by:	April 02, 2005

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is definitely a refreshing, innovative, and mind-expanding title that the Xbox has been in need of for quite awhile. I will admit—I am not a big fan of the first Splinter Cell and I thought it was overrated. The second one, while I liked I never really had the time to sit down and truly enjoy it. The third one, with it’s solid Solo missions, exhilarating Co-Op mode, and it’s heart pounding multiplayer modes leaves you completely satisfied.

Chaos Theory has three modes, Solo, Co-Op, and Multiplayer, each of which is fantastic in their own respective ways. What you must first understand about the gameplay of Chaos Theory is that it is for the most part stealth oriented to the fullest. You will creep around in the shadows as protagonist Sam Fisher in Solo Mode completing each of your objectives to the best of your ability. The menus during gameplay show your health meter, a sound meter, and a visual meter. If you make to much sound and your sound reads higher then the set decimal, then you may end up getting detected if near an enemy. Same goes for the visual meter, as if you go out of the shadows and into light, your light meter progresses up. If it’s just a little out of the dark and an enemy is around he may become suspicious. If your meter is totally in the light and an enemy is looking in your direction you definitely will be in for some trouble. You also have many visions thanks to your special goggles. Simply by clicking in the appropriate direction on the directional pad you can have heat vision, normal vision, night vision, or a vision were you can see electronic signatures.

In Solo Mode, you play as spy for the Third Echelon, Sam Fisher, a seasoned badass who is ready and willing to do anything for his country. Of course, while doing some spy missions you will discover a plot of many, and will have to stop World War III from happening by going in such locales as New York City, Japan, and North Korea. Along the way you will come across many great moments. There are times when you can throw your enemies off balconies, do the splits in the hallway, and drop in on a guard knocking him out, hanging off a ledge to then pull a guard off when he walks by the rail, and many other cool little tricks. My personal favorite, which is probably actually the most useless in the game, is the trick when you hang off a pipe, and bend down to break a neck upside down when a enemy walks by. While it is very cool, there is little opportunity to use the trick in any of the modes in the game. Another great moment in the game is when you have the ability to cut material, in this case a tent. I cut the tent in gameplay, walked behind the man in the tent, stabbed him in the back, walked outside the back, and followed his friend into the tent startled at his lifeless body, only to become lifeless himself. Moments like this are golden, and come by the dozens in Chaos Theory. You also of course come equipped with lots of nifty gadgets that you choose before the start of each level. You can have stealth gear which, will give you a certain set of weapons and gadgets so that you can take your time and use more gadgets to figure out the way past guards and cameras. You can also oust for a more full-force approach using Mercenary equipment with more bullets and more explosive results. Either equipment set you select, stealth is still key.

I have especially realized that patience is the total key for this game. While the Solo Mode is short, it is also very engrossing and studying the guards, levels, etc allows for so many different ways of completing objectives and going past enemies. One could technically go through an entire level without killing one person. You could also oust for a more sinister way of going through it and kill every single guard you come by, simply by running up on them and killing them with a quick knife swipe. The AI in the game is good, but you still feel like it is a bit dumb at sometimes. When you do cause more of a stir and kill guards it will set off alarms. As a result guards will start packing more heat and armory. Still, I think the way the developers judged how undetectable some areas are was a bit goofy. If I am in a room with a few computers and the lights are turned off, I am definitely going to see a guy crouched in the darker corner two feet in front of me hoping I don’t see him. Besides that, the levels in the Solo Mode are very well designed, vary in locale, obstacles, and overall is a great experience prepping you for the multiplayer modes.