Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell | Developer: Ubi Soft Montreal | Publisher: Ubi Soft | Year: 2002
A stealthy agent aims a gun in the dark on the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Xbox cover art.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell

Thanks to titles like Tenchu, Metal Gear Solid, and Thief, the modern genre of action stealth games was firmly established by the early two-thousands. Encouraging players to remain unseen and not attack enemies in otherwise violent 3D action games didn’t sound like a winning idea, but the mechanic caught on in a big way, and it proved to be a fresh enough direction to catapult those aforementioned names to franchise status. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin and the first Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell also released to positive reception at the end of 2002, with the latter making its initial debut on Microsoft Xbox.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell was a landmark moment for the emerging genre. Here was a game making full use of powerful console hardware to present a gorgeously-rendered technophobic thriller where darkness is your friend and automatic weapons are always a last resort.

Players are cast as agent Sam Fisher who leads the National Security Agency’s fictional Third Echelon Initiative. When Fisher gets reactivated to locate a pair of fellow NSA agents who went MIA, he finds evidence that the new Georgian president has been waging a covert campaign of terror against the neighbouring Azerbaijan in an effort to seize their lucrative oil supply.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell is designed entirely around stealth, to the point where nearly every player interaction affects Sam Fisher’s ability to stay hidden. While Fisher has access to silenced firearms, ammunition is scarce, and dead bodies will need to be carefully concealed lest they be discovered by patrolling enemies. Shooting at light bulbs tends to be a better use of your bullets because the incredible lighting system governs everything Fisher does (or wishes he could do). A light meter tracks how visible he is at any given time, with players being heavily encouraged to stay in the shadows. It’s not the most realistic look to have every map perpetually covered in darkness, but it afforded Ubi Soft considerable space in their encounter design. Non-lethal gadgets and devices like aerodynamic tasers, sticky cameras, and optic cables (which let Fisher see through doors), only added to the innovation. It was all very impressive for its time.

Also impressive is Fisher’s innate agility. Being able to instantly adopt a sneaking stance through a quick button tap was a revelation that made Splinter Cell feel faster-paced than many of its contemporaries. Jumping and climbing are awkward mechanics in comparison, although Fisher’s iconic split-legged jump which allows him to pounce on unaware foes like a predator is pretty cool. That’s also the perfect opportunity to mention his thermal goggles which produce a visual effect so awesome, I nominated it for Best Video Moments!

Instances like these are where Sam Fisher emerges as not just a lithe video game character, but a charismatic one as well. The field dialogue between Fisher and his handler (Irving Lambert) demonstrates great voice work and storytelling. Fisher is voiced by Hollywood actor Michael Ironside who does a great job bringing out Fisher’s menace, as well as his fondness for amusing one-liners. To further illustrate this point: there are bonus features on the original disc with one being a spoof interview featuring “video game actor” Sam Fisher rendered inside Ubi Soft Montreal’s real life office. Wacky stuff.

A stealthy agent performs a split-legged jump in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.
A stealthy agent rappels down an office building in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.
A stealthy agent interrogates a suited man at gunpoint in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.
A stealthy agent stands below an imposing oil rig in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.

The overly patriotic plot feels of its time, most of the time, but otherwise the storytelling is good and feels true to Clancy’s vibe. The first mission gets right into the good stuff too, with Fisher infiltrating a burning building to retrieve intel from a dying contact. Another fun mission sees Fisher chasing a computer technician up and down a besieged oil rig.

One thing about Splinter Cell that hasn’t aged well are the punishing checkpoint system and occasionally unforgiving game mechanics. If an enemy spots even your knee poking out from behind a wall, you can bet they’ll be raising an alarm and causing mission failure very shortly after. Modernisations from newer stealth games are sorely missed. The ability to open doors while carrying a body is one example, as are snap-to cover mechanics you’d see in future games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It’s also frustrating grabbing other characters from behind. Interrogating enemies at gunpoint and forcing them to activate retinal scanners are cool ideas prone to annoying botches over the contextual menus. One example of this is during a mission where Fisher is forced to wait as some guy he needs to kidnap stops to drink at two separate water fountains en route to an extraction point. Being forced to replay this after a single mistake is no fun at all.

Like many Xbox originals, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell can be played in an upscaled format on Xbox Series where the game’s beauty remains easy to appreciate, even if it’s still in 4:3 aspect ratio. The Kola Cell and Uselka Infiltration DLC scenarios are included as another welcome bonus.

All the talk of unforgiving difficulty, lack of widescreen support, and the fact that the Splinter Cell franchise has long been absent, makes me wonder why this original classic hasn’t been remastered yet. Ubi Soft did announce a remake back in 2021 though, so if any game could reignite the stealth genre once more, surely that would be the one to do it.