Review:
SPLINTER CELL ESSENTIALS
Genre: Stealth shooter
Publisher: Ubisoft
Players: 1-4 (AD Hoc)
Online play: No
Firmware: 2.60
Video:
Windows Media Player:
Splinter Cell: Essentials - Trailer
QuickTime Player:
Splinter Cell: Essentials - Trailer
Splinter Cell Essentials is quite self explanatory from its title, containing a collection of Sam Fisher’s most essential adventures from Splinter Cell console titles including the most recent: Double Agent. The plot is brought together by a series of effective flashback cut scenes and begins in the graveyard of Sam Fisher’s daughter, a year after her death.
The weak points of this game are immediately noticeable from the first mission in the cemetery. Being a stealth game, we expect the punctuality of every execution, movement and reflex to be a fundamentally accurate feature of the game, as all the past Splinter Cell games have managed superbly. However, running, hiding and getting past the most troublesome of guards has never been so uncomfortable and tricky for a Splinter Cell title. Although aiming your gun is managed quite well with the analogue stick, you’re unable to move Fisher while in the aiming position and will therefore leave yourself standing out of cover and vulnerable to a hostile attack. Other controls have been laid out in awkward positions too, and you’ll often find yourself putting away your gun, when you’re actually trying to reload.
Visually, the landscape of each mission is very dark as we’ve become accustomed to over the years. However, due to the typical motion-blur that the PSP often experiences, the view ahead can seem quite unclear at times. This is a shame, because each environment is well detailed and so are the actions of the characters. The movie-style music works well with the action filled atmosphere (even if it’s a little confusing).
The presentation of the main menu and cut scenes don’t really inspire us either, and the game often seems to pause and load during gameplay which can be very frustrating if you’re in a tight spot at the time! Thankfully, the possibility to save at any stage of your mission becomes very useful and can save a lot of your time.
Despite of all the missing elements in this game, and after some getting used to of the rather clumsy controls, Splinter Cell Essentials does work to a satisfactory degree. And if you’ve begun to wonder about multiplayer, then don’t get excited, because it’s nothing exciting. Unfortunately, the reason why this game feels so bad is because all of the console versions have been so amazing, and so we really should remind ourselves we’re playing on a single analogue stick handheld device. Sam Fisher is challenged over 9 stealthy missions in this game, and faced with a very sophisticated AI, which will keep you playing for a good while. Just don’t hold any high expectations.
The verdict:
Uppers:
- Nice selection of new and old missions
- Realistic AI
- Not much else
Downers:
- Awful camera angles
- Confusing controls
- Slow-down during gameplay
Overall score: 55%
Henry
02/02/2007
Linear Mode
