you.Many critics claim that the lighting is too variable, and that there’s no way that Sam Fisher could do what he does in real life. These critics are called unimaginative pessimists that can’t get past the fact that if Ubi Soft made it pitch black then it would not be a very exciting game. The lighting in Chaos Theory is so diverse that more often than not you’ll think its real, until you see your shadow. Possibly the worst part of Chaos Theory is the fact that for some strange reason your shadow is really low quality. We played the PC demo and thought this was just a bug to do with the graphics card, but it’s the same on the Xbox which means it’s a problem in the game. The whole world looks so surreal, and then all of a sudden there’s a crappy low polygon shadow following you around everywhere. A real shame, Ubi Soft, but you make up for it in so many other ways!SoundJust like in Ghost Recon 2, we have found that Ubi Soft have a new trick up their sleeves. If you’re the kind of person that likes to listen to the mission briefing (which is usually a smart thing to do if you want to follow the storyline and learn some useful information), then you’ll most likely turn your volume up to a state where you can hear what they are saying clearly. This of course turns the sound up in the gameplay to a pretty high level, so then when you’re in the middle of a war, your whole living room will sound like it’s exploding. The explosions are in a league of their own as you’ll find out when you unexpectedly run up to a wall mine.Chaos Theory has some pretty loud music throughout the action pumped moments when the guards are shooting at you. It’s recommended to turn the music down to 50% so that you can actually hear what’s going on, or if you want a truly realistic feeling then turn the music off completely. Throughout the game, there are a lot of funny memorable quotes. No longer is it three alarms and game over because Lambert insists that it is not a video game. One time when Sam grabs one of the guards, Sam says “What are you doing here? This is private property, you know…” It’s features like this that make you grow a heart for the characters, and it also gives a sense of realism, which is essential when you’re trying to pretend that you are actually an uber stealth killer with all the latest gadgets to play with. The gameplay in Chaos Theory has reached a new level of augmentation which is unmatched in today’s gaming world.OverallIf you have $100 in the bank and are thinking about purchasing a new game, don’t even consider anything else. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory will keep you occupied for many, many hours with its singleplayer campaign, co-operative campaign, versus mode, and online play. Chaos Theory is the be all end all stealth game for this generation of gaming, there’s just nothing even close to its brilliance on the market for Xbox today. Solid Snake can try, but Sam Fisher has successfully and will always prevail.Thumbs Up Unreal realistic gameplay to the max. The best stealth game ever, period. Perfect graphics and lighting Great sounds, loud and heavy Intense gameplay, and upgraded abilities and technology The EEV really simplifies all the spying.Thumbs Down Your shadow looks like crap. It ends! full size >>

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory for Xbox Reviews