The End

Interface

The interface is really something else. It combines the basic WASD controls from an FPS game with a free camera and analog speed control. Analog speed control? That’s a really clever way of letting the player determine the movement speed of his character. Rather than just have a run and slow toggle button, the game lets players use the mouse scroll feature to determine movement speed. Fisher, the agent you play in the game, can go at any speed from a cautious walk to a light run. Even at his fastest setting, he never abandons stealthy movement. Like our perennial first-person-sneaker favorite, Thief, there’s a light bar. It shows how well or how poorly Fisher is hidden.


In addition to his gun, Fisher comes with a health kit, lock picks and an optical cable. It’s easy enough to select them with the quick inventory button, and using them is even easier – just click the fire button. The items are context-sensitive, so Fisher won’t use his optical cable in the middle of a hallway, preventing some embarrassing mistakes!

Don't shoot the civilians

Infrared is generally useless

As you can see I live in night vision

Gameplay

The most disappointing part of the demo is actually the gameplay. The five-ten minutes of play don’t even allow us to get immersed before it’s over [insert feminist sexual joke here]. What really kills us is the fact that you don’t end up trying even a tenth of the things you can allegedly do in the full game.

The whole point of a demo is to tease – give an accurate, fun representation of the final product without giving it all away. The Splinter Cell demo just doesn’t give enough tease. It’s like a girl lifting her skirts to show her ankles. Sure that might work in the 19th century or in an Amish community, but we’re hardcore gamers here. Ubi did itself a real disservice by releasing this too-short, feature-crippled demo of an excellent game. Worth a download? Sure, if you want to see how it runs on your system or like bumping into curtains. Not exactly the most compelling reasons to try a game, are they?

Curtains!

Wee!

Woo!