Chaos Theory a lot of the time feels like playing a horror game where you're the monster/killer, you take out all the lights around 2 guards, whistle at them to get their attention then circle around and pick one off and see the other one turn around and notice his absence before freaking out, being seconds away from him also being taken out from behind.

It feels amazing to do that kind of shit. though...if I'm being honest the real star of the game are the interrogations, they are amazing, these are some of the funniest guards I've seen in a game. One time a guard told me everything he knew without hesitation then claimed he was the biggest coward ever and told me that he pissed himself which was hilarious. Another time I saw 2 guards talking about a certain ninja that did some stuff in Georgia in 2004, one guard even claiming he was attacked by set ninja. Either way he can now claim he was attacked twice by a ninja as the second I grabbed and interrogated him he started going on about how he knew there were ninjas there and Sam was really confused by the whole thing and when threatening to kill him the guard just said that it'd be cool to be killed by a ninja. One time a guard thought the whole thing was a training exercise and Sam went along and used that as a way to get info lol.

I could go on but you really have to experience this game for yourself as it's such a huge leap forward from the first game that I don't see any reason to go back at this point.

All the annoying things from the first game have all been either fixed or gotten rid off completely and the level design has never been better. Every level is designed to be done in multiple ways, oftentimes exploring rewards you with secret entries that will make your life easier or maybe a side objective, sometimes items or just a guard with important info for you. You can do every mission without killing any guards, I think the same was true of the first one but it was clear that sometimes you kinda had to kill the guards to make your life way easier, here it's only a matter of planning ahead what you'll do as you have a lot more gadgets at your disposal to get past the guards. The game does a good job at making the game get harder as it goes with new enemy types that serve as counters to you with thermal vision, making it way harder to sneak past them but not so hard that they become annoying/unfair, the amount of turrets has been toned the fuck down from the last game where they were useless in all but one area, I think I only saw like 2 in the whole game.

I liked how you can choose to either leave or save 2 pilots from an explosion at one point despite your orders. There isn’t any reward nor do you ever hear from those pilots again but I kinda liked that tbh.

Chaos Theory in every way lives up to the hype and stands the test of the time, unlike with the og there weren’t any moments where I thought yeah this hasn’t aged well or wow this really feels like a 2000s game huh.

It’s just back to back great levels, not every level is perfect and amazing but out of 10 missions, the worst level simply being really good (bathhouse) speaks to the game’s quality. Cargo Ship and the Bank mission were my fav’s in the game as to me they felt the most open with Bank even giving you 2 ways of entering the bank itself, either through the front door or from above, repelling down from the roof.

There's some really tense moments in the game. In one of the missions I had to access a server but the door that would lead into the server was stuck due to a blackout I assume and some people were also stuck just outside of the server room. After lookin around for another way to get in I managed to find a vent that let me enter from above, once I accessed the server, seconds later the power went back on and I only had a few secs to get out so I had to use the rope i used to climb down to get back up as lights were slowly coming back on around me and those people were approaching, it created for a really tense moment where I didn't know whether or not I was gonna make it or if I would have had to restart from last quicksave (last quicksave was like 7 minutes beforehand btw). Obviously that's just an example and one that was obviously scripted to happen but there's plenty of non scripted tense moments, having guards walk past you in the dark as you think about whether you are too close to them or not, interrogating someone and seeing another guard come close to you and overhear, wondering if it'd be worth to knock the guard out now or try and move and look for a better spot to knock him out so you can deal with the other guard without having the body seen, etc etc.

I’m looking forward to trying out the coop at some point with a friend even though the way to get it to work is a bit complicated from what I’ve seen but I’ve also heard nothing but positive things about it so it’ll prb be worth the trouble. This is most definitely a game that I will come back and replay countless times.

Not only is this just peak Splinter Cell, this is peak stealth action gaming period. I can't overstate how well designed this game is an how much it refined the genre.

Firstly, this is a pretty good looking game for 2005. The dynamic lighting and shadows were very crisp and clean and added so much atmosphere to even the simplest looking room. The reason why I bring up visuals is because of the way they add to gameplay mechanics. Just like the original Thief series, you stay hidden from enemies in the dark and can be easily seen in the light. The clear, crisp shadows really adds to the consistency of whether you are hidden in the dark or not. I wish more games had visuals that impacted their core mechanics like this.

So the gameplay is good, it's really good. But what I really want to talk about is the soundtrack. This is, honest to god, one of the most refined and creative soundtracks I have ever heard from a videogame. Written and produced by electronica artist, Amon Tobin, the music mostly consists of heavy bass and percussion, and eerie, droning synth instrumentals. It's the perfect infiltration music and really goes the extra mile to pull the player into the world of Splinter Cell.

