Topic: Preview: Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow

[Bloodworth]

Fresh info from D.I.C.E.! Dan reports on the new Splinter Cell and its prospects on GameCube.



Last updated: 03/04/2004

This morning at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas, Ubisoft gave Planet GameCube a look at Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. While there's still no solid information on when the GameCube version will be released, we did get a quick look at the Xbox version, which comes out later this month.

Pandora Tomorrow takes place in 2006, and Sam Fisher is investigating a new worldwide terror network, headed by an Indonesian guerilla leader.

Ubisoft's Shanghai Studio used player feedback to focus in on improving several aspects of the game. Sam's character is developed more, and the story has been streamlined so it shouldn't be quite as hard to follow as in the first game, where many players were known to just skim past the story and go straight to the missions. Representatives also remarked that special attention was given to the pacing to give players more breaks between really stressful situations.

Ubisoft has also tried to find ways to give the player more choices, as many stealth games tend to be very linear. They showed a train level which can be completed multiple ways. You can go through the cars, creep across the roof of the train, climb under the train, and at times, even hang from the side of the train. Each direction requires a different strategy. Climbing around under the train will have you using your worm camera to look through trap doors before going into rooms. Hanging from the side of the train is necessary at times, but it requires tricky timing. You'll be passing over windows, which means not only avoiding being spotted by passengers looking directly out, but also timing your movements so that you're not in front of a window when the train passes a street light, since your shadow will also alert the guards.

Sam has a few more moves at his disposal now, and his previous gadgets have been upgraded and put to better use as well. On the train, you'll be looking for a man with a prosthetic leg, which you'll be able to spot by using the infrared setting on your goggles. Sam can now perform a half split-jump and climb up from there to reach a higher ledge, and whistling will distract guards and call them to your location, where it may be easier to take them out.

We didn't get to see much of the enemy AI Ubisoft has been touting, but if you start setting off alarms, the guards will start suiting up in body armor, and they'll get more vigilant in their patrols.

Ubisoft also gave us a look at the online portion of the game, which is very impressive, featuring teams of spies trying to sneak past teams of guards. The spy teams play much like the single player mode, but they have more agility and can only use non-lethal attacks. And since there are multiple spies, one can distract a guard while the other immobilizes him. The guard teams play from a first- person perspective and have big guns to take spies out of the game permanently. Online Splinter Cell is certainly a fresh concept, but unfortunately, online play still hasn't been confirmed for GameCube. Since the GC's current online library consists of two PSO games and there isn't any hardware or structure set up for the unique voice interactions players intended for this mode, chances are high that online play will not be featured in the GameCube version. This possibility, paired with the still unannounced release date, will likely have many Nintendo fans rightfully looking to Xbox and PC to get a Splinter Cell fix.