Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Essentials

Written by James Dauer  on February 07, 2006

First Impressions: Packed with 8 essential vitamins and nutrients, now with whole grain! Part of this balanced breakfast.

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When it comes to espionage gaming, it doesn't get much better (nor realistic) than Splinter Cell. The series has always been one of those great visual achievements of the past generation. The original Splinter Cell featured so many graphical achievements, from realistic light and shadow effects to amazing fabric physics on hanging draperies and the like. Not to mention Splinter Cell took more of a real world look at espionage than say Metal Gear Solid. Splinter Cell certainly is more challenging considering Sam Fisher doesn't have a decent radar system, nor does he have half the weapons of the legendary Solid Snake. This difficulty level mixed with the overall feel of the environments is what made the Splinter Cell series so much fun. Portable versions of Splinter Cell have been attempted in the past, but none of them could recreate the feeling of the console titles. Most handheld systems don't have the power to recreate the 3D environments that are a necessity for an espionage game of this caliber. As such, the last great portable espionage game is arguably Metal Gear Solid for the now ancient Game Boy Color. Now that the technology is available to make such a visually stunning portable game, the team at Ubisoft Montreal is hard at work to bring us a much needed portable spy game. In another few weeks, Ubisoft will release the next big contender for your PSP's battery life under the name of Splinter Cell Essentials.

Splinter Cell Essentials will take place at many different time periods of Sam Fisher's life. The structure sounds quite a bit reminiscent of Eidos' Hitman Contracts, where players got to experience the protagonist's life in a series of flashbacks. As far as chronology is concerned, the game begins after the new Splinter Cell Double Agent. Most of the missions occur between the stages from the first three Splinter Cell titles, and even a handful predate the first Splinter Cell, featuring a young Sam Fisher as a Navy SEAL.

When it comes to the way Splinter Cell Essentials is played, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that Splinter Cell Essentials will not be featuring any major revolutions to the old system of sneaking and stalking that the original three Splinter Cell titles have established. That said the good news is that everything established in those games is alive and well in Splinter Cell Essentials. The game will play out almost identically to the other Splinter Cells with the only real difference being the way the camera is moved. Since there is only one analog stick on the PSP, the player will have to keep Sam standing still to readjust the camera. Otherwise, all of Sam's moves are intact as well as all of his weapons and gadgets from previous series. All of Sam's moves are easy enough to pull off on the limited PSP controller so that the controls shouldn't be an issue during the trickier parts of the game.

One interesting thing Splinter Cell Essentials is keeping intact is the multiplayer system found in the later games. As of now, the multiplayer can only be played head to head with two spies. Ubisoft hasn't made any comments as to whether or not they will include the ability to play as mercs, though it is unlikely considering the button layout of the PSP. Also multiplayer is only available in ad hoc mode. No Internet battles here. Still it will feature four different playable maps, which is enough to get any fan of the series excited for this new portable outing.

As was mentioned before Splinter Cell Essentials will feature the high caliber graphics the series is known for. They have been toned down a little considering that the PSP is still graphically weaker than the PS2, but expect to see amazing light and water effects as are common in the console versions of the series.

The audio will also be pushed for the game. Even though the PSP only features stereo sound, Ubisoft has been working with the limited hardware to make everything sound as good as possible, and they have done a commendable job. The player will be able to tell which direction enemies are coming from by listening close enough, and expect to get plenty of calls from Third Echelon featuring the familiar voices from the previous games.