Not to long ago, I hadn’t played any video games in a while. Wanting to end the dry spell, I picked up Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and to my surprise, I’ve been playing games almost nightly since. This Splinter Cell game was long, invloving, and most of all fun. I’m actually contemplating a second play-through on a more difficult setting. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory earns a four out of five.

Pacifism
There’s a violent pacifist hidden inside me, and it came out in this game. In Splinter Cell, you can sneak up on opponents and grab them from behind. Then after chatting them up (aka interrogating them), you can choose between knocking them out or killing them.

The way the GameCube controls were setup, you would use the left analog shoulder button to put a sleeper hold on opponents. As strange as it may seem, the slow giving push of this button has an amazingly realistic feel to it. I found myself feeling sorry for the guard who informed me, “I should have stayed home. It was kareoke night.” I gave him a gentle sleeper instead of the knife to the kidney.

Don’t Forget the Story
Chaos Theory went further than fun play control; it had a compelling yet non-interfering story. I found my wife listening in from the kitchen asking questions. “Did you just kill Shetland? What’s your mission again?” The story had twists and turns that brought pleasant changes to the gameplay. One moment you were executing your mission objectives, the next they had changed.

Chaos Theory had flexible gameplay that integrated well with the story. It was a well developed title and fun to play. The polish of small details really stood out, and the game had a surprising length and depth to it. Sure, I had a few complaints, obtrusive pre-game menus and long loading waits, but all in all, this was a must have title. It felt a lot like my favorite game GoldenEye, and that says a lot. I will definitely be picking up the next Splinter Cell title.