Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (PC) review [TE Exclusive]
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is the third installment in the universally acclaimed Splinter Cell stealth-action games based on Tom Clancy’s best-selling novels. The third iteration once again sees you in the boots of NSA Special Agent Sam Fisher, traversing the global hot spots in hopes of averting one disaster after another. However, this time round, there is more emphasis on action than on stealth but, that’s not a bad thing. First thing I have to complain about is the use of StarForce protection. More and more developers and big name games are starting to use this aggressive form of protection. The thing is, the protection remains behind on your computer even after you uninstall the game. Well, that’s just me and I don’t like StarForce.
Gameplay:
There are three distinct types of gameplay elements in Chaos Theory. This time, the levels are much larger and much better designed than the previous iterations. In the previous games, the gameplay was ‘restrained’ putting more emphasis on stealth than outright confrontation. In Chaos Theory, the guys at Ubisoft have done away with the ‘restraining’ elements and instead, have opted to give the players control of the way they’d like to play the game. The level design, this time round, is incredible and each level contains multiple ways of accomplishing your primary and secondary objectives. This adds a good amount of replay value as you try to figure out different paths each time you go through a particular section of the game. Another new feature is the addition of secondary objectives. These objectives, while not necessary for completing the mission, add more depth to the storyline and also help in bolstering the ratings that are displayed at the end of a mission. A lot of environment specific kills have also made their way into the game. A few examples being, if Sam is hanging over an enemy, he has the option of grabbing the enemy from above and either knocking him out, for the conservative type or snapping his neck, giving a more aggressive approach and pulling an enemy off a ledge while hanging and watching him tumble helplessly to the ground below.
Even the opening of doors have another option added to make things interesting, open door, open door stealth, bash door, and optic cable. Stealth allows the player to manually push the door ajar being careful of not disturbing whoever’s inside. Bashing allows Sam to knock down the door knocking anyone who’s on the other side. Most of the game still consists of taking a non-lethal approach to neutralizing most of the targets except for the identified enemy forces. All of Sam’s moves are still in so, you can still do the splits in tight locations and land on unsuspecting foes from above to knock them out. The lock picking is the same as before with directional buttons coinciding with the movement of the pick. A new mini game has been added which basically allows more information about secondary objectives by hacking into secured computers.
The HUD is pretty much the same as in the previous games. A bar on the top right of the screen displays Sam’s health while a display cluster at the bottom right relays Sam’s visibility, the noise being made (with a level indicator which that displays the ambient noise in a particular environment) and the recharge bar for the EEV disrupter on Sam’s pistol.
Weaponry also consists of a few new and appropriate additions. The most interesting being the knife. With it, Sam can either slash an enemy’s throat or jab them in the gut. The knife can also be used during interrogations and also for some environment specific actions. As far as guns go, the SC-20K this time comes with a shotgun and a sniper attachment along with sticky cam, sticky shocker and airfoil rounds. The sticky cam works just like it did in Pandora Tomorrow in the sense that it has the ability to distract and neutralize targets and it can also be used for surveillance.
One thing that may come as a shock is that the ability to shoot while pressed against a wall has been removed instead of it an option to switch the over the shoulder view from right to left has been added, which is understandable because the emphasis is on action. Even the SC pistol comes with an alternate fire mode that interferes with electrical circuits and disables lights and cameras and other electronic equipment for short periods of time. This secondary device also allows the hacking of key-coded locked doors. Sam’s arsenal also consists of three variations of grenades, gas, smoke and frag. The vision modes make a comeback with a couple of new additions, the first being a two level zoom/laser mic combo and the second being the EEV (Electronically Enhanced Vision) mode, and you can use this mode to scan computers for useful information without actually being in contact with the machine.
The OPSAT screen also includes a rather rudimentary map. It is not the most useful of maps and usually ends up confusing the player rather than helping out.
