Splinter Cell

Splinter Cell is a series of video games and novels created by American author Tom Clancy. The main character, Sam Fisher is a highly trained agent of a black-ops division of the NSA, named "Third Echelon".

Video games

The series of video games are third-person stealth shooters developed and published by Ubisoft and are a vital part of a large wave of stealth-based third-person video games that became popular in the late 1990s. The originators of the genre, the acclaimed Metal Gear games, have much in common with the Splinter Cell titles in terms of gameplay; however, it is the gritty realism of Splinter Cell that draws so many fans. Splinter Cell has ascended to the top of the video gaming heap in terms of realistic stealth-based adventures, essentially sharing the distiction for high quality stealth action with the Metal Gear series.

Related Topics:
Third-person stealth shooters - Ubisoft - 1990s - Metal Gear

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The Splinter Cell series currently includes:

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• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell — (2002) Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, PC, Macintosh, Game Boy Advance
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Team Action Stealth — (2003) N-Gage
• ' — (2004) Xbox, PS2, GameCube, PC, Game Boy Advance
• ' — (2005) Xbox, PS2, GameCube, Nintendo DS, PC, N-Gage

A fourth Splinter Cell game is currently being developed by Ubisoft for a planned release in late 2006.

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The storyline is similar in each of the games. Terrorists are planning an attack by weapons of mass destruction and Sam Fisher needs to prevent that. The missions range from gathering intelligence to capturing or eliminating terrorist operatives.

Related Topics:
Weapons of mass destruction - Sam Fisher

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Stealth is critical for playing the game, and shooting the way clear (as in the game Doom) is not a suitable option to achieve mission success. An alarm usually occurs if a non-player character spots a casualty, an unconscious person, or Sam Fisher himself. The mission is aborted after a set number of alarms have been triggered; sometimes only one will end a mission prematurely, depending on the mission. The smoothest way forward is to remain invisible, select non-obvious routes, and use diversion to pass guards. The game is a combination of problem solving and quick action. What truly sets Splinter Cell apart from other games of its kind are its brilliant multiplayer modes. Pandora Tommorow introduced a two-on-two multiplayer mode, pitting two very differently equipped teams against each other. Chaos Theory further evolved that mode and introduced a co-operative mode. This mode plays out very much like the single player mode, yet features a myriad of moves that can only be performed by both players acting as a team.

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Characters

Phillip Masse is an American computer hacker, known very well to society, especially American society, but more so in the Central and Eastern European societies. In 2001, Phillip Masse crashed three large Georgian computer systems that were responsible for keeping track of military expenditures for that country. This was part of the rarely known Georgian Information Crisis. After crashing the computers, he was captured by police in Tbilisi.

Related Topics:
American - Hacker - Eastern European - Georgian - Tbilisi

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Bruce Morgenholt is an ordinary programmer who happens to be one of the twelve or so most prominent computer hackers on the planet. He worked alongside Abrahim Zherkezhi, studying the Masse Kernels following the Georgian Information Crisis, and used to work for Jane-Lauderdale technologies (a top secret communications company), its location confidential.

Related Topics:
Abrahim Zherkezhi - Masse Kernels - Georgian Information Crisis - Confidential

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