Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow review

Pandora Tomorrow is the follow-up to a game that took the stealth aspects of Metal Gear Solid and ran with them. Splinter Cell was a smash hit across all platforms, giving gamers everywhere a chance to try they their hand at being a stealthy secret agent. Pandora Tomorrow promises more of the same winning formula, whilst trying to innovate in the formula, to prevent it becoming stagnant. With new weapons and a multiplayer mode Pandora Tomorrow will be hoping to keep its old fans and attract new ones.

Slow Start

The single player game opens on a mission that allows no lethal force. This allows you to get to grips with the stealth controls as it involves the use of all of the available moves in the game. There isn’t a great deal of variety in the moves available and what there is represents the basics. Crouching, splits jumps to get higher, climbing pipes and the wall hug makes up the complement. Of course this isn’t about lots of flashy moves. Splinter Cell relies on use of shadow, slow movement and thermal and night vision goggles to help you remain unnoticed. The opening missions really help to reinforce this concept as the slightest mistake will render you visible and end the mission. This is instantly frustrating as parts of the mission become trial and error with the correct technique being eventually discovered. As the mission progresses you become better able to determine how to use the techniques at your disposal and things become easier. This gives Pandora Tomorrow a fair learning curve – it’s not immediate to get into but it rewards your efforts.

Story Telling

As you would expect, the single player story is primarily progressed through via between mission cut scenes. The in mission progress comes from discussions with key characters as well as from your supporting team back at mission control. The story revolves around a CIA employee who may or may not have defected. This leads you through eight missions, taking in an attack on an embassy, hanging onto a train in Paris through to chasing a biological weapon through the final mission in L.A. Of course, the back story just provides a reason for all the sneaking about and so not a great deal of time seems to have been spent on getting the voice acting right or providing a convincing plot or script. None of that really matters though, when you get into the level and become absorbed with just getting past that guard and one step closer to the objective.

Hiding Out

Remaining hidden in Splinter Cell is a difficult prospect. It generally involves moving very slowly around the level, confined to the shadow, although a couple of occasions have you trying to stay in the light to avoid guards with night vision goggles. Not only can movement give you away but sound can too. Sam Fisher has the ability to whistle and draw enemies towards him. This can be useful to draw a guard away from a group where you can dispatch him separately and then make your way through the rest of the group. The lighting and sound effects definitely help to immerse you into the game. A meter shows how visible you are in the game but even without it there could be no argument about whether you are hidden thanks to the excellent and accurate sonic and graphical presentation of Pandora Tomorrow. The enemy AI is also reasonably realistic. An enemy won’t usually spot you if stood directly next to you unless they look straight at you. They will notice you immediately when you make a sound or a movement within their line of sight or hearing though.

Plays nicely with others

Pandora Tomorrow adds a multiplayer option to the game across either Live or a system link set-up. This limits the game to four players with two on either side of spies or mercenaries. The spies will be familiar from the single player game as clones of Sam Fisher. This team views the game world from the third person, as in the main game, and are restricted to non-lethal weapons except for the neck break. These include flash-bangs and sticky cameras. The mercenary team view the world from the first person and carry lethal weapons. They have motion sensitive and electromagnetic vision. The teams are well balanced and the maps are not too big for four people. There is plenty of opportunity in the multiplayer game for stealthy action against real people and as neither team really has a built in advantage its still accessible for a novice.

Steady Progress

Pandora Tomorrow doesn’t mark a substantial evolution of the stealth genre but it does progress from the first game. Using a graduated identification system (i.e. if you’re spotted then in many missions you get three stages which reset themselves before the mission is over) makes the game less frustrating, although several missions do use the one strike system. The addition of moves like the SWAT roll (with your back to the wall the A button will spin you across a door or a corner to allow you to remain unnoticed) do progress the abilities of Fisher in this game although there isn’t a great deal of new content. The graphics are reminiscent of the original game and in fact the character models are the same. They still work well and haven’t dated significantly and when coupled with the lighting system and scenery present a good graphical update. The new multiplayer options definitely add longevity, especially with the promise of downloadable content. Pandora Tomorrow is a good game and if it wasn’t for the original Splinter Cell title would definitely be worthy of higher praise. As it is, it should definitely appease fans of the original and is sufficiently improved over the original that those who decided against the original should definitely reconsider.