The camera is pretty good, it defaults to a third person view and moves into an over the shoulder perspective when a gun is drawn. Throughout the game it never got stuck in a corner and presented the best possible viewpoint for every situation. The default PC controls are the same as before, Sam’s walk/run is handled by the forward/backward movement of the mouse wheel. Rest of the setup is the same as it is for most third person games.
In its entirety, the game has ditched the trial and error approach of the previous two games in the series. All this allows the players to improvise their approach to various situations. This is, perhaps the most significant improvement to the game.
AI:
Pandora Tomorrow, the previous game, contained incremental alert stages, in which the enemies would constantly equip themselves with better gear as alarm levels increased. This coupled with a very sensitive AI restricted the gamer to a stealthy approach. This feature is no longer present in the game, adding to the multiple approach scenarios.
The AI system has been completely revamped from Pandora Tomorrow’s “make slightest mistake + trip off alarms = enemies firing their weapons madly†to a more robust multi-leveled system that increases the chances of stealthy players while hidden but decreases the chance of survival when their cover’s blown. Making noises will still alert the guards but, it won’t set off any alarms.
The enemies will notice switched/blown lights, open doors and will go through a search routine while searching an area, switching on light sources including flares and flashlights and then investigate the source of the disturbance. If the player remains silent and hidden then the enemies can be expected to return to their patrols and won’t follow Sam around randomly, like they used to in Pandora Tomorrow. They even investigate the disappearence of their comrades. In case you’re out in the open, you’ll have only a few seconds to take cover or eliminate all threat as close range weapon fire will kill Sam in a few seconds. Enemies even work together by seeking out better vantage points, diving to avoid fire and flanking their targets.
However, in some cases the AI still resorted to the aforementioned blindfire tactic, shooting continuously at the source of a gunshot that took out a light. The AI is nothing groundbreaking or revolutionary but, it gets the job done very nicely.
Graphics:
Without a doubt, Chaos Theory is one of the best looking games around at the moment. Every visual aspect of the game reeks of finely crafted detail. Lighting is the most important aspect of the Splinter Cell series and it has never looked better. The shadows and reflections are spot on and the lightmaps designed for the game are incredibly detailed, even candles flicker as they would in the real world. Couple that with some exquisitely designed, ultra realistic textures make this game a visual treat.
Animation is simply superb, in fact, this game sports perhaps one of the best skeletal animation to date. Every move Sam makes, be it walking, running or interacting with the environment is hauntingly realistic. The game is littered with neat graphical and animated touches, even Sam’s head moves with the camera adjustments. All of Sam’s equipment, including his night vision goggles, guns and belt pouches are also accurately animated adding to the game’s sense of realism.
Another plus point is that the game supports Shader Model 3 thus, supporting HDR (High Dynamic Range) lighting. Enabling this in the graphics settings, immediately gives more depth to the texture and lighting making the game even more visually appealing. The only downside is that you’ll have to deal with some amount aliasing because anti-aliasing is not supported with HDR because of certain hardware limitations of the current generation graphics cards.
Sound:
Yet another important aspect of the game that has been done in an exceptional manner. The environmental effects are incredibly detailed. Everything from the splattering of rain drops, the hum of generators and electrical equipment to the radio messages are incredibly detailed. All these effects in addition to creating the entire atmosphere are essential to the gameplay because of the newly introduced sound meter with Sam’s presence remaining unnoticed as long as the noise he makes remains below the indicated slider level.
Voice acting is brilliantly done with Michael Ironside reprising his role as Sam Fisher and Dennis Haysbert coming back as Sam’s division head Col. Irving Lambert. All the other actors from the previous games reprise their roles and deliver top notch performance. Some of the dialogues offer comedic relief as well. The soundtrack is an original score by Amon Tobin and it perfectly compliments the setting of the game. It also serves as a cue, becoming fast paced when the enemies become alerted to Sam’s presence and resumes a normal course when the cause for alarm dies down. The loud gunfire also adds to the entire experience.
