Video Games: Splinter Cell

I finally picked up a copy of Splinter Cell (Pandora Tomorrow) last week.

From the start Splinter Cell recieved such rave reviews that I knew it had to be good. I even played it quite a bit at friends' houses. Yet, I was always bored some how with the gameplay. It just didn't seem like my kind of game. Too slow paced, too stealthy, to "Tom Clancy-ish."

My hunt for a new GCN game started with Metal Gear Solid. I really wanted to get my hands on a copy of Metal Gear Solid The Twin Snakes. After a bit of searching I gave up and was about to buy it online. Then, out of the blue I thought; MGS is a lot like Splinter Cell, why not give it a try. I did.

It really is one of the best console games I've played in years. It deserves all the credit it's gotten, yet it seems to be hyped for the wrong reasons. First of all, Splinter Cell didn't do too much that hadn't been done before. The whole light/sound sesitivity? An age-old idea. As with most of the stuff in the game. Infact, a lot of gameplay elements seem like a modded port from another Tom Clancy game. Part of what makes Splinter Cell so great is the execution. The combination of gameplay elements, style, characters, etc makes you ride the life of the crazy-cool Sam Fisher.