Overview

Xbox love

Despite being quite fond of my Xbox, I haven’t found the opportunity to pick up Splinter Cell yet. Maybe it’s my inherent PC bias, but I’ve decided to wait for the PC version. So when Ubi released the Splinter Cell demo last night, I jumped on the opportunity and downloaded the modest (by today’s standards) 100MB file. For those who missed Marcus’ news post, it’s the same demo that made went around in the Xbox magazines as a cover disc.


What that means is that all you get is one tiny, dinky little level to play with. Consisting of little more than a small police precinct in Tbilisi, the capital of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, it offers only the most limited opportunity to experience the game. Those expecting to get a few hours or perhaps even days of entertainment are going to be sorely disappointed.

Those glowing goggles give ya away, Fisher

A bit melodramatic don't you think?

Snoop dawg!

So what does it offer?

Good question. With the steeper requirements for the game than one would expect from an Xbox title, you can at least test out your system against it. For the record, it ran perfectly fine on a P4 Willamette 2GHz with 512MB of DDR and a GF4 4200 OTES. In fact the system handled full details, 1280 resolution and Quincunx FSAA without a hiccup.

Considering the requirements and recommendations, this is a very impressive title. Models are reasonably detailed and animated very smoothly. It’s possible to break the illusion by doing a few strange things, like rapidly changing directions left and right when hanging off a ledge. Overall though, the animations are extremely impressive.

Ready to bust open the door

Lead diet

It's lethal

A definite crowd pleaser even for experienced gamers will be the curtains in the game. They react extremely realistically to the player and other characters, warping, bending and shuffling as they’re hit. Almost as impressive are the vision modes. Night vision is basically a brightened, black and white version of normal vision. Be careful, if you go into a well-lit area and your character will go blind. Infrared vision is the real bonus – the world is heated realistically. Lamps and computers give off heat, and an uncovered face will be brighter than a clothed body. If you took an enemy down, his body will cool and you can even see that with the infravision goggles. Is that sweet or what?