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is the third installment in the universally acclaimed Splinter Cell stealth-action games based on Tom Clancy’s best-selling novels. The third iteration once again sees you in the boots of NSA Special Agent Sam Fisher, traversing the global hot spots in hopes of averting one disaster after another. However, this time round, there is more emphasis on action than on stealth but, that’s not a bad thing. First thing I have to complain about is the use of StarForce protection. More and more developers and big name games are starting to use this aggressive form of protection. The thing is, the protection remains behind on your computer even after you uninstall the game. Well, that’s just me and I don’t like StarForce.
Gameplay:
There are three distinct types of gameplay elements in Chaos Theory. This time, the levels are much larger and much better designed than the previous iterations. In the previous games, the gameplay was ‘restrained’ putting more emphasis on stealth than outright confrontation. In Chaos Theory, the guys at Ubisoft have done away with the ‘restraining’ elements and instead, have opted to give the players control of the way they’d like to play the game. The level design, this time round, is incredible and each level contains multiple ways of accomplishing your primary and secondary objectives. This adds a good amount of replay value as you try to figure out different paths each time you go through a particular section of the game. Another new feature is the addition of secondary objectives. These objectives, while not necessary for completing the mission, add more depth to the storyline and also help in bolstering the ratings that are displayed at the end of a mission. A lot of environment specific kills have also made their way into the game. A few examples being, if Sam is hanging over an enemy, he has the option of grabbing the enemy from above and either knocking him out, for the conservative type or snapping his neck, giving a more aggressive approach and pulling an enemy off a ledge while hanging and watching him tumble helplessly to the ground below.
Even the opening of doors have another option added to make things interesting, open door, open door stealth, bash door, and optic cable. Stealth allows the player to manually push the door ajar being careful of not disturbing whoever’s inside. Bashing allows Sam to knock down the door knocking anyone who’s on the other side. Most of the game still consists of taking a non-lethal approach to neutralizing most of the targets except for the identified enemy forces. All of Sam’s moves are still in so, you can still do the splits in tight locations and land on unsuspecting foes from above to knock them out. The lock picking is the same as before with directional buttons coinciding with the movement of the pick. A new mini game has been added which basically allows more information about secondary objectives by hacking into secured computers.
The HUD is pretty much the same as in the previous games. A bar on the top right of the screen displays Sam’s health while a display cluster at the bottom right relays Sam’s visibility, the noise being made (with a level indicator which that displays the ambient noise in a particular environment) and the recharge bar for the EEV disrupter on Sam’s pistol.
Weaponry also consists of a few new and appropriate additions. The most interesting being the knife. With it, Sam can either slash an enemy’s throat or jab them in the gut. The knife can also be used during interrogations and also for some environment specific actions. As far as guns go, the SC-20K this time comes with a shotgun and a sniper attachment along with sticky cam, sticky shocker and airfoil rounds. The sticky cam works just like it did in Pandora Tomorrow in the sense that it has the ability to distract and neutralize targets and it can also be used for surveillance.
One thing that may come as a shock is that the ability to shoot while pressed against a wall has been removed instead of it an option to switch the over the shoulder view from right to left has been added, which is understandable because the emphasis is on action. Even the SC pistol comes with an alternate fire mode that interferes with electrical circuits and disables lights and cameras and other electronic equipment for short periods of time. This secondary device also allows the hacking of key-coded locked doors. Sam’s arsenal also consists of three variations of grenades, gas, smoke and frag. The vision modes make a comeback with a couple of new additions, the first being a two level zoom/laser mic combo and the second being the EEV (Electronically Enhanced Vision) mode, and you can use this mode to scan computers for useful information without actually being in contact with the machine.
The OPSAT screen also includes a rather rudimentary map. It is not the most useful of maps and usually ends up confusing the player rather than helping out.
