It's not a bad game, not at all. It just falls short of MGS2 in just about every area. I was expecting a much deeper and engrossing title. Color me fooled by marketing. The game's tagline is "Stealth Action Redefined," which is an obvious jab at Metal Gear... since it is extremely fashionable to bust on MGS2. But it's more like "Stealth Action Reduced to Linear Paths Where You Must Do Exactly What the Game Expects to Proceed."

The first hole in Sam Fisher's arsenal is hand-to-hand. The dude's only brawlin' skill is to attempt to clock an enemy with his elbow or rifle butt. That rarely works when your enemy is dumping bullets into you point blank. Sam dies quickly... which is realism that I like (and don't mind much since there is an abundance of save points.) But it just seems ridiculous that Sam can't do anything when a terrorist gets the drop on him, except lie down and restart.

The plot and characterization don't measure up to MGS2 either. In Splinter Cell, we have some kind of basic Evil Dictator Intends Global Domination storyline... nowhere near Metal Gear's multilayered, symbolic story. Those of you who are still making fun of whiny, transgender Raiden and the Jack/Rose love story subplot are welcome to send me mail, but really guys, that's awfully old by now.

A great example of Splinter Cell's shallow story is errand-boy Wilkes's death. We never get to know Wilkes as a person. He's just the weak-chinned red-haired goof who drives Sam in and out of missions. His death scene, which desparately wants to be emotional, just falls flat because we have no interest in the character. Compare that to Otacon from MGS2. We get to know Otacon from codec conversations and cutscenes. When Otacon and Snake split up late in the game, you get the feeling of two buddies against the world. When he has his gut-wrenching moments with Emma, you damn well feel it.

Once you drop the absurd notion that Splinter Cell is a top tier title, it becomes quite serviceable and fun. It's upper tier, but not top tier. There are lots of nice touches, like having to hold your breath while sniping to steady your aim, using the analog stick as a virtual lockpick, piping a lipstick camera under doors to peek into the next room... there are more tools and toys, but I haven't found much use for some of them. The stealth aspect of the game relies heavily on keeping Sam in shadows; an onscreen meter shows your level of invisibility as you tiptoe down the hall. It's fun and great for methodical planners such as myself, but it is dopey to think that secret government installations would have long hallways with roving sentries but scattered ambient light sconces.

Between levels, a cutscene shows a clip montage from an all-news cable channel. I thought that was a nice touch, and some of the shots there are remarkably real looking.

The GC/GBA connection is very cool. Your entire level map appears on the GBA - rather than having to jump to a pause/map screen on the tv - and you can scan the GBA for nearby sentries! Since the GBA constantly gets "live" info, you can use it to watch enemy walking patterns and remotely trigger sticky bombs. Very, very nice.

So that's where I am in Splinter Cell. It's not measuring up to what the hype suggested, but good times nevertheless.

Unrelated aside: From DMG Ice, this scientific article about a newly discovered sea animal, of which marine biologists know almost nothing. You, however, will know what it is as soon as you see it. Samus, get the plasma beam and ice missiles on standby.