Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Reviews

The game just throws bullshit at you. Like NPCs not leaving an area even though they haven't spotted you, the controls are terrible for keyboard and mouse, and you have to save scum your way to victory. I find it incredible that this steaming hot pile of garbage is still on the steam store page. But, to be fair I do think that this type of genre of game is just not for me! If you are into stealth and 3rd person stuff like that go right ahead, I am confident that you will have a blast.

It’s the kind of classic that deserves respect from a distance, like a fossil that might crumble to the touch. Voice acting is decent, but good luck hearing it over the ambient buzz of 2000s era audio compression and tinnitus inducing alarms. It’s like Metal Gear Solid if Hideo Kojima hated fun and really liked filing cabinets.

Doesn't hold up, for the most part. When enemies do and don't detect you is inconsistent; bullet spread is too random; a "ghost" playthrough is punished in too many ways. The story is decent Tom Clancy fare. I recommend reading the story for this game and going straight to Chaos Theory. CT is peak--refined gameplay, legendary soundtrack, great banter between Fisher and Lambert. I used the Enhanced mod, by the way, and there was only so much it could do to help.

The story and tactical/stealth gamplay-wise is fine, just got to have a bit of patience. But, there are some optimization issues since this is an older game. Played this back on Playstation way back when, so it is a bit nostalgic.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a condensed experience of the torture conducted at Abu Ghraib masquerading quite cleverly as a stealth action video game. Its not a very good game. Its mechanically both outdated and frustrating. It feels really terrible to play - even base mechanics like the shooting is miserable, because the shot will sometimes just...spread out even at close range whilst standing still, causing you to miss point blank. Which lights can or cannot be shot out is also confusing. For a stealth game that penalizes you for leaving bodies, it often puts you into unavoidable, unskippable, stealthless firefights, which are easily the worst part of the game because of how sluggish and unfair it feels - not due to user error but due to the shooting being easily your number one enemy throughout the game. The "interrogation" is also pretty bad. You can only do it to a handful of people in the game. Generally they say some very boring or obvious things. The entire story is kind of boring actually, albeit kind of prophetic, in my opinion - I guess nearly all Clancy games are like that. I want to say, finishing this game was like a weight being taken off my shoulders. Each moment, minute and hour spent on it was pure torture. This came out a year later, after MGS2 and the difference between these two stealth games is pretty shocking. Their approach to the genre is both different and also telling. MGS2 has aged considerably well - it feels very fresh to play to this day. This game feels the polar opposite way, it is completely outdated. I would even use the word archaic. I am sure that people worked very hard on this game. And maybe when it came out, it was ahead of its time or something like that. Right now though, this is a grueling, boring, very linear and restrictive game in every single sense, mechanically, gameplay wise, and story wise. Truth be told I think I would rather sacrifice some kind of body part of mine than go through this game again. Splinter Cell is a game and I recommend it to you. Because men are born for games. Every child knows that play is nobler than work. I recommend Splinter Cell because I hate you. I hate myself. 7.5/10

Got this on CD when I was a kid and learned what more complex game for all ages are like. Old but it takes it's time to get good.

beat this on the morning don't tap the glass came out. my review of tom clancy's splinter cell is that i'll take care of you is maybe the best tyler song idk maybe it's just recency bias but it evokes something in me.

The very first Splinter Cell is an iconic and innovative game that still provides a lot of fun many years later. First off, do yourself a favor and download the EnhancedSC mod that provides a lot of fixes and quality of life changes (such as no 3 alarm failure, widescreen fixes, etc.) Besides that, Splinter Cell is a stealth game that prides leaving enemies untouched and completing a mission unnoticed. The lighting system is the big draw and still looks impressive today. Gameplay revolves around light and shadow so be sure to stalk in the darkness to take guards out or shoot out lights to cloak your movements. Unlike future installments in the series, there is very little wiggle room if you are caught and in a firefight. Enemies can melt your health quickly and your weapons have very little accuracy. The learning curve is steep but once you get a handle of it, successfully going full ghost mode successfully is very satisfying. All in all, Splinter Cell is a great experience and a great first game in the series. It may be frustrating (especially the wonky controls) but there is more than enough good to warrant a buy.

Classic game, I honestly forgot how hard the Splinter Cell games were. I have one issue with the game and that is that you have to find a patch to run the game smoothly on modern hardware, without a widescreen stabilizing patch the game will freeze and try to change window size randomly. A quick google search will lead you to what you need to patch the game with. Outside of that once I got it running I was having an amazing time dying and retrying the first mission until I got a hang of the controls. I played Double Agent endlessly growing up, and playing the first game is nostalgic despite being a new experience for me. Worth picking up still in 2025, the difficulty might be a bit off putting for newer players but if you can push through to the end of the first mission then you will be hooked.

Eh, its fine. stealth is good, gunplay is....alright. but ammo is rare and so are medkits (more rare than they should be) and the default autosaving just SUCKS.