Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
From Wiki Splinter Cell
| Chaos Theory | |
|---|---|
| |
| Full Title | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory |
| Developer(s) | Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Annecy |
| Publisher(s) | Ubisoft |
| Composer(s) | Amon Tobin & Jesper Kyd |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 2.5 |
| Release | March 28, 2005 |
| Platforms | Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, NDS, N-Gage, Mobile |
| Previous | Pandora Tomorrow |
| Next | Double Agent |
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is the third game in the Splinter Cell game series. This is also the first game to be rated M for mature.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The story of Chaos Theory is a throwback to the first Splinter Cell game and it's information warfare theme. In 2007 China and North Korea are unhappy with Japan's new I-SDF (Information Self Defense Force) as they believe it violates Article 9 of the post World War II constitution. (There is a news report about the I-SDF in a cut scene in Pandora Tomorrow.) China and North Korea set up a blockade in the Yellow Sea and the United States is forced to respond. They send their most advanced ship, the USS Clarence E. Walsh, into the Yellow Sea hoping China and North Korea will back down. Meanwhile across the world Sam Fisher is sent into Peru to rescue a programmer who worked on Masse's algorithms. When the programmer, Bruce Morgenholt is tortured to death, Fisher follows the Peruvian guerrilla group's leader onto a freight ship where he learns Lacerda was hired by someone else to kidnap Bruce Morgenholt.
[edit] Somewhere on the coasts of Peru
Sam Fisher is dispatched to find a computer programmer - Bruce Morgenholt who has been captured by Peruvian Hugo Lacerda who is having Bruce decipher Phillip Masse's algorithms. He is also sent to assassinate Lacerda as a target of opportunity. Infiltrating via a zodiac, Sam makes his way into the ruins of a fortress on the coast. As Sam enters deep within, he witnesses that Bruce is being tortured and is killed in the process of torturing. Soon after, Sam learns that the Masse Kernels have been released from the algorithms. Sam then finds information about a ship called the Maria Narcissa, which is involved in illegal arms trade. Sam later escapes via a lighthouse in order to board the vessel.
[edit] Maria Narcissa, Pacific Ocean
After leaving the fortress, Sam sneaks aboard the Maria Narcissa to track the weapons and assassinate Hugo Lacerda. After scanning the bill of lading on the shipment of arms, Echelon tracks the shipment to a bank in Panama. Sam also places tracking devices on boxes of crates that contain weapons. He later delves deeper into the vessel to finally assassinate Lacerda, who is protected by unknown mercenaries. After completing both objectives, Sam leaves the vessel via a lifeboat.
[edit] Panamanian Bank, Panama
Sam is immediately sent to Panama to infiltrate a bank with the help of a man who "specializes" in cracking banks vaults. Once inside the bank, Sam successfully enters the vault to look for more traces of the Masse Kernels. After retrieving info from the vault computer, Echelon discovers a 512-bit encryption with connections to an unknown person named Dvorak. Sam then steals $50,000,000 worth of French government bonds, covering the intelligence operation with a guise of a bank robbery. He then returns to the NSA for briefing.
[edit] New York City, New York
Japan and the Eastern Seaboard witness a black out. Nobody knew the reasons behind it and shortly after, the I-SDF sends a message to Third Echelon that China and North Korea might be responsible for the black outs. Irving Lambert orders Sam to head to Abrahim Zherkhezi's penthouse in New York City to investigate a possible lead on the black outs. Sam sneaks past numerous men of the National Guard and infiltrates the penthouse, only to find it heavily guarded by mercenaries. Upon interrogation of a guard, Sam finds out that the mercenaries are in fact employees of Displace International - a private military corporation run by Douglas Shetland and that they were assigned by Milan Nedich.
Infiltrating further into another worn-down apartment, Sam discovers that Dvorak is in fact a finite state machine that is maintained by a peculiar old man. An output stack from Dvorak reveals that the Masse Kernels is ran recursively on Dvorak.
With these new leads, Sam is sent to infiltrate Displace International.
