Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

12 Nov 2002

PC (Microsoft Windows) PlayStation 2 Xbox Mac
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8.5 rating
532 want
1802 played
84 playing
43 reviews
Developer
Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher
Ubisoft Entertainment

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Time to beat

Main story icon

Main story

10h 29m
Main story and extras icon

Main story + extras

-
100% completion icon

100% completion

15h 1m
Based on 5 answers
Summary

Infiltrate terrorists' positions, acquire critical intelligence by any means necessary, execute with extreme prejudice, and exit without a trace! You are Sam Fisher, a highly trained secret operative of the NSA's secret arm: Third Echelon. The world balance is in your hands, as cyber terrorism and international tensions are about to explode into WWIII.

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Splinter Cell is a stealth action-adventure title that provides a compelling and, at times, difficult stealth gameplay experience but does lack some substance in other departments. (Note that this is a review of a GameCube version of the game, which lacks some content)

Visually, it's overall solid for a title of it's time, nothing impressive and a far cry from what Metal Gear Solid 2 could provide a year prior, but in exchange, it has a distinct style to it that gives the series its own identity. Can't critique it all that much since I haven't played the best versions, which are the PC and XBOX ones, but the GameCube one.

Narrative-wise, Splinter Cell is just a standard spy thriller with stakes that are a little too high for a first entry, but knowing the series, it's pretty standard for it. The highlight, of course, is Sam Fisher as a character, a veteran in his line of work to the point he is level-headed and sarcastic in situations some would find highly stressful. It's always entertaining hearing him talk back at his superior and at enemies he is interrogating. Wish Sam would be more talkative and had more interrogation opportunities though, Michael Ironside provides a killer performance, and the story is at its best when he gets time to shine. Besides that, the main villain is barely characterized besides being a dictator, side characters besides Lambert are underdeveloped, and that one dramatic scene that just happens out of the blue doesn't carry as much weight as it was hoped.

Gameplay is Splinter Cell at its best, although it still stumbles at some aspects. The basics: movement, parkour elements, hiding yourself and enemy bodies in shadows, gadgets, and their variety provide a good stealth gameplay loop. What I didn't enjoy is how linear levels are; I didn't expect a lot, just for the most part, there is just one path to follow with some small side paths that allow you to go through unnoticed. Also, the game is surprisingly hard; enemies spot you easily and are often hard to fool. The environment often has some objects you can throw to distract enemies, but more often than not, after I throw something across the room, the enemy looks straight at me like I offended his entire bloodline, as well as it's annoying how an entire area at times knows where you are once you knock out an enemy a little too hard. Besides that, the game has good replayability if you want to test your skill and go through levels without being noticed, killing anyone, or raising alarms, but it would be mostly personal challenges since the game doesn't score your achievements.

A separate honorable mention would go to the soundtrack; going through a dark area and suddenly hearing a relaxing opera track is unmatched vibes.

To sum up, Splinter Cell is a solid stealth action-adventure title that delivers good groundwork for the series to use, but by itself it's a little bit underwhelming due to lackluster narrative; it definitely needs a remake, but honestly it's hard for me to imagine how a potential remake would look without it being a complete reimagining. In other words, it's a must-play if you are a fan of the series, mostly for the sake of seeing where it all starts; as a newcomer, though, you can jump straight to another entry without missing out on much.
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07 Apr 2025
Actually really enjoyed the experience, the game is old and you can see it because there is only one way to beat some levels but overall really cool game
28 Nov 2023
When i first played mw2’s campaign as a kid,it was my introduction to stealth,and to this day the idea of stealth has me holding for that last ray of hope,but of course they never deliver,its always just a lazy attempt.
Call of duty or any other game with it always has that lazy approach of crouching behind someone and pressing O or using a silencer,but those approaches havent been enhanced for over 20 years,so to me it was just one of those half baked stuff developers threw into the game to market the consumer with “different combat approaches”but never cared about.
My dream was a farse.
But after years of looking through so much dirt ive found a diamond in the rough,ofc this game is the stealth motherload but i always glanced past it thinking it was just another fake stealth game,but its my dream come to life,more or less:/
The level designs are smooth,no backtracking, and the whole atmosphere is really pulling,often stealth sections are scripted with people in certain positions for you to snipe or sth out of your control,but here you really are out for yourself and thats probably not easy to do but the devs nailed it!
ofc the game is rough,every wall you graze by makes you lean on it,the guns are a gamble system,you either kill it enemy in one or five headshots,which for obvious reasons is not great in a stealth game,the story a tedium like no other and i also felt like the game had no more juice to squeeze around the halfway mark.
All of these small nitpicks kinda made the game a drag for me so im hoping the next ones are better!
But it is developed by ubisoft.
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20 Apr 2025
Aside from the mandatory combat sections that the game forces you into , this is a great first outing for the series. The CIA mission was a highlight. Not the biggest fan of the guard dogs however.
11 Dec 2023
classic good stealth game
03 Jun 2021
loved it! first stealth game
15 Mar 2021
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