I AM THE GOD OF STEALTH!!!

Splinter Cell is finished as of 1:30AM EST. After I got this bozo to give me his password, I grabbed a chopper and headed for Georgia to take on Nikoladze. I arrived under the cover of night and had just enough time before the sun came up to practice my performance art routine.

After entering the complex, my first task was clear: take out any and all patrol fish. Hey, there’s one of them right now…

This ought to be easy…

Say hello to Nemo when you get to hell!!!!

Once the fish were out of the picture, the rest of the mission was cake. The end of the level had one of my favorite video game exits of all time as I sneaked my way around four guards with their guns aimed at the doors.

Tee hee! They don’t even know I’m behind them!

Everyone can pretty much agree that Splinter Cell is one of the greatest games of all time. Every aspect of the game is so flawlessly executed and it really set the bar for the stealth genre (a bar the series would continue to raise). I loved having the ability to choose how I wanted each scenario to play out; am I in a kill everyone mood today or a hide in the shadows mood? There were flavors of suspense that I had never experienced before such as slowly escaping an inferno so you don’t set off wall mines, hurrying through the night while dogs track your scent until you find a dark part of a fountain to hide in, or navigating the dense fog of a giant meat freezer with your thermal goggles on. These “quieter” moments were nicely punctuated by firefights and stand-offs so the gameplay never got dull. I look forward to playing through the other games in this series.

Next up will probably be The Last Express. Should be an interesting change of pace from Splinter Cell.