First replay since release! Quite glad I could shake the bugs out of my distant memories of this game being somewhere near perfect. The ways in which it's weird and frictional definitely give it some character, though. Mirror's Edge's campaign kicks off with relatively simple flow-state platforming that eases you into the control scheme with clearly signposted goals that offer a degree of player freedom which made the journey from A-to-B feel like my own. 'Runner Vision' is still a neat little gimmick as an outright replacement for waypoints and such, acting as both a diegetic and stylised way to subtly suggest to the player little tricks that they could be doing to nudge them in the right direction. Surprised to learn that the game really shines whenever a train is nearby; intense little segments that feel so fast n lethal they shredded years off my life.

It doesn't take particularly long for the game's priorities to shift to something more akin to the jumping puzzles in like, Half Life 1 or something? Often throwing you into very dense obstacle courses or industrial interiors that demand a surprisingly great deal of spatial reasoning. With Runner Vision dialling down the closer to the finale the game gets, I found myself having to stop and survey the area for anything resembling surfaces I've come to know are scalable. On one hand, it's alarmingly rare for a Triple-A title to demand such a thing from a player - but It becomes fairly clear at some point that the game has more or less forgotten the thrill of scaling rooftops and communal areas in an unbroken sprint. A handful of areas feel downright lazy however, I don't demand that a game's world caters itself to the player's moveset, but it becomes fairly apparent that Faith loses her place at points - namely the ship and carpark shootouts which are neither visually interesting or engaging to navigate. Oftentimes you're thrown into a dense warehouse area filled with props and mezzanines that it becomes a game of finding the red door of progression.

All well and good, I don't really mind all of those temporary roadblocks much. I've even had quite a bit of fun looking up speedrun tech and going back through chapters just to absolutely crush them. The kickglitch makes you feel like you're in the fuckin Matrix or something. One of my biggest gripes is honestly that the game is absolutely gorgeo, but it really doesn't want you to appreciate it. Stand still and admire the view, the incredible lighting and texture work that wouldn't look out of place in the current-gen game roster, and a squad of armed feds will eventually come and pepper you down. You can't just put Nvidia PhysX Technology into your game and not let me fuck around with the curtains.

Really masterful game in terms of RPG mechanics, storyline and atmosphere - and there's especially something really special with how this game involves you with the politics of the vampire world, and just encapsulates everything that would seem to be a part of being a vampire. There's really a lot going on in this one, and I like just how it's so involving - setting you up in scenarios where you're essentially being manipulated by a narcissistic Prince, a group of anarchic rebellious vampires and fighting against a bunch of other ones that just want to cause mayhem for the hell of it.

There's an interesting attention drawn towards codes and what people think, and basically drawing this world of an outside community that just keeps tearing itself to shreds. The way this game plays with the story is especially interesting - notably with the opening scene where you're given this strict line of code about "The Masquerade" and how you must never let anyone find out you're a vampire - only you walk out, and you're instantly clocked as a vampire by a few people - then hooking you into more details about why that's the case. The interactions are especially interesting, and I like how the writing and the voice acting makes it feel like you're interacting with people that really have lived so long in these roles - really there's so much here which is really fleshed out and outstanding.

It's definitely a masterpiece in terms of RPG mechanics, but I think this game's greatest flaw comes from its clunky handling of the combat and shooting mechanics - and how it all but forces you towards this path towards the end of the game, although sometimes there can be a great satisfaction to when it's way more open-ended. It does feels like it was trying to establish some sense of non-linearity, then forcing the player to go through with certain things anyway (some justified, others not so much) - and also that it's kind of built upon an engine where it's likely to crash on you at inconvenient times.

That said, I still think this is something people should seek out. As flawed as it can be, there's a great level of immersion that comes from actually playing this game - and it's kind of dependent upon you discovering things and making your own choices, really the story itself is something that's so complex that I can go on and on about it. Best something to see for yourself though.

An interesting and fun ragdoll physics diversion, PAIN is a glimpse of one way video games could have progressed in the seventh console generation. It tacks more towards the silly and diversionary arcade-like nature of earlier 3D titles, before shit like Heavy Rain or Uncharted became the norm. Abhorrent injustice barred me from finishing this game; my older brother was kicked out of my house due to some minor psychotic episodes, eclipsing access to his PS3 and thus to PAIN. There's a surprising amount of variety to the body-slingshot action that comprises the bulk of this game, and some more recent indie ragdoll meme titles ought to have looked here for some inspiration on how to make actually enjoyable gameplay.

Heroes 2 is a diamond in the rough when it comes to WWII shooters on the Wii. In a time where WWII games were a dime a dozen, Heroes 2 was able to stand out by offering Wii users a fantastic online multiplayer and a serviceable single-player campaign. Many of the online maps are still memorable to this day. Although some might find the controls cumbersome and gimmicky at times, the Wii's pointer made aiming an absolute dream. Despite its flaws, Heroes 2 offered Wii players an online FPS during a time when Modern Warfare was all the rage on other platforms. There is little reason for anyone to return to this game now, but for the few thousand people that were able to experience the multiplayer when the servers were online, this game will always hold a special place in our hearts.