The Top Shelf: The Second Round 022: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
by mento
Welcome to The Top Shelf, a weekly feature wherein I sort through my extensive PS2 collection for the diamonds in the rough. My goal here is to narrow down a library of 185 games to a svelte 44: the number of spaces on my bookshelf set aside for my PS2 collection. That means a whole lot of vetting and a whole lot of science that needs to be done - and here in the second round, that means narrow...
Welcome to The Top Shelf, a weekly feature wherein I sort through my extensive PS2 collection for the diamonds in the rough. My goal here is to narrow down a library of 185 games to a svelte 44: the number of spaces on my bookshelf set aside for my PS2 collection. That means a whole lot of vetting and a whole lot of science that needs to be done - and here in the second round, that means narrowing our laser focus to one game per week (at least). Be sure to check out the Case File Repository for more details and a full list of games/links!
Extra Note: We've entered Shelftember! In this much-vaunted month, we will be processing one of the second round entries every day. I'll be spending one hour apiece with each game - inspired by DanielKempster's backlog-clearing series "An Hour With..." - and determining its fate from there.
High on my list of games I'm rarely ever going to want to play is anything prefaced with "Tom Clancy's". That's not to say I have anything against the sadly departed Mr. Clancy, simply that there's a certain set of expectations for the many Ubisoft games that use his brand: dry, serious, extremely specific stories about espionage and hyper-competent strategic gunplay with regards to a contemporary or near future military or intelligence agency and the type of enemies they face both foreign and domestic. The only reason I was able to tolerate the stealth and careful infiltration aspects of the Metal Gear Solid series was because of the sheer lunacy surrounding it: it wasn't until MGSV that the scales started tipping towards "I'm here for the gameplay, the story is secondary" rather than the inverse.
That isn't to say Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a bad game, or even that it's aged particularly poorly since its release for PlayStation 2 almost 15 years ago, some few months after its original Xbox launch. As grizzled superspy Sam Fisher, you're given all the tools you need to stealth your way across settlements and secret bases to complete a number of objectives without anyone ever knowing you were there. As might be reasonably expected, the stealth gameplay is a lot more dated than it is in something like the 2016 Hitman game (the last game of this type that I'd played), which was replete with vision cones and other indications of how close you were to getting spotted. While Splinter Cell's not quite as forthcoming or player-friendly with its feedback, it does feature a lot of tactical considerations I haven't seen used elsewhere too often, such as a split jump for hiding high up in narrow rooms, climbing up, over and down drainpipes and gutters and other fixtures, using an optic cable to peek around closed doors and vent covers, and an ever-present visibility gauge that, while it doesn't accurately report how well any nearby enemies can see you, is a fair indicator of how conspicuous you are.
In the hour I spent with the game I managed to complete basic training (for all its mechanics, the game's very accessible and intuitive) and three parts of the first mission, in which Sam had to traverse Tbilisi, Georgia to find a contact that had information on a couple of NSA operatives that get caught on a mission during the game's introductory movie. After this contact is found in a burning building, Sam then has to check out the apartment of one of the agents for a black box recording while eluding a couple of thugs robbing the place for a third party who no doubt becomes important later, and then has to infiltrate the local police station via the clues left behind in the contact's dead drop in the middle of a city square. It's classic espionage business, complete with a CO issuing commands over the radio and the hero's growly deadpan responses, but it was enough time to realize that I had no intention to keep playing the game.
A large part of that reason is outlined above with the Metal Gear Solid comparison, where I really need something to hook me in beyond standard terrorism conspiracy pabulum. There's also the fact that while Splinter Cell was evidently an impressive and innovative game for its era, the genre it belongs to has come a long way since then in large part due to the advances it and its sequels had made. It'd be a great game to play for historical reasons if I was interested in the stealth genre - if a little inexplicable that I hadn't gotten around to it already - but these types of games rarely do it for me in the best of circumstances. Still, I'm thankful for the opportunity to see what the first game in this trendsetter series was like with my own three green eye glowing visor... thing. Figuratively speaking.
Result: Eliminated.