Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory

Ubisoft should have learned from their mistakes last time in Nintendoland.

Tags: Categories: Game Cube Reviews, Reviews

Posted by David Hinkle on Apr 21st, 2005

Title Players
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (title page) 1 - 4
Developer Publisher Genre Online
Stealth Action Yes


Finally, those of us who love stealth gameplay can wet our beaks again with the latest installment of Sam Fisher’s exploits in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory for the GameCube. With the two best stealth-based games (arguable, of course) preceding it, Chaos Theory has some big shoes to fill. Seeing as how it’s been little over half a year since the release of Pandora Tomorrow, has UbiSoft had enough time to create a title that does the franchise justice and corrects the mistakes of old? No, so instead those whose only console to game on is the one with Nintendo on it once again must suffer through a horrible port of a great game.

You’ll notice before even inserting either disc into your GameCube that Chaos Theory has a ‘Mature’ rating. Personally, I can’t see why this is even the case, as there isn’t any quantity of violence or blood in excess of the last two installments. This then causes me to wonder why the previous two titles weren’t given ‘Mature’ ratings. I mean, you are killing a lot of people throughout your missions.


Something else new to the mix is the inclusion of a combat knife to Sam’s arsenal. This, which is so prominently displayed on the cover, affects gameplay somewhat for the worse. If you’re a veteran of the series (which, if you aren’t, you should be), you may recall it took two of Sam’s elbow blows to knock someone out. This has been “upgraded” to a one-hit-kill from Sam’s knife, which makes each level that much easier to go through without firing a single shot. While the previous titles weren’t exactly known for difficulty, this just makes the game way too easy. The knife also allows you to break locks now, a quicker, yet noisier, solution to those pesky locked doors.


You’ll also notice throughout the single-player campaign that your pistol and SC-20K have been tweaked a bit. Your pistol now has a secondary fire that jams electronics and magically disables lighting for a brief period of time. While it’s rather confusing when you use it for the first time to disable a florescent light, only to have said light brighten back up a few moments later of its own accord, it’s a more effective tool than just using all your ammo up on your pistol. The SC-20K comes with a foregrip that you may equip at your convenience, and has far less recoil than in the previous titles. There are also shotgun and sniper attachments you receive later in the game. All the other things such as the sticky camera and airfoil rounds come along for the ride, yet are much more customizable thanks to the ability to now personalize what gear you take before each mission.


The story of the campaign itself, and included missions, revolve around the United States, South Korea, and Japan. The story is what you would expect from a Tom Clancy game, full of technological espionage and shady characters. I wouldn’t want to reveal too much since the campaign is a lot shorter than in the previous titles, but I can say that it doesn’t have the content and appeal of Pandora Tomorrow. This is in part due to how the story is told, mostly in dryly-narrated text from each member of Sam’s team pre-mission and com-link banter between Sam and the others in-mission. Sure, there are cutscenes, but only those of mock news broadcasts about the happenings of whichever area Sam just visited between missions.

These locales are pretty lackluster, compared to some of the places visited in the past. While there are still the generic labs and facility-looking areas that sparsely littered the last two titles, Chaos Theory presents them much more. Where are the speeding trains, police stations, and streets of Jerusalem? Instead here we get ships, banks, and bathhouses. Still, the gameplay is as sound as it ever has been, so while the locations don’t have the variety of the previous titles at least they are still fun to play.


You’ll now find that your progress through the campaign is a lot less bogged down by some of the things that would cause you to lose in the previous Splinter Cell titles, yet still hindered by multiple hotspots of massive loading times. These things, such as not killing any enemies or being discovered a certain number of times, have all been tossed out the window. Guess these guys don’t mind killing so much anymore, as you’ll be able to now just slaughter everyone in your path from point A to point B to complete each mission. Combined with the ease of close-quarter killing brought on by the combat knife, this apathy towards enemy life just adds more ease to the game. Also new are the optional objectives during each mission, which are usually ’scan this’ or ‘tag that.’ These aren’t really anything special, but likely things completionists will enjoy.

The last new addition comes in the form of Chaos Theory’s cooperative play. Through this you and a friend may play through 5 missions (well 4 really, one is a training course) as spies. This mode is a blast overall, as it’s a lot of fun double-teaming unsuspecting foes and working in unison with another spy. While it would have been nice to have more missions available, and less framerate inconsistencies, this is enough for a first go at it. This mode is very promising and shows a fun new step this franchise can take in the future.


Graphically, the game looks exactly like Pandora Tomorrow for the GameCube. The lighting, while a lot better than the PS2 version, is just plain bad compared to how wonderful the Xbox and PC versions look. The Thermal Goggles don’t looks as impressive either, often misrepresenting heat signatures throughout each level. There are a lot of frame inconsistencies as well, just as before. Generally, the game just looks and handles the same as Pandora Tomorrow on the GameCube, which is in no way a compliment.

The sound of Chaos Theory holds true to the great sound of the previous titles, and being Dolby Pro Logic II on the GameCube doesn’t hurt at all. All the voice actors return, including Michael Ironside as Sam Fisher, and do a wonderful job. The music of the game is much more thumping than before, also going through greater lengths to spring to life during play. I found myself during the first couple levels just firing off into the distance just to cue the level track, I enjoyed them so much. It’ll also pipe up when Sam is seen, as before, and during certain times the story is progressed.


Given how little time it’s been between Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory on the GameCube, it’s not surprising all of the bugs from Pandora Tomorrow hitched along for another ride. There is also a connectivity feature that allows you to view your map on a Game Boy Advance at anytime, but this is just a novelty and not worth the trouble. In fact, that pretty much explains this game, so I’m going to go out using it. This game is a novelty of Splinter Cell, and not really worth the time.

What Works Score
+ Co-op!
+ Sound 		6.5
What Doesn't
- Loading times
- No multiplayer support
- A lot easier
Under the Shrink-wrap
Horrible port of a good game.
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