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08-28-2004, 07:52 AM
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#1 (permalink) |
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Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4
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Splinter Cell stealth game like no other (Review)
Usually games such as Splinter Cell are Ugh...Not interesting, same old stealth games modeled after James Bond and other predecessors of the like. But Splinter Cell isn't the usual ugh games. It's the story of an ex marine and field agent working for the NSA named Sam Fisher who has been assigned to handle America's foreign affairs. It has finally beaten James Bond and Metal Gear Solid in greatness not seen since Pac Man became famous. It's not just the usual shoot em up game it has depth; it has soul and digs deep into enemy territory and events of this world.
Unlike most Tom Clancy games such as the Rainbow Six series or other steal action games for that matter Splinter Cell's plot is very realistic. So realistic that you have reference made of 9/11, warfare around the world and American Foreign Policy. The game mostly focuses on the Caucasus, but Sam doesn't go to places such as Chechnya or Armenia. His missions are based in the country of Georgia with little reference made to the trouble between Georgia and its separatist regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia (in the beginning of the game.) Towards the end of the game, Sam does drop into Myanmar and the CIA. Also in the game, probably for the first time, you get a well detailed look into the enemy side of the conflict between the United States and Georgia to find the Georgian president Kombayn Nikoladze . Unlike previous games that labeled most of the enemies always on a gun raging rampage against the Hollywood modeled hero, you get to see a more detailed look of the enemy and those who are caught in the middle of the conflict. In previous games it was never possible to hear enemies talk unless they shoot at you first or hear any conversation as well scripted. Fisher hears conversations between Georgian cops, encryptors, CIA agents, and mercenaries. Their voices don't turn harsh unless they sense danger or hear an alert. Than there are a small snips of the concerned family man talking on the cell phone in the CIA level with gentle but stern voices for a few minutes. The conversations between police, military and hardcore rebels aren't cartoonish or comic book-like as in previous games. The dialogues are well placed intense, juicy and one to stick around to listen on. But what's amazing is how the game squeezes in civilians who are just as stress and frighten as the enemies themselves. And there are also scenes where civilians are killed and Fisher must talk to them to get information. Sam does run into dead people either massacred or killed by bullets and injured workers who he usually helps to the infirmary or become unglued from behind a barricade of wall/landmines. The game also shows the wickedness of man and how deadly war is. If Sam accidentally steps on a landmine in one of the last levels of the game he looses all his health and on the verge of dying. While walking through certain levels Sam passes by many dead people left on the ground from a previous shooting or execution by military officers or police officers. Looking closely at the faces of the dead many of them are young mostly in their twenties or thirties. Certain people Sam runs into are jittery and seeing him sneaking around through a window gets them on the edge. There is a level towards the end of the game that has Sam running back and forth to protect captured Chinese diplomats and three very young American soldiers being held at a slaughter house in Myanmar. Just the scene and passing through the slaughterhouse with blood from cows strewned on the walls and dead cows lying on the floor different rooms is enough to give you the chills. But what's great about the game is that it doesn't look at America's foreign affairs in a hollywood styled way with a patriotic theme of fighting for Democracy and label everyone on the other side as a bad guy. It's well scripted and features dialouges and people in ways other games of the past couldn't. For those interested in getting a game that's out of the ordinary or one that goes over the top Splinter Cell is recommended 100%. |
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