Splinter Cell: Essentials
Platform: PSP
Portable Splinter Cell for stealth fans to get their fix.
Review by Psi-0p

Splinter Cell. A revolutionary stealth-action game that originated on the Xbox. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell had a massive library of stealth tactics including acrobatic moves such as the famous “split jump.” The game eventually evolved into Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow. Pandora Tomorrow then included an incredible multiplayer online game called Spy vs. Mercenary. Now comes Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, the best of the three. Chaos Theory completed the Splinter Cell games with the addition of the knife, hacking and the rag-doll effect. Every Splinter Cell game has been critically accalimed.

Well, now for all you PSP owners who love Splinter Cell as much as I do, introducing Splinter Cell: Essentials. Essentials takes place right after Double Agent and spans the entire Splinter Cell series with all of Sam’s most important missions, including a couple of new levels for people who have already played the originals. There are 7 new missions along with the 5 originals. A total of 12 missions! Essentials was one of my better grabs for PSP. The graphics are pretty good and the audio is incredible. There is no text-talking, only full on vocals. All of the guns and gun ammunitions (sticky shocker, etc.) are featured, the knife is back and the new levels are amazing. And once again, the extremely talented Michael Ironside is the voice of Sam Fisher.

Unfortunately the rag-doll effect has been removed from Essentials along with a couple of other acrobatic moves. The fore-grip, sniper and shotgun attachments aren’t in the game either. But the original SC-20K made a return. The camera is a bit of a bitch at first but eventually you get used to it. And no, the online capabilities weren’t featured on the PSP. But on the other hand there is now a cool Spy vs. Spy ad-hoc multiplayer instead of Spy vs. Mercenary.

Aside from the long loading times and lack of features, Splinter Cell: Essentials really blew me away. I like to play it when I’m at school or when I’m not at home, but otherwise I just play Chaos Theory. Essentials is just mainly for those Splinter Cell freaks who need their daily fix to stay sane.

Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 9.5/10
Story: 8/10
Lasting Appeal: 8/10
Final Score: 8.5/10