Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow

If you are thinking this is going to be the same as the original, you're wrong. Sure, you're still Sam Fisher, an expert spy who can infiltrate a factory without anyone know he's there. But there is one really big change. You're outdoors. Yep, you heard me. And boy do they make it look good. The environments are lush and beautiful. The bushes sway in the wind as you move past them. You still have to deal with industrial settings though. But even they can't match the beauty of the outdoors. Okay, enough of that. Lets go to gameplay. The AI is 100x approved over the original. Now enemies can grab a civilian and hold them hostage. Also, if they detect you, they don't have to run over to the alarm. Just one push of a button on their uniform, and that little baby will start sounding. And if you sound one alarm, every enemy will have a bullet proof vest on. Two alarms a helmet. Three alarms, I don't know, but it's not good. Which leads me to another thing. The game is hard. Really hard. It's impossible to beat a level on the first try. Even experts of the original will have a hard time getting through this. But even though it's hard, it's really short. There's only eight levels(the original had ten). But one thing will get you busy after you're done... The multiplayer. Here's how it is. A team of mercenaries try to get the spy. That's it. But it's fun trying to hunt down an almost invisible person. And it's fun killing unsuspecting mercenaries while you're almost invisible. So let me sum it up. The graphics are incredible, the AI is seamless, and the multiplayer is fun. Pandora Tomorrow gets a 5 out of 5.

Originally, I didn't like the original Splinter Cell, but it kinda grew on me, and it's now one of my favourite games. However, this second instalment fails to live up to the standards set by it's predecessor, despite adding some shiny new features.

When Ubisoft made the original, I don't think they thought it would turn out to be the acclaimed hit that it was, so they farmed out programming duties to a third party software house in China. However, once they realised there was money to made, they took this sequel in-house, and the entire programming effort was done at it's French HQ. And what a great job they did of botching up the efforts of the original Chinese team.

Fisher (again excellently voiced by Hollywood uber baddie Michael Ironside, and ably assisted by Mr Velvet Tonsils; Dennis Haysbert from "24") now has new moves and gadgets to his repertoire, such as:-

A red laser dot for his pistol The ability to whistle and attract guards The "Swat turn" (whilst peeking around a corner) The "half split jump" (replaces the multi-jump of the original to reach high places)

The game also features:- Online Multiplayer (apparently it IS excellent, if you have online capability)

And it must be said, the graphics are the best ever seen on the PS2, absolutely beautiful use of light, water effects, and that foliage ! Wow !

However, the main problem with the game is that it was originally designed to run solely on the more powerful Xbox, and so has had to be "dumbed down" for Sony's red-headed stepchild. Whereas the Xbox could cope with 4 or more NPC's in a room, the PS2 has to make do with two. Whereas on the Xbox, ALL light sources were breakable, on the PS2 they are not. So at many points in the game you are in these huge, yet empty environments with minimal opposition. It's not really bad programming, it's just that this game was designed for Xbox, and it shows.

Sounds easy huh ? However, take away the breakable light sources and it becomes stupidly hard sometimes. Coupled with moronic AI – Sam's Whistle feature; you stand one side of an open doorway and whistle at the NPC standing feet away on the other side – he doesn't hear it ! Stand just inside the doorway, whistle, and he does !! Grrrrrr !!

Where Mr Frenchy has messed up, is by tinkering with elements of the game that were not broken. The Meditkits from the original have been replaced by strategically placed wall mounted "Health Dispensers". These have an accompanying and tiresome animation when you use them, which is extremely annoying in an NPC walks around the corner and shoots you whilst the animation is playing.

Also the randomness of the left analogue stick for the lockpick has been modified so that the "sweet spot" is in the same place each time ! And don't mention the savepoints !! They are SO frequent ! And SO annoying !! The original just had checkpoints, but this time you are invited to save the game at a checkpoint, which results in 4 to 5 confirmation boxes coming up, and then the checkpoint notification STILL comes up and freezes gameplay for 5 seconds ! The game save is only a tiny 91k, but it seems to take much longer.

Also some familiar controller keys have been changed, reload is now longer L2, it is X (the manual doesn't state this !), Triangle now does things that circle used to do and vice versa. Sam doesn't slide down ladders on a circle press, and you have to suffer the tedium of climbing down them.

However, on a positive note, Sam CAN now open doors whilst carrying a body. Hooray !

What about the "story". Hmmmm, Pandora Tomorrow abandons the building interiors of the original, firstly for the jungle, as you track down Sadono the Indonesian rebel with a taste for releasing the smallpox virus. And also you get to travel to Jerusalem and Paris – the mission on TOP of a 200mph Eurostar train will make your fingers sweat ! Especially when Sam has to crawl under the train, and along the side of the carriages !

