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Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory - 15 Years On And Still A Stealth Masterpiece

IbizaPocholo

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


While Splinter Cell chaos theory was never meant for everyone, and probably has even less mass appeal today than it did when it launched, it's an absolute masterclass example of stealth done right in video games.

If you are a fan of modern stealth games (like Metal Gear Solid 5) then you owe it to yourself to take it up a notch and play Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.
 
Strider311

Strider311

Member
I love Chaos Theory. But unpopular opinion here: I actually love Conviction and Blacklist even more. I still boot up both of those whenever I’m in the mood for some solid stealth action.
 
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Sander Cohen

Sander Cohen

Member
There was a bit of competition back then for best stealth game between SC and MGS with majority, I think, siding with SC but designating MGSs as better overall games which was true. SC had very short campaigns but my god, CT and PT were so good.

I had no problem with shortness because we bought pirated games back then for like 5$ but today, that would be crucified.

I do wish Ubisoft resurrects that franchise again, somehow. It’s huge part of gaming history.
 
Codiox

Codiox

Member
I got all the games on Xbox as original discs. Played 1 and 2 on the one x. What an experience. Now I want to play CT but I am only a couch pc gamer these days.

So I just bought CT on steam for 2,49€ a couple of days ago. With the joypad fix and widescreenfix/shadow fix this games looks gorgeous in 4k. Also the xbox versions are 30fps locked, while on pc you can go 60+fps.

They even officially implemented shader 3.0 so everything looks much better.
 
Soodanim

Soodanim

Gold Member
I never finished the PS3 HD port, but I also bought on PC for simplicity. Does it work well with controllers? I know there’s patches to fix it.
 
GenericUser

GenericUser

Member
If only this game had controller support on pc. I want to replay it so hard. Wonderful game. It's a shame what they did to sam.
 
SafeOrAlone

SafeOrAlone

Banned
I've been craving a replay of this game for like a decade. Finally got an xbox and nearly downloaded it, but hesitated - what if it doesn't hold up? What if I get *GASP* bored??
I'll probably download this weekend.
 
KuraiShidosha

KuraiShidosha

Member
Splinter Cell 1-3 are IMHO the ultimate James Bond/Jason Bourne (coincidence both are JB? just noticed) trilogy of spy espionage games. They mastered the concept of hiding in the shadows at a time when most games had baked shadows, if any at all, and they did it with amazing looking dynamic shadows right out the gates in 2002, on console nonetheless. They're up there as some of my all time favorite games and I can't wait for the day when Xbox emulation gets about as good as Dolphin so I can enjoy these masterpieces as they were originally intended without having to break out the old titanic of a console.
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
A Elbereth Gilthoniel said:
I was firmly in the MGS camp back in those days. But in hindsight I can see Splinter Cell did a lot of things better. Except that move where Sam did the splits. That was weird.
Click to expand...

JZ0UBDc.gif
 
S

Soulblighter31

Banned
Sander Cohen said:
There was a bit of competition back then for best stealth game between SC and MGS with majority, I think, siding with SC but designating MGSs as better overall games which was true. SC had very short campaigns but my god, CT and PT were so good.

I had no problem with shortness because we bought pirated games back then for like 5$ but today, that would be crucified.

I do wish Ubisoft resurrects that franchise again, somehow. It’s huge part of gaming history.
Click to expand...


Competition between SC and mgs for the second place as the 1st one was, is and always will be Thief 1 and 2 :D

MGS 1 was a 6 hour game, 4 of which were cutscenes and codex. Of course SC was the better series. Not better. Actually good
 
Romulus

Romulus

Member
When this came out on the Xbox, it was one of the only games to this day that looked like a generational leap within a generation. It was insane to go from Pandora Tomorrow to this.
 
Romulus

Romulus

Member
KuraiShidosha said:
Splinter Cell 1-3 are IMHO the ultimate James Bond/Jason Bourne (coincidence both are JB? just noticed) trilogy of spy espionage games. They mastered the concept of hiding in the shadows at a time when most games had baked shadows, if any at all, and they did it with amazing looking dynamic shadows right out the gates in 2002, on console nonetheless. They're up there as some of my all time favorite games and I can't wait for the day when Xbox emulation gets about as good as Dolphin so I can enjoy these masterpieces as they were originally intended without having to break out the old titanic of a console.
Click to expand...

I just turned my titanic OG Xbox into an emulator lol. 4 player coop on a TV with thousands of classics plus all the Xbox games. Not to mention, I play OG Xbox games online too on the OG hardware.
 
E

EmSeta

Member
Man I loved this game. Amazing that so few stealth games have been able to match it, given the blueprint it provided.
 
SafeOrAlone

SafeOrAlone

Banned
Just played it for the first time since Xbox, on the Series X. I believe it had a touch of HDR. It looks fantastic, despite some blocky models. Gameplay still feels dependable and the first mission's level had a decent layout with a thick sense of atmosphere. Verdict = still a winner.
 
