Introduction
Ever since the release of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, we have all predicted that another great game by Tom Clancy will hit our screens, and now it is here. Splinter Cell is one of the most talked about games in 2002/2003, with its beautifully mastered moves and techniques to perform and its wonderful story, Splinter Cell is one of the finest action games ever to grace this earth. The basic principle of the game is to prevent a world war from happening. To do this you must find your way through different locations, kill guards, hack into computers systems, track people down, the list is simply endless. There are 10 missions to complete, each with several objectives. You are only able to obtain two guns through out the whole game, but never the less, it is still a very fun game.

Gameplay
Adding to the spectacular graphics is the ever so pleasing sound. You are forever getting useful tips, and you mission objectives from Lambert (your “boss”), and the text not only just pops up in the top left hand corner, but it is actually spoken, this adds to the game’s “reality”. As you are exploring the many locations on Splinter Cell, the music adds to the feeling around your location. If you alert a guard, then you hear a loud bang. If a guard is chasing you, then you get a fast tempo tune added to the game play. Once the guard is dead, or no longer looking for you, the music stops. However it is the same music all the way through the game, until you reach a later stage, it still is the same “beat” but different instruments. If your not getting chased for a while, then the music can be repetitive on you. It is very fun to listen to Fisher’s sarcastic comments as he is interrogating a villain. So blasting your music whilst playing Splinter Cell isn’t a smart thing to do.

Story
In Splinter Cell’s many locations, you can notice all the hard work that has been put into the terrain, all of it is pleasingly mastered. From the guns to the walls, the graphics on Splinter Cell truly are top class. The mouth moves with what they are saying, the creases in the clothing, I’m sure you couldn’t find a fault in the graphics when you are playing Splinter Cell. Splinter Cell is a game that you would consider buying for the graphics, I’m pretty sure nobody would, but I’m just trying to tell you guys/gals that the graphics are awesome.

Graphics
The key element for a good game, is great game play, now luckily, Splinter Cell has both of these. All in all, there are 10 missions to be completed, too few you say? Every mission has a different length, one mission took me 4 hours to complete, yes this was the longest mission on the game, now I may not be the greatest console gamer on the planet but I know enough to know that Splinter Cell takes more than a few hours to complete. Long games are always fun to play, but some may get boring with lack of stuff to do, with Splinter Cell each mission and objective are all fun to play and never get boring. With each mission adding a new feature to your SC-20k (One of your two guns) you are sure to keep amused. The missions that you probably will find boring, are the ones where you are un-able to kill, but knocking out isn’t killing. It is forever fun to see enemies to choke on gas or smoke, or take a sticky shocker to the stomach and perform an award-winning act for the “Best Electrocuting Act”. Another interesting factor about the game is the ability to save the game, now, you cant just press start and save, you must wait for checkpoints. You can only save a maximum of 3 check points with each player profile but this also means no saving when you want and turning off your ‘Box. You can load up to a check point once you have died, or forgot to do something previous to where you are now. The most fun thing about the game, has to be the SC-20k, this has features such as camera’s that can distract guards and gas them, smoke grenades, sticky shockers which can knock out the guards. In the game, there is a “3-Alarm Per Mission” rule, which is pretty obvious, 3 alarms, and its mission over. Except the mission 7, where it is one alarm then mission over. Alarms are activated by guards seeing you and setting it off or security cameras catching you in its line of view.

Sound
There is much more to Splinter Cell than what I have mentioned here. You want more? Then you will just have to buy the game yourself. It isn’t a game for impatient people, so if you fall into this category, then I wouldn’t bother getting it. If you are into shooting, knocking people out, or just being plain “stealthic” (my made up word for being good at stealth games) then Splinter Cell is the game for you.