Man I thought I would enjoy this more. The splinter cell series is one of my favorites. When I was younger I replayed the original trilogy, especially 1 and pandora tommorow, so many times. A lot of the time when I do go back to revisit games that I loved during my childhood I still enjoy the game, even if it's purely based off nostalgia. This introduction probably makes you think I didn't enjoy the game which is not true at all, and also why my score is high. However, revisiting this game was not as fun as I thought it would be.

To get into my complaints, I have to say that some of the issues I had were technical issues, which honestly except the stupid tank controls, I don't mind, especially as this is a game from 2005. However, there were some issues with it, even comparing it to something like pandora's tommorow, which hindered my experiance. First of all the levels. They ranged from genuinly amazing, to terrible. The 2 missions before the last mission especially are very, very bad. I played this on expert and did a 100% ghost playthrough which took a lot of patience, but honestly wasn't too hard except for the ending of bathhouse, which was TERRRIBLE. You're forced into an action sequence, with enemies one-shotting you and apparently gaining night vision? You're never sure when they're shooting at you or the other faction until it's too late, and shooting enemies reduces your score, so apparently the game wants you to stay quiet. Other complaints are it not being clear at all where you can shoot a light, and the thing is, not only do you waste ammo when you miss, you automatically get put into combat, even if there are no enemies near you. Lots of bugs, but again I won't complain about those because it's a 2005 game. However I think my main problem from the game stems from it's repetitiveness. You go into a room, shoot out the light, take out the guard, and repeat 20 times. The game sometimes throws some cool new ideas and mechanics like the bombs that auto explode if you get near them, but they don't do enough with them where it legitimately changes your experience. I wouldn't necessarily count this as a complaint, but I think this game, and a lot of other games, could benefit from a fear system. Mark of the ninja did this very well, and the arkham games had it and it was cool there(although the gameplay in that game is not fleshed out at all). Would be a very interesting concept to have the guards be more alert and trigger happy as they start noticing things like the lights going out, or their friends disappearing. This could raise the difficulty, which I think can help cause I found this game way too easy at times.

Despite all this I did enjoy myself. This is a really good game, and very influential. There's nothing like putting your night vision goggles on, hearing that sound and then knocking out an enemy. The light mechanic is amazing, and still hasn't been topped to this day. The dialogue is something that stood out to me on this replay, especially as I didn't really understand it as a kid. It was so fun to hear Sam interrogate and use stupid jokes on the guards, or hear the guards talking about prince of persia or something. The story is goofy but that's fine. The levels which are good, are GOOD. The bank, the security office thing, all levels that are expertly crafted.


Overall while I did feel disappointed in my replay to realise the game wasn't as good as I remember it being and all the internet says it is, it's still a fucking blast and some of the most innovative stealth games of all time. I wish we got another entry or even a remaster of this, ironing out the issues I pointed out earlier.