Splinter Cell HD Review

Game: Splinter Cell HD

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Publisher: Ubisoft

Available on: PlayStation Network Only

When it comes to the recent slew of HD video game remakes it was only a matter of time before they get around to what could be seen as the pivotal series of stealth video games; Splinter Cell.

If there’s one person in all of video games that could have done with a HD remake it’s Sam Fisher, the first time the game was released it was an Xbox exclusive and, unfortunately, not a lot of people bet on the original Xbox to be successful. As such, Splinter Cell was an amazing game that went mostly unplayed by the vast majority of people. That changes now.

Are the Splinter Cell games worthy of HD remakes? Did they even need them? Have they been done justice? Only one way to find out, you know what to do, read on.

STORY: The story follows you as Sam Fisher, an ex-NSA operative, who has been drafted back after years in retirement to spearhead a brand new initiative; The Third Echelon. Within the confines of the Third Echelon Sam Fisher is the only man on earth able to invoke the fifth freedom, the ability to protect all other freedoms by any means necessary. When the game starts the country of Georgia has been taken over by a businessman bent on power, and Sam Fisher and the rest of the Third Echelon have to take matters into their own hands and remove him from power before he can do too much damage to his country and the world.

"I knew I should have gone before we set off! damn!"

The story on the whole is very good and followed on (in terms of its cinematic style of storytelling) from where games such as Metal Gear Solid left off. The story will remind players of some of the more famous Tom Clancy novels, specifically titles like Clear and Present Danger, but it’s by no means a copy of it. The only real similarity being the inclusion of Tom Clancy’s name.

GRAPHICS: The most important part of this particular review really is the graphics section, the rest of the game is exactly the same as it was when released the better part of 10 years ago. Thankfully the game has changed graphically, earning, in some (but not all) ways that small addendum of “HD” at the end of its name.

For the most part the High Definition upgrade looks pretty good. The character of Sam Fisher himself clearly has had most of the attention spent on him, and he looks better than all of the other characters in the game by far. The real downside with the HD upgrade is that while the textures were made compatible with a High Definition screen, it doesn’t seem as if any of the game’s models were. As such all of the characters look very blocky, which would have been the norm at the time but, as with anything else when displayed in HD, all of the slight discrepancies within a game are laid out front and centre and are made entirely more obvious. In Splinter Cell HD this doesn’t do the game any favours at all.

The worst offender for this upgrade however, is the pre-rendered cutscenes. It seems as if nothing as been done to them in order to make them look better in HD and all of them look very grainy and only take up a very small percentage of the screen compared to the rest of the game. This means that something which is supposed to bring a player into the game, making them feel closer to the characters only serves to push them further away.

SOUND: Most of the sound within Splinter Cell HD sounds good, all of the weapons and gadgets give off realistic audio and there’s still very few sounds that can remind people of a particular game more that the sound of Sam Fisher putting on his goggles. The voice acting is particularly well done with everyone sounding as if they’re giving everything to their performance and helping the whole game achieve a higher class. A lot of the conversations between Lambert and Sam are genuinely funny (when the situation calls for it) and those moments help to break up the massive amounts of tension which tend to crop up more often than would be expected in a standard third person action game.

"Nothing in the alley except some boxes, an old bike...oh, and PAIN!!"

Again though, the only real let down to the audio side of things is in the pre-rendered cutscenes where all of the audio, just like the video, sounds grainy and not particularly “HD”. If I could call the game ‘Splinter Cell HD (except the cutscenes)’, I would.

GAMEPLAY: The gameplay in Splinter Cell HD consists of helping Sam Fisher navigate his way (preferably undetected) through a series of missions that he’s been sent on by Third Echelon. In order to complete those missions a little bit easier, Sam has been outfitted with a plethora of weapons and gadgets from silenced pistols all the way through to cameras that can stick to any surface. Think of it as Mission: Impossible, except actually plausible. Sam is able to use these gadgets and weapons, combined with his skills in order to sneak, kill and otherwise incapacitate his enemies; whoever they may be.

The stealth mechanic is one of the most important aspects of Splinter Cell HD, as one would expect from a stealth game, and, to that end, Sam (read: the player) is equipped with a light sensor that will display how visible Sam is at that particular moment in time. The more in the light he is the more chance there is that he’ll be spotted by an enemy who may raise an alarm, bringing a lot more of his unwanted companions into the fray. In order to stay in the shadows Sam can use his weapon to shoot out most of the lights within the game world. Shooting the lights helps create shadows, so that Sam can hide and use the darkness to his advantage. Mastering the shadows is the route to mastering the game, and that’s something you’re going to want to do.

As well as using shadows, especially if you’re going to be spending most of your time in them, you’re going to need some way of seeing the things around you while you’re sat there waiting for your prey. That’s where Sam’s famous goggles come into play. Initially all they’re capable of doing is using night vision but eventually you’re able to use them to see heat, among other things. All of the different modes of the goggles are very useful in their own particular way and for the most part at least, it’s up to you as the player to decide as to when each goggle type is useful. You might put on your night vision goggles and not see anything until you switch to the heat vision goggles, at which point the next step may become extremely clear. That will happen more than once and it’s something that most players will just have to get used to, while others will be able to see beforehand what challenge the game is going to throw at them next, it just takes a little time and practice.

"Quick! Take the picture! This pose is so cool!"

All in all the gameplay of Splinter Cell HD is still some of the best gaming on any console, when you take into account that it’s a 10 year old game then it starts to become very clear why so many people enjoy the tales of Sam Fisher, and why Ubisoft continue, and should continue, to make even more Splinter Cell titles.

LONGEVITY: As good as Splinter Cell HD, and the rest of the Splinter Cell games are, there’s no real reason to keep coming back once the credits have rolled. There are no other modes to keep people interested in the game in the and in this first game at least, no multiplayer mode to attempt to keep a community around the game. It would have been nice with this HD re-release of Splinter Cell to see some extra features; a couple of documentaries perhaps, but sadly there is nothing to extend the experience.

VERDICT: On the whole, if you’re one of the people who never played Splinter Cell when it first came out because it was an Xbox exclusive then you’ve got no excuse anymore. The game itself holds up as one of the best stealth games ever created, even 10 years after it was released. Unfortunately the “HD” part of Splinter Cell HD is what lets it down. Those 2 little letters at the end of the title will give most players a sense of expectation that’s let down a little bit here. It doesn’t detract from the gameplay itself, just be aware of it when you’re pressing that download button, which you should be doing right now.

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