[edit] Displace International, New York
Sam infiltrates Displace International to understand the true intentions of Douglas Shetland. Lambert orders Sam to not kill anyone as the Pentagon has ties with Displace International. As Sam makes his way deeper into Displace, he encounters a supercomputer which is believed to contain information about Masse Kernels and what Shetland intends to do with them. Unfortunately, a person in Displace has already deleted all traces of compromising information from this computer, leaving a login alias of M. Nedich - who is revealed to be Milan Nedich, real name Milos Nowak, a Bosnian War criminal.
Before Sam is able to acquire the information, the black out has ended and power is restored. Sam extracts with the information through the fire exit.
[edit] Hokkaido Island
Sam meets with Shetland before Sam embarks on a mission to infiltrate the hideout that Abrahim Zherkhezi is being held at. Sam later finds out that Milan Nedich is also called "Milos Nowak" or the butcher of Bosnia. Sam kills Nedich, then begins to extract from the area before spotting Shetland murdering Zherkhezi. Sam tries to chase down Shetland but fails, causing Shetland to go underground and away from the eye's of Third Echelon.
[edit] North Korea/South Korea
The USS Walsh is suprised attack by a cruise missile on July 4th. The reaction from this sparks a war between North Korea and South Korea. North Korea is being pinned for launching the missile. For this, North Korea responds by saying they did not launch the missile. Sam now leaves for North Korea in which is reported the missile was fired. Sam infiltrates a housing where the cruise missiles are launched from. He learns that they were intentionally launched but not by North Korea. He soon discovers that Displace International is behind the scheme. Before leaving, a missile is prepped to launch and Sam must disable the missile before it hits another US target. As Sam finished disabling the launch, he now must leave North Korea to head for Seoul, South Korea's capital. As he makes is way through the battle ridden city, he encounters North Korean patrols who are using propaganda speakers. He grabs information from inside a computer within a fire raging building. As he obtains the information, he must now upload them to a computer via a passing jet. By the time he makes it to the roof, he completes the uploading but see's the jet shot down by SAM missiles. It is unknown if he successfully rescued the pilots or not, although it is suggested that he had. He finally extracts from Seoul via Black Hawk helicopters.
[edit] Bathhouse, Japan
Sam must now infiltrate a Bathhouse to find out what exactly Douglas Shetland is doing with the Masse Kernels. From within the Bathhouse, he makes his way into a section of a steam room. In a vent, Sam uses the microphone to pick up on the conversation between Douglas Shetland and Shetland's unknown accomplice. Shetland reveals of a "Chaos Theory" to his accomplice before a fued breaks out. Sam must now chase down Shetland before the information about "Chaos Theory" is lost forever. Shetland sets timed bombs for Sam to disarm before the entire place explodes. Sam succesfully disables all the bombs before meeting up with Shetland above the roof. A mexican standoff insues before Shetland pulls out a pistol, Sam quickly disarmed Shetland and pushes him into a glass roof. Shetland is later dead from the fall.
[edit] Kokubo Shosho, Japan
Sam's final task is to stop Admiral Otomo from using the Masse Kernels that he acquired from Shetland. Sam infiltrates the I-SDF headquarters in Japan. He makes his way into the building before finding US hostages, he rescues them before going to find Admiral Otomo. Sam enters an area of the building where top secret meetings are held, in which Sam enters a vent to pick up the meeting through his microphone. After the meeting was finished, Lambert gives Sam the Fifth Freedom to stop Admiral Otomo from achieving his goals. Sam enters a elevator where it takes him deep within the building to a underwater area. Sam now disables all the I-SDF guards before finally making it into Admiral Otomo's office. Admiral Otomo performs seppuku from the disgrace that he has brought upon his nation. Lambert orders Sam to save him for further questioning. They extract through the ocean.
[edit] Epilogue
As Admiral Otomo stands trial before the United Nations, the President thanks everyone who did their jobs. The entire Third Echelon team enjoy the thanks even though they would know that their story would never be told to the public.
[edit] Engine & Gameplay Mechanics
The graphics in Chaos Theory feature a number of improvements, including the addition of normal mapping, HDR lighting, and parallax mapping. The game also features a number of major changes and improvements to the series' basic gameplay. Chaos Theory is also the first game in the Splinter Cell series to use ragdoll physics.