However, not being given enough info in your briefings often poses a problem, resulting in mission failures and restarts as you attack someone you apparently weren't supposed to. Quite often the game seems to abandon the premise of stealth altogether, forcing you into fire fights with the enemy. As your gun's aiming reticule moves at the pace of Iranian foreign policy you are often only an asthmatic's breath away from a body bag.

If you don't own a Splinter Cell game, then buy the original, at least that one was designed for the PS2, or wait for the third instalment which is due out anytime soon – surely it must be better than this one ?

I gotta say, out of all four Splinter Cell games: Pandora Tomorrow is my favorite. Splinter cell had the intro and the opening to introduce Fisher and his life as a covert opp., but lacked the grittiness and charisma of a Tom Clancy idea. Chaos Theory was for the hype, it had cool weapons, cool submission moves and environment interactions though. Double agent was just reaching too far. It's a next gen game, but it just failed to deliver on the character development of it's hype. But Pandora tomorrow: as true to Clancy as one of his novels. Gritty, suspenseful, and challenging. I liked the need for patience and timing in the game, and it had more levels with cinematic flare then the rest. The T.V. station level with the rain? Classic. The player has to change vision modes to avoid flash blindness by the lighting and time it to take out the guards around him. If there is ever a movie of Splinter cell, that level has to be a adapted for it.

Part 2 of Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. This game makes you think and gives you a lot of options. This game is base on stealth and thinking before you make your move. Nothing has changed in this game and that's good because I like to take my time. Timing is the key in playing this game because one false move and it's mission over.

The levels has increased to 32 and each level has a certain feel to it. The storyline has changed also. This time your fighting a terrorist group called the Indonesian Guerrilla and the person in charge is Suhadi Sadono. The object of the game is to stop him at all cost if you want to survive.

What's in the game?

The game has a very good basic move system that allows you to move freely without being detected. But the only way you can do this is by playing the first game and practice to get the right feel because the controls are almost the same, but with more realism. Of course we know the basic moves like: climbing, manting, and zip line. The Advanced moves are important and very special to the game because with these moves, the terrorist group don't know what hit them. Just to name a few like: Drop Attack, when you can zip line and land on top of the person without setting the alarm, Rappelling while shooting, Hanging while shooting, and my favorite is Split Jump Shooting. Grabbing the person has been 50-50, to say the lease. This is why this game makes you think because you got to make the right decisions and if you make the right decision, good things will happen like: when you grab the person, you can do four things. 1. Knock him out, silently, 2. interrogating the person, 3. Forced cooperation on the person, and 4. uses him as a human shield. You will still take damage, but not as much. It has a new feature for the SC-20K (weapon). This weapon has a feature called a Multipurpose Lanucher were you can choose between 7 sub-weapons or gadgets. They are: Ring Airfoil Projectile, Sticky Camera, Sticky Shocker, Distraction Camera, Gas Grenade, Flashbang, and Chaff Grenade.

There's more in the game but I'm going to explain one weakness to the game and that's when you uses the SC-20K while using your binoculars to get a much better shot on the enemy, you get a sense of being mistreated. Let me explain.

If you go to any level in the game and you walk slowly to the next room, you spot a terrorist staring towards the front. In other words, the terrorist is looking right at you, but your not spotted yet. Here's the sad part. When you draw your SC-20K and your binoculars, the camera shakes and your accuracy decreases. If you try to shoot the terrorist, you'll miss every time and the mission will be over or you set off the first alert.

This is my review on this game and out of 0 to 10, My rating on this game is a 9 because it's a game that will keep you busy until Metal Gear 3 comes out and even if it has one weakness, it's still a great game.

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me.

Undertaker55 was spoken. Good Day.

2 years after Sam Fisher became the undercover hero of defeating the Georgian Terrorist threat.

This time he's dealing with Indonesian Gureilla Terrorists. Who are planning to attack the USA with a virus under the code name: Pandora Tomorrow.

Sam Fisher is once again on new undercover missions to prevent losses of innocent civilians.

He must go from Indonesia to France and L.A.X. to confront and stop the enemy at all costs.

The game has the similar features from the first one, only newly improved here and there. Same weapons including some new ones for greater advantages. The game play is different, but you get use to it real quick as you play the game. The graphics are great as ever. And the voice acting is as super as it was in the first game. Contains the usual strategy/stealth action.

Those who liked the first one will like this sequel.