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Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Review - Xbox

Sam Fisher is swiftly becoming a household name, in a stealthy kind of way. Very soon, Sam is going to visit Hollywood for his very own movie, but right now he’s busy with his third video game Chaos Theory. It’s better than its predecessors, it’s better than its competition, and it’s definitely in the running for game of the year. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory shows that snake eating is something amateurs do, and the real work should be left to the Third Echelon.

The year is 2007, Japan has developed an Information Self Defense Force which has been deemed a violation of international law. With an imminent war developing between Japan, China, North Korea and South Korea, the United States are forced to help their Japanese allies, but you’d better prepare for twist after twist, as the butterfly effect changes the chaos theory sporadically. Sporadic terrorists and confronting algorithm geniuses will keep you on the edge of your chair throughout this exciting new addition to an already action pumped stealth series.

Gameplay

Fisher is back, and better than ever. He’s learnt some new moves, and got some awesome new equipment to help you through the intriguingly awe-inspiring missions. Ubi Soft have gone all out to ensure the third game of the series was better than Pandora Tomorrow, as it was developed by a different faction of Ubi Soft, the same faction that developed the first game of the series. When you have in-house competition, you know the series is just going to continue to get even more exciting than one could ever imagine.

Ten action packed missions will keep you busy for the better half of 10 – 15 hours depending on how slow you take things. Although the game is linear in a sense of you must complete this mission, there are lots of alternate ways of doing things, which proves to be a lot more entertaining and intense than just running through in a green suit with a gun shooting aliens that have suddenly learnt how to speak English. The missions range from a penthouse at the top of a building to a traditional Japanese house. The different scenery is truly amazing in a sense of realism like no other.

In case you haven’t seen any advertising for Chaos Theory at all, Sam has a new move where he hangs from a railing and breaks his enemy’s neck. Fortunately, there is absolutely nowhere in the entire game where you need to use it. It’s entirely up to you, and they’ve just thrown that new move in for the fun of it. Sam Fisher is now ambidextrous, as with a simple push of the analog stick, you can switch to a left handed position. This is a replacement for the fact that Ubi Soft has removed the ... (continued next page)