Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Game:  Tom Clancy's Slinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Year (s):  2005
Company:  dev.  Ubisoft
pub.  Ubisoft
Engine:  Modifired Unreal Engine 2.5
Type:  Third-Person Stealth Shooter
Metacritic Score: 94
My Score:  Not my cup of tea.

Price (as of October 9, 2012)

Regular price on Steam:  $9.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping):  $8.50


Obligatory Trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVRs8xezo1Y


Plot

You are Sam Fisher, black-ops agent.  Infiltrate hostile premises, recover intel, and eliminate bad guys.


Engine

This one uses a modified Unreal Engine 2.5, so it looks more or less like UT 2K4.  Maybe a little bit better.


Combat/Gameplay

This is of the stealth genre.  Nightvision, infrared vision, binoculars, and EMF goggles help greatly to locate hostiles while you crawl around in the dark.  Limited ammunition makes things more difficult.

I have done some sneaky fighting in games, mostly in the RPGs.  Chaos Theory had some design choices that caused me to lose interest almost immediately.  First, you can't run.  You can crawl, or you can walk (the speed difference between the two is negligible).  If you're gun in in your hand, you are immobile.  While that may make some sense as far as aiming, it also makes the player an easy target, and it's not very fun.


Expansions / DLC / Sequels

"In 1996 Clancy co-founded the video game developer Red Storm Entertainment..." (Wikipedia).  Red Storm was later acquired by Ubisoft.  Dozens of games have the Tom Clancy name attached, and that's why I bought this one on a sale.  If I liked it, there was a lot more where that came from.


Final Thoughts

There are people that like stealth games, and I'm not one of them.  For me the game was ten minutes of mission briefing, ten minutes of walking obnoxiously slow, using all my bullets to kill a few guys, then mashing buttons trying to change weapons while being riddled with bullets.  I'm glad I didn't pay much for it.