Splinter Cell: Pandora Tommorrow

[Iain]

Another fine production from Ubisoft is Splinter Cell: Pandora Tommorrow which has a solid single player experience but now also has one of the most unique multiplayer online modes around.

Features:

SINGLE PLAYER
Intense realism: 17 Single player levels of gripping Clancy action powered by mind-blowing visuals

Global techno-thriller: Intense Tom Clancy game storyline so real you can feel it (Indonesia, France, USA, Israel, Timor)

Cutting-edge espionage: The most advanced weapons, gadgets and stealth moves (sticky camera, laser mic., GPS, fiber optic camera...)

MULTIPLAYER
Multiplayer Revolution: First ever multiplayer stealth game (online or LAN), play a spy in 3rd person or a mercenary in first person

Choose your side: Track intruders as a mercenary, sneak behind enemy lines as a mercenary. Each side has his own weapons and gadgets.

4 unique modes of Gameplay: Neutralization, Extraction, Sabotage, ID tag.

The single player experience is slick production you would of course expect from Ubi soft, it is the multiplayer modes you want to get into this for however, and it will be a unique experience on Live probably right up to Halo 2 opening and maybe beyond.

There is no 12 or 16 player deathmatches here, where you materialize and die as fast as the guy camping out your spawn point, no this is two spys versus two mercenaries and with those odds in huge areas the action is more tense than frantic.

Mercenaries are your typical deathmatch guys, they have heavy weaponary and armour and run in first person mode, this might look pretty bad for the spys who have light weapons, light armour and operate in third-person view, but the spys will have other weapons to draw on.

One such weapon is the Spy Bullet - A bug device that tracks a merc if you shoot it at them. A merc will show up on the spies' radar if the spy bullet connects. It will also let you listen in on merc communications so you know what they're planning. And on Xbox Live knowing what your oponants are going to do is very useful, you can also snicker at their frustration if you are on a good run. ;D

Spys
If you're a spy, your goal is really to neutralise the several NDI33 units on the level, not neutralise the mercs. Although you can win by breaking all the merc's necks and emptying out their reserve lives, most matches are under time and on some maps, you can't really find good ambush spots for the mercs since there are so many passive sensors and bright areas. (good spys stick to the shadows really.) Regardless of how much firepower the merc players have, as a spy, you dictate the pace of the match since you are always on the attack.

By pacing your infiltration, you and your buddy spy can actually overwhelm a merc player at a single NDI33(thats assuming the merc players split up, which they usually do). If one spy starts hacking an NDI, merc players tend to migrate there to stop you. Wouldn't it be a damn surprise if a second spy hung back, taser one merc player before grabbing the other merc while the hacking spy breaks off from the NDI33 and knocks out the first merc? Quite a coup indeed, but this strategy requires some communication with your online ally and some knowledge of where to hide.

An opposing view would be to start hacking two NDI33s at the same time, forcing the mercs to split. This works better in Sabotage games (the game type with the spy modem) than most since a spy can be somewhere else once the modem is planted while you run to an ammo box and grab another. The split attack is best used on large stages like Vertigo Plaza, where there's a large area to cover; in small stages like the Hospital or Cinema, a skilled merc can kill one spy then move quickly to deal with the second intrusion.

Mercenaries[/color]
As a merc, your goal really is as simple as any other FPS deathmatch game -- kill the spies, or at least hold them off from claiming all the NDI33s until time runs out. Timed games work in favour of merc players, since spies usually rush more to get the NDI33s done and get nuked by mines or by carelessness.

And mines are a merc's best friend, this is possibly the greatest FPS mine ever. You can set it to proximity whereby it blows up if a spy gets too close (mercs are ignored but can be killed by the blast). Slow-moving spies can disarm them (or shoot them to blow them up), but mercs can "herd" a spy into the preset killzone.
Alternately, you can place them as laser tripmines (like in Duke Nuk'em 3D) so they will be triggered if a spy crosses the laser. In general, proximity is better, (my Goldeneye and Perfect Dark days of happy mineing comes to mind here..)and it will depend on how a merc places them to kill spies. Each merc only has three mines, so use them immediately before you die. If you die, use your fresh mines somewhere and move any mines that aren't doing anything to somewhere more useful.

I'm enjoying this game alot and hope to find a stealthy spy to join me in some healthy fun neck snapping.