Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow

List Price: $29.99 Discount Price: $7.80

Features:

• Exciting shooting game set in Tom Clancy's world of espionage
• Highly detailed graphic environments
• Vast arsenal of weapons and gear
• Nonlinear gameplay
• For one player

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

Great single player game, if a little limited. [Posted on 2005-12-30]
I'm not sure I'm a fan of this relatively new genre of stealth FPS. However, born out of the Thief Series, Splinter Cell has to be the best example of this Genre.

I read many reviews from disgruntled would-be customers over the copyright protection and the use with CDRW drives. I have separate DVD-ROM and and DVD-RW drives so I did not come across this problem. I have a lot of simpathy with publishers trying to protect their property from theft, however its obviously back-fired in this case as its made enemies of legitimate users. Unfortunately my experience of copy protection is that anyone who wants not to pay for the game will find a way of doing so, whether that be by copying, patching of borrowing, so draconian copy protection only serves to upset your customers and does little to deter people who would never pay money in any case :o(.

Anyway - back to the game proper. I really enjoyed Pandora Tomorrow. There are times when i would have really liked to have gone in guns blazing (and at the end I did) but mostly if you do you just get killed - thats fair :o). There were always intelligent ways of achieving your objectives if you looked for them and its all the more realistic for not having to deal with being shot 100 times... The emphasis is on stealth and puzzle solving, finding the best way to take people out without (a) them seeing you first and (b) anyone else raising the alarm.

The game was long enough to feel you got your moneys worth and engaging enough to play it again after a few months. All in all definitely one for the gaming enthusiasts buy list.

Never would install. [Posted on 2006-01-17]
Never could get this to install even after changing the DVDR drive for a DVDrom drive. UBIsoft needs to get it's act together. It is no good alienating paying customers to stop copying by others. If you pay for a product it should work.

Why is it that the second installment in a series is always mediocre? [Posted on 2007-02-27]
I'm not going to make an exhaustive review, but I'll quickly say that this SC was not as good as its predecessor nor its successor. My reasons for this follow:

1. The actual game performance is a drag. Both other games run much better than this installment on a machine that is less than top-of-the-line.

2. The sound and music quality took a real dive. The characters, so realistically recorded in other SC installments, sound more like stand-ins or placeholders in this game. It really detracts from the cinematic quality when Hispanic characters in the room sound like Midwestern Americans talking over a radio. The music tracks...I don't know what they're supposed to be, but they sound like they were dubbed on an old and worn-out cassette recorder.

3. A major drag is the characters themselves. Sam Fisher, instead of being darkly cavalier and slightly funny, is now just dark. I quote from SC 1:
[in a parking garage, Fisher grabs a driver from behind and begins to interrogate him.]
Fisher: I'm going to ask you some questions. When I think you're lying, I'll do this.
[driver whimpers as Fisher does something that causes some pain, though we can't see exactly what it is.]

[In the basement of another building, in the middle of a firefight, Fisher receives word that Vyacheslav Grinko, professional bad man, is on his way down to handle him personally. Lambert, Fisher's boss, hears it too.]
Lambert [over the radio]: Fisher, kill Grinko.
Fisher [with restrained glee]: Okay.

Or from SC 3:
[Again, Fisher grabs an armed soldier from behind and begins asking questions.]
Soldier: Are you going to kill me?
Fisher: Only if you say "monkey."
[conversation progresses...]
Fisher: Are you going to say monkey?
Soldier: No!
Fisher: Then this conversation is over.

No such wit in Pandora Tomorrow. The characters are all so grave that you'd think they would have a heart attack any moment. And Michael Ironside, the voice of Sam Fisher, at times sounds more like he's doing an impression of Vin Diesel as Riddick. Don't get me wrong, I like the Riddick universe too, but the two just don't blend.

Now, I'm not saying that you should not buy this game, but I'm sure not saying that you should. Just keep in mind that these are the downers by comparison to the other games in this series.

Great game. I can't wait to play the sequels. [Posted on 2007-09-06]
The graphics are great, controls are easy to use, and the plot actually has some depth. I can't wait to play the next two chapters in the Splinter Cell line, Chaos Theory and Double Agent.

I can't take it anymore [Posted on 2008-07-04]
I'm on the second mission and I'm bored to death. It must be a training mission still, but the gameplay is ULTRA linear. I'm not having any fun at all. I haven't been allowed to use my gun at all yet. I had MUCH more fun with the rainbow six series. I've played through at least 4 of those. This game feels like I'm just doing what the game tells me to do.

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