Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow

Pandora Tomorrow is simultaneously one of the most breathtaking and one of the most frustrating gaming experiences ever. At times you just want to sit and watch, overawed by the striking visuals and intricate gameplay, but then you’ll want to hang yourself with the controller chord in exasperation, swearing profusely at the henchman that spied you in the shadows for the tenth time running.

However, this is why the Splinter Cell games are the pinnacle of stealth-based 3rd-person gaming. They create a world as we imagine it exists then expresses it as a reality, where death and mission failure is but a loud footstep away. Fans of the genre will adore the thrills and level design Pandora Tomorrow brings to the genre, but for gamers inexperienced in the patience and restraint required by this title, it is awfully unforgiving and can quickly turn into a gaming nightmare.

Pandora Tomorrow is a product of prolific author Tom Clancy and as such, political intrigue and terrorist action on a future Earth are its meat and potatoes. Set in 2006, it begins with our hero Sam Fisher infiltrating the US embassy in East Timor where a terrorist suspect is holding captive a man with ‘sensitive’ information.

It becomes apparent that a mystery figure known as Misguided Penguin is plotting a biological attack on the US and the NSA’s finest frogman is soon on the case. Cue hours of fixating gameplay that has you following the information trail around the globe (including Indonesia, France and Israel), lurking in the shadows seemingly inches away from a target while hacking into laptops, tapping phone calls and coordinating with other government affiliates.

Pandora’s gameplay revolves around you not being seen and often, not even incurring a fatality. In this respect, the core ingredients of its predecessor have remained intact, however, it has been tweaked for more flexibility and finer control. The split-jump, which can be performed between close walls, is the most notable example of this, but you can also perform new moves such as the turns across gaps such as doors to minimise your visibility.

Like all good agents, Sam is riddled with various gadgets (including optical cameras, lock picks and abseiling gear), but his wide variety of moves and weapons aren’t utilized sufficiently within the gameplay. Your thermo-vision and night-vision, however, are as using normal-sight in Pandora will leave you as blind as a Jennifer Garner catalogue. Controlling Sam is a breeze and after completing the easy and refreshingly different training mission, you’ll be scaling walls, performing choke-holds, doing commando rolls and sliding along ropes like a professional. However, what elevates Pandora Tomorrow into the gaming stratosphere is its level design. Exotic, memorable and diverse, you are totally absorbed – sneaking around cities, buildings and trains like a shadow satiates your spy-like desires in full, as well as any voyeuristic inclinations. At times it can be truly tense, such as when three enemies are searching a room your hiding in or you need to whistle to attract guards away from an entrance.

Once mission in particular (set on a train) looks set for gaming’s hall of fame. Not only must you creep through the train, but on top of it, underneath it and along the side of it – all while trains whiz past in the opposite direction, passengers gaze out windows and the scenery whips past in silent anonymity. At times it is astonishing but, like the original, it often falls into linearity. There may be many ways of dealing with a given situation, but when it comes to moving around the levels there are plenty of ‘door jammed’ and random police barricade situations to keep you on the right trajectory.

Graphically, Pandora isn’t far short of groundbreaking. Sam’s animations are wonderfully smooth and they need to be, given that slowly creeping behind wandering henchman is the gameplay’s core devise. However, it is the lighting (or lack of it) which steals the plaudits. Guided by you light sensor, you keep to the shadows while bursts of light and life stream from windows, open doors or street lights. It’s a shame then that you spend so much time in the black and white world of night vision.

The environments are still beautifully detailed, but you long to experience the world in its true form. Especially considering how vibrant and well-captured the various settings are, such as when you stalk the streets and markets of Jerusalem. Here the SFX and music contribute greatly to the atmosphere, as do Sam’s tough-guy one-liners. Pandora excels at the small things; birds scared from a bush, reeds wafting in the water, Sam’s hand movements when changing vision modes, newspapers blowing in the wind, the starry night sky – it makes for a professional package.

Still, Pandora has its flaws. You can’t skip some of the dialogue for starters and while it’s nice and genuine in the first instance, by the 50th time you’re throwing up. And don’t be surprised if you are hammering away at the one section 50 times as this games punishes mistakes like no other. Sometimes it seems a little too random, with creeping up behind someone more reliant on luck than skill.

Your thoughts on these difficulty issues, however, are dependent on what you are seeking from your gaming experience. Pandora is about being perfect, nailing each minute of gameplay and maintaining concentration long enough to make the next save point. If you are attracted to this form of play then its essential gaming, but if you prefer quick, fast entertainment such as Quake or Halo you could loathe this title like no other. Splinter Cell is rightly considered one of the best games of all time and Pandora Tomorrow proves a worthy successor. Graphically brilliant, expertly designed and capped off with multiplayer, it takes its genre to all new heights of realism. Who knows, there could be men dressed as frogs prancing around the Earth’s shadows right now, keeping gamers safe from harm.