S

Soulblighter31

Banned
GymWolf said:
The graphic on xbox was mindblowing.
Click to expand...


No, it was the graphics on PC that were mindblowing. Mouse and keyboard controls, high resolution, one of the first games to support pixel shader 3 and had an option in the menu and you got state of the art extra effects on the game.
 
Krappadizzle

Krappadizzle

Member
Soulblighter31 said:
No, it was the graphics on PC that were mindblowing. Mouse and keyboard controls, high resolution, one of the first games to support pixel shader 3 and had an option in the menu and you got state of the art extra effects on the game.
Click to expand...
While I agree with all this, it was still a good looking game on Xbox. Only issue that game suffered with was that plastic-y "sheen" that would be on a lot of the characters.
 
Sybrix

Sybrix

Member
Seriously fuck Ubisoft.

Where the fuck has Splinter Cell been!?!

This video just shows how incredible this game can be and still Ubi dont release shit, instead we get crap re-hashes of AC, FC, WD and Ghost Recon while they work for a million years on some monkey pig space game that's going to be shit and not live up to anyone's expectations.
 
Muay Ninja

Muay Ninja

Member
Krappadizzle said:
While I agree with all this, it was still a good looking game on Xbox. Only issue that game suffered with was that plastic-y "sheen" that would be on a lot of the characters.
Click to expand...
Looked amazing on Xbox. I remember getting a Xbox 360 and thinking for the first year this still looked better than most games that released on Xbox 360.
 
F

Fashionably Late

Neo Member
This was one of the first games I bought with my Series X to check out how it had held up. I replayed the first 2 games on PS2 over the summer but they were definitely inferior to how I remembered the Xbox versions back when they released. I was very impressed with how well this one held up. The upscaled graphics look great apart from some dated character models but the levels have great layouts that really give you lots of options for how to tackle an encounter. I really miss this style of gameplay. I jumped over to Blacklist after my playthrough and it was jarring how different it was to say the least.
 
Romulus

Romulus

Member
Soulblighter31 said:
No, it was the graphics on PC that were mindblowing. Mouse and keyboard controls, high resolution, one of the first games to support pixel shader 3 and had an option in the menu and you got state of the art extra effects on the game.
Click to expand...

It was very comparable to the top tier PC version at that time, especially considering how cheap and old the xbox was by 2005.
 
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chigstoke

chigstoke

Member
The best stealth game of all time IMO.

Admittedly I'm a huge Splinter Cell fanboy but Chaos Theory was just the perfect blend of, well, everything that makes a stealth action game good.

Get it remastered Ubi ffs!
 
Hudo

Hudo

Member
I agree that this was and is the best singleplayer Splinter Cell. I would put it even above the Thief games in terms of fun I had with it.
What really surprised me was the multiplayer in Pandora Tomorrow. I am usually not a big multiplayer guy but that shit was fun, man. Spies vs. Mercs.
 
S

Soulblighter31

Banned
Romulus said:
It was very comparable to the top tier PC version at that time, especially considering how cheap and old the xbox was by 2005.
Click to expand...


It lookes good on xbox, sure. But your wrist watch has a higher resolution than the game had and it more than likely droped at 20 frames for the entirety of the game, plus aliasing and lower details. On PC you had everything i said, like you have today - high, crisp resolution, graphical effects only permited by the DX9C GF 6xxx cards, the absolute sublime mouse and keyboard controls which gives you complete control in this series, much better than controllers.
 
Romulus

Romulus

Member
Soulblighter31 said:
It lookes good on xbox, sure. But your wrist watch has a higher resolution than the game had and it more than likely droped at 20 frames for the entirety of the game, plus aliasing and lower details. On PC you had everything i said, like you have today - high, crisp resolution, graphical effects only permited by the DX9C GF 6xxx cards, the absolute sublime mouse and keyboard controls which gives you complete control in this series, much better than controllers.
Click to expand...

Well yeah, I would hope there were advantages stacked against expensive PCs. OG Xbox was $200 in 2005 lol
 
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TheMay30thMan

TheMay30thMan

Member
A couple of years ago I decided to go through the entire series in order. The first two were amazing, but extremely punishing. Especially on Xbox where you only have checkpoints and can’t save whenever you want. When I got to Chaos Theory... Wow. That game left the first two in the dust. The only other Splinter Cell game that comes close to it, in my opinion, is Blacklist. If you haven’t played the first three and you want to, do yourself a favor, play them on PC.
 
R6Rider

R6Rider

Gold Member
Tesseract said:
Click to expand...

I still remember that factory level with the metal catwalks and support beams you could climb on. Spies would always hide against the support beams on the catwalk and you could always see their feet sticking out just slightly when playing as the mercs. Or the map with the long rappel lines to each tower. The one tower had this couch I would always hide behind :messenger_grinning_sweat:
 
M

matty3092

Member
Just recently replayed Chaos Theory on Series X and it is indeed a masterpiece and still holds up really well. Curious to know what people's opinions are on Double Agent version 1 vs version 2.
 
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