Retro Let’s Play August 2022 - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell XBOX (2002)

Retro Let's Play: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2002) - August 2022.

To find out what this is and why we're doing it, click here.

What is it?



Stealth + Michael Ironside, that's all you need to know. Well ok, it's a stealth game with all the cool gadgets and wicked lighting plus a super cheesy plot about terrorists and stuff. Early 2000's perfection.

Also you read that date right this masterpiece turns 20 this year, in November to be exact.



Versions.

The Original XBOX hosts a stunning version of this game, not to be left behind the GameCube, PS2, Mac, GBA and PC also have versions as well released a year after. This month I reckon I will play it on my One X on my OLED - yes this game is enhanced on later xboxes and looks awesome too.

History (from Wikipedia)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Clancy's_Splinter_Cell_(video_game)

How to play.

So many ways!

Grab it on uplay - it's cheap @ $7.50!

Buy a disc off the ebays and play it on any of the xboxens you may have handy. (One or Series). It IS enhanced and the enhancing is pretty neat. Also available digitally on xboxen afaik - https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/tom-clancys-splinter-cell/C46H5R7GT7X9

If you are feeling REALLY sassy this game supports system link on the original xbox and allows not just one, but TWO, count 'em two Sam Fishers to complete missions in co-op. WuZMoT and I are partway through a run of this at his place and by gum I might just go over to his place, bask in the glow of his two huge ass CRT's and play some more this month too.

Oops system link is in a later entry, worth trying if you enjoy this one.

 

not sure if OG has system link, we were playing one of the later ones but I'm not sure which ... i THINK chaos theory

 

yeah i think that's right. I got my Splinter Cells mixed up!

 

First we had PS1 month, then we had Donkey Kong month, now we've got OG Xbox month. I am *really* digging these coincidences!

Two games up this month that have both been on my pile of shame for way too long. Very keen to have a crack at both of these.

 

Ubi gave this away for free some time ago on pc. Plays fine last I time I tried.

 

I remember when this came out. It was incredible. I bet it still plays alright, might have to give it another play through now

 

I've gotten as far as the third mission (Oil Refinery) so far, i got stuck for a while on Defense Ministry where you have to get past a couple of cooks, the whole thing wasn't too hard I just kept messing it up.

Oil Refinery is gorgeous I need to take some screenshots, I forgot to!

missions

https://splintercell.fandom.com/wiki/Tom_Clancy's_Splinter_Cell#Missions

 

played another level and a half on the weekend, mostly having fun, i appreciate the simplicity of the levels.

 

Does this one kick off on a boat in the pouring rain? I have fond memories of playing this on the og Xbox if it is.

 

I don't think I'm gonna finish this before the end of the month but I have had fun!

Gonna be honest though I much prefer to be an assassin and the don't kill anyone missions are the toughest for me

I got through the CIA one and then just blitzed the Kalinatek level, after that I'm now at the Chinese Embassy and it's a no kill level.

Looking at the wiki it appears I have three more levels after this, it's taking me longer than I thought I have a little bit of trouble sneaking up on guards and grabbing them, plus i like to clear all the NPC's so I can freely traverse the areas which of course results in many retries.

Looking at the versions I'm thinking maybe the PC version would have been the one to choose as it uses save anywhere instead of checkpoints which can be punishing as they tend to be a little far apart.

 

Yeah I mostly played this on PC and did savescum quite a bit haha

I think I own a copy on the PS Store, but don't have a Playstation any more.

 

So I did get about 2 hours to put into this, but forgot to write it up.

Playing on OG Xbox, a bit challenging as my controller is a bit shit (need to source a replacement). But all the same, interesting game.

I'll say it up front: this isn't for me. Zero joy was had in actually playing this for me. But I can totally see (a) what was trying to be done here, and (b) that this really took ideas set by titles like Metal Gear / Metal Gear Solid, Thief, and others, and really pushed them to a new level.

The story is intense too. MGS did it too I guess, but very Japanese. This is very much a western spy novel thriller (literally), and I think they did a great job translating that into a game.

Framerate let me down a lot on OG Xbox. I don't know what the PC version was like back on then-current machines. Obviously playing it on modern hardware would be pretty great to bypass those issues today, particularly in the shooting bits where it really matters.

Criticisms - outside of occasional framerate+aiming problems I had, I think the controls are a bit of a mess. A few minor tweaks to that would have really fixed up some of those frustrations, but I guess that would take a few years to standardise out.

The overall gameplay loop didn't grab me. While I don't mind things like Resident Evil 4 or Metal Gear Solid 5, this was more like MGS3 and MGS4 for me which were just a little too linear and tedious for my short-attention-span brain. But I can totally see why MGS3 fans would absolutely love this, as I'm sure it would bring the same satisfactions of a mission executed perfectly.

Really happy to have experienced a little of it, and thank you power for nominating. While I won't go on to finish it, I am keen to watch a long play, as the story was pretty interesting, and I'm keen to see how that played out.

 

Climbing up the cliffs to the lighthouse? That's Chaos Theory

I remember the rain effects on sam's suit and the cloth physics when cutting open the tents blowing my mind lol