A few weeks ago, a few people on IRC chatted about the upcoming SC:CT for xbox, so I thought I would give it a shot myself. After receiving my review copy in the mail, I ripped open the package and found a very thick user manual. I thought to myself, "Oh great, this is going to take me forever to learn". I play a lot of video games (as my girlfriend can vouch for), but I normally give up on some games because of the complexity of the user controls. However, when I plopped the disk in the tray, the first thing I noticed was a set of "training videos". I remember the first Splinter Cell game where I had to go through a tutorial level that took 20 minutes. This new scheme is very cool though.
Basically, the tutorial videos let you choose a chapter that you want to learn. You choose a video, and on the left hand of the screen, you see Sam Fisher performing the task you are trying to learn. Here's the cool part. On the right side of the screen, there is an xbox controller that highlights the button combinations as the move is executed. This is a great idea for learning some of the complicated moves. It will still take me a while to get used to the number of moves available, but with the training videos it becomes a snap. Plus you don't have to go through an entire tutorial session, instead you can concentrate on the moves you don't quite understand yet.
So I'm an impatient kind of person, so naturally I skipped the tutorials altogether and just started playing the single player campaign. It starts off on a small, rocky island under a moonlit sky at night. I started off by pushing all the buttons to see what Sam did, and it was pretty intuitive. So Sam made his way into the rocky caves above the shoreline, shooting out light bulbs with his silenced pistol. One thing was immediately apparent to me. Compared to earlier versions of SC, the level design on this was a lot more fun. There are multiple paths to take, so you aren't limited to one way of solving the problem at hand. Sam ran into a couple of guards guarding an old rickety bridge in the caves, so naturally I pushed the wrong button and whistled. After dying several times, I finally figured out how to sneak up on people and kill them.
Later in the level, I ran into one of my favorite moments. I had slipped into the enemy tent by cutting the fabric. There were some guards walking by the front of the tent. I had my night vision on and saw their silhouette on the tent canvas, so I shot at the head of a guard...but he didn't die. I shot again, same effect. So I switched to thermal vision (which is very cool), and figured out that I was shooting at the SHADOW of the guard on the tent canvas. Pretty damn cool effect. With thermal vision, I was able to kill the guard easily.
One of the downsides to playing this kind of game is that if you do get stuck on a certain spot in the game, it can be pretty frustrating to overcome. It can be annoying when you are sneaking around for 10 minutes only to make a tiny mistake and be forced to restart from your last savepoint. At least SC:CT gives you plenty of save points so you aren't forced to restart a level. There are 10 levels in the solo campaign, which is a little bit short compared to other games, but the cool thing is since there are many ways to beat a level, the replay value is very high.
By the way, if you love the run-and-gun style games, you can avoid the normal sneak-around style of play by opting for the assault weapon set.
In addition to the solo campaign, there are two online modes. The first is coop mode where you and a friend join online to play through 4 possible levels (I hear that downloadable content is on the way for more of these levels). Bear in mind that these levels were specifically designed for coop mode, they aren't just a rehash of the SP levels. The cool thing about this mode is that you cannot complete levels alone, you need to work with your companion to overcome obstacles. This requires a level of teamwork not needed in other games that feature coop play. Another cool feature is that there are multiple objectives and you are not tied to doing them in a particular order (although some objectives do rely on others being completed first).
In versus mode, a team of spies is playing against a team of mercenaries. The spies set out to complete objectives (which can be placing a bomb, hacking a computer, etc) while the mercenaries try to prevent the objectives from being completed. Spies have access to night vision, while mercenaries have to rely mostly on surveillance equipment. However, mercenaries have assault weapons while spies use mostly non-lethal weapons. There are 10 or so versus maps, so there is plenty of online play available, and surely new levels will be available for download soon.
Once in a while, a game comes along where it is just plain fun to play. It's hard to describe, but it has that overall polish and quality of level design that makes you want to keep playing for hours on end. SC:CT reminds me a bit of Goldeneye for N64 in how it sucks you in right away and doesn't let go. The environments are varied and interesting, and the controls are solid. The online coop play is very cool, and since this game is one of the first to make that jump, it adds considerably to my impression of it.
Check out Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
