Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow once again places players in the role of top-secret operative Sam Fisher. It is the year 2006, and the world is at the mercy of an Indonesian militia leader threatening to unleash smallpox on the world at any moment. Fearing the worst, the U.S. government dispatches Fisher to clean up the mess. Combining elements of stealth with traditional 2-D platforming action, Pandora Tomorrow provides an enjoyable but ultimately flawed game experience.

Splinter Cell has always drawn comparisons to the Metal Gear franchise, and Pandora Tomorrow is no different. Conversations with intelligence contacts take place via a codec-like dialog at the bottom of the screen, and a radar display at the top tracks the movement of nearby guards. A special view displays the vision range of security cameras, and you can knock guards out from behind and drag their bodies into the dark. Creeping along walls, stepping into darkened doorways, and climbing drain pipes are all required to survive each level. Fans of the stealth-action genre will find familiar moves intact and will definitely enjoy Sam Fisher's impressive array of abilities. While the gameplay is straightforward 2-D platforming, the stealth factor adds enough variety to keep things fresh and interesting.

However, these stealth abilities expose Pandora Tomorrow's biggest flaw: lackluster level design. Obstacles are arbitrarily thrown into levels for no other reason than to force you to use stealth to get around them. Hallways are littered with random stacks of boxes, low walls and crawlspaces that usually make little sense within the context of a level. Gameplay can get repetitive as a result, with many levels turning into obstacle courses mastered through trial and error. The fact that it's easy to get lost in some levels due to areas looking nearly identical doesn't help matters either. While not terrible by any means, Pandora Tomorrow's level design simply feels rushed. A lot more thought could have been put into it.

There are puzzle elements as well. Fisher can open safes, disarm gun turrets, and access computers by solving simple puzzles. While these puzzles are typically easy and seem a little out of place, they switch up the gameplay just enough and are really enjoyable. You're given a time limit for each puzzle, so part of the fun is seeing how fast you can solve them.

Controls are well laid-out and intuitive, an accomplishment considering the limitations of the GBA controller and the amount of moves at your disposal. Unfortunately some moves suffer from hit-and-miss execution. Some missions require you to sneak up behind a guard, drag him to a retinal scanner, and use his "eyeprint" to unlock a door. It's too easy to accidentally knock him out and fail the mission. This is frustrating in the game's later levels where difficulty is high and missions take a while to complete; a lot of hard work can be erased with one false tap of the B button. Dashing is accomplished with a left or right double-tap on the control pad and is required for jumping long distances; this can be difficult to pull off in tight spaces and jumps are sometimes hard to judge. These gripes aside, Pandora Tomorrow's control scheme is solid and easy to learn.

Graphics and sound are definitely Pandora Tomorrow's strong suit. While few of the GBA's advanced visual capabilities are used, all backgrounds and character sprites are colorful and detailed. The character animations are especially stunning, using many frames. Sam Fisher's moves are smooth and fluid whether he's shimmying across a pipe or rappelling down a building-side. Game environments include outdoor, indoor and underground terrain and all of them are equally realistic-looking. The Thermal and Night Vision views are integrated well into gameplay. Sound and music are both excellent with several voice samples used by guards (they shout "Hey!" when they notice you, even if they're off-screen) and a suspenseful soundtrack that really adds to the game's atmosphere. More music tracks would have been nice, but what's there is high-quality stuff.

It seems that every positive about Pandora Tomorrow is offset by a negative.

Graphics and sound are excellent, but the level design is uninspired and repetitive. Its control scheme is effective and easily mastered, but some of the moves are clumsy to execute and can lead to costly mistakes. There's no multiplayer, so there's little reason to keep playing when the game is finished. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow has the feel of a rushed project; all of the elements that make a great game are there, but in the end they just weren't pieced together correctly. A great rental.