Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell on Xbox (2002)

Brief synopsis of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

Anyone who has escaped the barrage of hype surrounding this title for the last couple of months must have been living in a wheelbarrow at the bottom of somebody's garden or something. This latest stealth-em-up from Ubi Soft has been the recipient of quite a ferocious marketing campaign and the developers are obviously confident that it can live up to the hype. Likened on more than one occasion to Metal Gear 2, Splinter Cell brings a whole host of infiltration, neutralisation and sneaking around to the Xbox.

Taking control of one Sam Fisher - the best field-operative of the secretive 'Black-Ops' NSA sub-agency Third Echelon - players are sent to execute desperate missions as the government's last resort. Missions such as infiltrating CIA headquarters, seizing critical intelligence and destroying threatening data and equipment are pretty much run-of-the-mill to this guy, so players really have their work cut out. The main objectives are to remain undetected, neutralise every enemy, and exit without a trace.

The emphasis is most definitely on the stealth side of things here, with the main character having access to a massive array of nimble moves and abilities. Diving somersaults, hanging from ledges, peeking around corners, and even shinnying up drainpipes are all required if one is to remain undetected.

The environments throughout Splinter Cell are all highly interactive, with players able to make use of any objects lying around, shoot out any lights, and take advantage of shadows.

With the inclusion of a great heap of graphical jiggery-pokery, the game also looks the part. Dynamic lighting and shadowing, Vertex shaders, volumetric lighting and texture rendering all add up, bringing the environments to life and making Splinter Cell one of the best looking titles we've seen on Microsoft's fledgling machine.

A definite must have title for the Xbox.