Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

As the enemy evolves, so must you.

NA release: 30th March 2005
EU release: 1st April 2005
JP release: N/A
Developer: Ubisoft Milan, Ubisoft Shanghai
Publisher: Ubisoft
NGC Magazine Score: 85%
Mods Used: None

The Splinter Cell games are a series of beloved stealth action games, but it seems the GameCube versions keep having major issues. They have cut down versions of levels and Pandora Tomorrow had lighting issues which made the game unplayable without using the night vision the entire time. Luckily, that’s gone from here, but the console controls were designed with Xbox in mind, utilising every single button.

So for the GameCube, this presented a problem due to one fewer shoulder button and no select button. The solution to this: having to press combinations of buttons. As a result, basic features feel like cheat codes. I didn’t even realise that the game had a map or showed you your current objectives until a few levels in – why not also add these to the pause menu? You need to keep the manual with you to remember it all (the game doesn’t tell you any of it), although even then it doesn’t list everything. You can alleviate this slightly by using a GBA to display some information, but it’s still unnecessary faff.

The game does offer a bit more freedom. In the second level, Sam asks if three alarms means the mission is failed (like the first game) and his boss says “this isn’t a video game, Sam”, which is made more amusing by how the next mission makes you fail the mission if you get four alarms. For the most part, though, it just means enemies are more alert.

The levels feel a little bit more open, but the GameCube version splits levels into different load sections, which makes them feel disjointed and it feels more difficult to navigate as a result (I believe some connections between sections) were removed. I also had to restart a level (after completing all objectives) because the prompts to load a new area vanished and I couldn’t get to the section of the level with the extraction point.

Chaos Theory is clearly a very good game at its core, the extra freedom is very much welcome and you can be a bit more lax if you want to. It’s just not a good game on GameCube due to sacrifices that were made to adapt it to the console. Things could have been reworked to make it all work well, but the publisher didn’t want to spend that effort on GameCube.

Fine

Although there is more action in Chaos Theory, patience is still a virtue. Once you get past the freedom of the solo mode, alarms and trial and error unfortunately still dominate the game design, even if some of the harsher edges have been shaved off.
Alex Cooke, NGC Magazine #106

Remake or remaster?

A remaster based on PC would be good.

Official Ways to get the game

The game is available on PC (its a pain to get a controller working) and on Xbox.