The camera is pretty good, it defaults to a third person view and moves into an over the shoulder perspective when a gun is drawn. Throughout the game it never got stuck in a corner and presented the best possible viewpoint for every situation. The default PC controls are the same as before, Sam’s walk/run is handled by the forward/backward movement of the mouse wheel. Rest of the setup is the same as it is for most third person games.
In its entirety, the game has ditched the trial and error approach of the previous two games in the series. All this allows the players to improvise their approach to various situations. This is, perhaps the most significant improvement to the game.
AI:
Pandora Tomorrow, the previous game, contained incremental alert stages, in which the enemies would constantly equip themselves with better gear as alarm levels increased. This coupled with a very sensitive AI restricted the gamer to a stealthy approach. This feature is no longer present in the game, adding to the multiple approach scenarios.
The AI system has been completely revamped from Pandora Tomorrow’s “make slightest mistake + trip off alarms = enemies firing their weapons madly†to a more robust multi-leveled system that increases the chances of stealthy players while hidden but decreases the chance of survival when their cover’s blown. Making noises will still alert the guards but, it won’t set off any alarms.
The enemies will notice switched/blown lights, open doors and will go through a search routine while searching an area, switching on light sources including flares and flashlights and then investigate the source of the disturbance. If the player remains silent and hidden then the enemies can be expected to return to their patrols and won’t follow Sam around randomly, like they used to in Pandora Tomorrow. They even investigate the disappearence of their comrades. In case you’re out in the open, you’ll have only a few seconds to take cover or eliminate all threat as close range weapon fire will kill Sam in a few seconds. Enemies even work together by seeking out better vantage points, diving to avoid fire and flanking their targets.
However, in some cases the AI still resorted to the aforementioned blindfire tactic, shooting continuously at the source of a gunshot that took out a light. The AI is nothing groundbreaking or revolutionary but, it gets the job done very nicely.
Graphics:
Without a doubt, Chaos Theory is one of the best looking games around at the moment. Every visual aspect of the game reeks of finely crafted detail. Lighting is the most important aspect of the Splinter Cell series and it has never looked better. The shadows and reflections are spot on and the lightmaps designed for the game are incredibly detailed, even candles flicker as they would in the real world. Couple that with some exquisitely designed, ultra realistic textures make this game a visual treat.
Animation is simply superb, in fact, this game sports perhaps one of the best skeletal animation to date. Every move Sam makes, be it walking, running or interacting with the environment is hauntingly realistic. The game is littered with neat graphical and animated touches, even Sam’s head moves with the camera adjustments. All of Sam’s equipment, including his night vision goggles, guns and belt pouches are also accurately animated adding to the game’s sense of realism.
Another plus point is that the game supports Shader Model 3 thus, supporting HDR (High Dynamic Range) lighting. Enabling this in the graphics settings, immediately gives more depth to the texture and lighting making the game even more visually appealing. The only downside is that you’ll have to deal with some amount aliasing because anti-aliasing is not supported with HDR because of certain hardware limitations of the current generation graphics cards.
Sound:
Yet another important aspect of the game that has been done in an exceptional manner. The environmental effects are incredibly detailed. Everything from the splattering of rain drops, the hum of generators and electrical equipment to the radio messages are incredibly detailed. All these effects in addition to creating the entire atmosphere are essential to the gameplay because of the newly introduced sound meter with Sam’s presence remaining unnoticed as long as the noise he makes remains below the indicated slider level.
Voice acting is brilliantly done with Michael Ironside reprising his role as Sam Fisher and Dennis Haysbert coming back as Sam’s division head Col. Irving Lambert. All the other actors from the previous games reprise their roles and deliver top notch performance. Some of the dialogues offer comedic relief as well. The soundtrack is an original score by Amon Tobin and it perfectly compliments the setting of the game. It also serves as a cue, becoming fast paced when the enemies become alerted to Sam’s presence and resumes a normal course when the cause for alarm dies down. The loud gunfire also adds to the entire experience.
