Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow Review - Sam and His Weapons
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So lets start off with the immersive story: You are Sam Fisher. You are a spy (among other things). An American embassy in a small country has been overtaken by terrorists and you are being sent in to take care of things. The terrorists have taken U.S. military and civilian hostages...but you're not there to rescue the hostages. You are there to make sure that some very sensitive encrypted information stored on the embassy's computer is not deciphered. Your main enemy at this point is the rebel leader Suhadi Sadono and, in addition to saving the info, you need to find out what he's up to and how you can stop it as well as who else might be involved. Returning as the voice of Sam is Michael Ironside who was in such movies as Top Gun, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers. Not a huge actor but he does a great job of playing the laidback hero with a soft-spot for automatic weaponry.
I have to say that from strictly a storyline standpoint it might sound a little contrived, but the plot takes a pretty serious twist when you find out that Sadono has acquired a virus (I'll leave which virus un-spoiled) and exactly why you can't just go and kill the dirtbag and take it back. Tom Clancy knows how to put a story together, which is obviously why game makers are interested in getting his stuff into their market.
As far as weapons go this game is surprisingly, though not too disappointingly, light on the assortment. You get a hand gun with a silencer and a laser scope, which you can turn on and off because if you're not careful your enemy might notice the little red dot. You also get an assault rifle, an SC-20K to be exact, which has a number of useful accessories and ammo (which I'll get into in just a minute), add to that wall mines, frag grenades, flash grenades, and chaff grenades(in case you're unfamiliar that last one is used to disrupt electronic equipment).
For the SC-20K you can fire regular bullets, but the barrel has been modified to not only subdue the sound of the shot (silencer) but also to subdue its muzzle flash so as not to visually give away your position. A lot of the game depends on stealth and in some cases you can't use lethal force or sometimes it's just quicker or more convenient not to kill so you are to use the SC-20K's alternative ammo/accessories.
More weapons include:
The Ring Airfoil Projectile: A high impact, zero-penetration projectile made to incapacitate rather than kill.
The Sticky Camera: A miniature camera with microphone launched quietly from the rifle with night and thermal vision capabilities.
The Sticky Shocker: A high-voltage discharge device coated in adhesive resin which will stick to and incapacitate enemy.
The Distraction Camera: This works like the Sticky Cam except it can distract enemies with a sound and release a gas cloud when they are near.
Gas Grenade: When launched from the rifle, the grenade will detonate approximately 3 seconds later and emit a very large cloud of incapacitating gas to knock out, or at the very least distract, one or more enemies.
But wait a second -- this is an espionage game -- where are all the gadgets? Well, the two cameras listed above are pretty cool gadgets, but beyond that you get a standard set of lock picks, a "disposable" lock pick which is basically a small bit of explosives on the end of a lock pick so that you can quickly bypass a door if you're in a rush, of course you only get a few of these; a Laser Microphone: Tactical Audio Kit which sounds a lot cooler than it is (a distance microphone that looks like a gun) and sadly you only get to use it once; a camera jammer which again looks like a gun and gets very little usage; your goggles which give you the functions of binoculars, night-vision, and thermal-vision all in one; and of course my fav -- the Optic cable which allows you to see what's on the other side of the door before opening it. It sounds simple, but it's an invaluable tool.
Next: Gameplay: Single Play >>
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