The terrorist are threatening to release a small pox virus all over the United States. Sam Fisher has to, as usual, save our (or theirs… the Americans’) butts. He’s equipped (in addition to a limber bod :wink: ) with the good old silenced pistol, SC-20K with nice sticky shockers to buzz out the enemies, and all the gadgets from the first game, as well as a new type of grenade to shut off those nasty turrets.

It didn’t take me long to finish this game. That’s pretty much the only bad feature about it: it’s surprisingly and depressingly short (good games that are too short make me sad). No wonder it’s been reviewed as being a sloppy and careless job from the makers of SC between the hit of a first game and the upcoming 3rd, Chaos Theory (March 2005 says the site).
It also seemed easier even though there were some tight spots that made me re-try over and over. I didn’t use many med-kits (I couldn’t have stood his suspicious sounding ‘oh yeahhh’ anyway…) but then again, if you get shot in Splinter Cell you usually get shot for good.

Nevertheless, there are 8 missions in the game and I’m happy enough with that. Sam Fisher has learned a few new tricks — and they said old dogs don’t learn new tricks! Well, his appearance has got more youthful as well. (Where was the stubble? I love the stubble!) Now he can split jump in a narrow passage and jump to a higher platform. Also now there’s a SWAT turn in his repertoire. It makes getting past illuminated doorways so much easier. Once, in Jerusalem, there was a guy sitting right in front of a barred door, probably 50 cm away from the door, and I (*cough* I mean Sam) swirled by. He didn’t notice a thing!

What I missed was a nice oomph of an intro movie and as catchy theme as in the first one (Crystal Method’s Name of the Game).

And of course, it’s Splinter Cell I’m talking about. The amazing, breathtakingly beautiful, refreshingly non-shoot-em-up, wonderfully clever sneak-in-the-shadows Splinter Cell. Finding an alternative route through airshafts or window ledges always makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

There’s probably some re-playing value in this “thanks to” the fact that it wasn’t too difficult. In the first game I got stuck in the annoying library ambush and got tired with that (but I played the first levels over and over). I’ll have to see. I don’t have anything better to play anyway, unless I take down the whooping monster in Painkiller. (Jafer, help!)

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