[edit] Stealth Mechanics
Chaos Theory features refined stealth mechanics. In addition to the standard light bar, the game also features an aural monitor that measures the noise that Sam makes, along with the ambient noise of the environment. It is important for Sam to make less noise than his surroundings; otherwise, the enemy guards will hear him.
The AI detection has been altered as well. In former titles, after Sam would leave a certain area, the game would do a sweep of the previous area for all unconscious or dead bodies in a well-lit spot. If any were found, an alarm would be triggered. In Chaos Theory, the bodies have to be discovered by a patrolling guard in order to trigger an alarm.
Being spotted by enemies will still trigger alarms, and alarms will still cause enemies to become more alert and combat-ready (such as causing them to wear ballistic vests and helmets). However, triggering too many alarms will no longer cause the game to end automatically. Even killing civilians or friendly soldiers won't cause Fisher to fail the mission, although doing so will cause Fisher to be seriously chastised by his superior, and cost him significantly in his mission score as well as canceling certain mission objectives, such as tapping phonelines and locating covert listening devices.
[edit] Close-Quarters Combat
Chaos Theory adds a combat knife to Sam's close-quarters combat abilities. Sam can use the knife in multiple ways, such as threatening an enemy during an interrogation, or killing an enemy in close-quarters combat. Also, it no longer matters what direction Sam attacks from when using melee attacks, nor does it matter if enemies are aware of his presence, as opposed to earlier entries in the series where he had to attack from behind and the enemy could not be alerted to him in order to take them down in one hit. He also has the option of using lethal or non-lethal force when ending an interrogation, and with his close range attacks.
As an expansion on Sam's ability to shoot while hanging upside down (introduced in Pandora Tomorrow), he can choke down or break the neck of enemies below him. He also has the ability to pull people over railings while hanging off a ledge and throw bodies off of cliffs or over railings, even onto other guards. However, the ability to shoot around corners has been removed, although this is balanced by being able to switch the side of Sam's body the gun is on while in a firing position.
[edit] Artificial Intelligence
Enemy artificial intelligence (AI) has been improved, with enemies taking cover, leaning around corners, and using squad-based tactics. As in Pandora Tomorrow, enemies will also react to changes in the environment; if a light switch is turned off, an enemy may become concerned, more so if the light is shot out. However, this behavior has been enhanced so that enemies may even become so frightened and start firing wildly into shadows, or throw a flare onto the ground next to them, making it difficult to sneak up on them.
They will also open fire on Fisher if they walk into him, or if he is seen in the light. They will fire a large amount of rounds at his last known location, so if detected, the player is advised to reposition themselves and attempt to sneak past or eliminate the enemy.
[edit] Mission Locations
- Lighthouse, Coast of Peru
- Maria Narcissa, Pacific Ocean
- Panamanian Bank, Panama
- Penthouse, New York City, New York
- Displace, New York
- Hokkaido Island, Japan
- Battery, North Korea
- Seoul, South Korea
- Bathhouse, Japan
- Kokubo Shosho, Japan
[edit] Development
Ubisoft Montreal returns to create the third Splinter Cell in the franchise. In doing so, they used a modified Unreal Engine 2.5 to create a more detailed game. From the point where when it rains, Sam becomes wet. They also added Co-Op storyline that works side by side with the main campaign. Michael Ironside returns as Sam Fisher while Don Jordan returns as Lambert who was preivously voiced by Dennis Haysbert in the last game. This is also the first game in the franchise in which it is rated M for mature. It is unknown why Ubisoft Montreal decided to go with this rating but it is suggested they wanted a more realistic Splinter Cell game than in the past. A demo was released for OXM in which the lighthouse mission can be played.
[edit] Soundtrack
The Soundtrack was composed by Amon Tobin and Jesper Kyd. Amon Tobin mostly did the in-game music while Jesper Kyd composed the music for the cinematics and multiplayer. The soundtrack can be currently bought and only features music from Amon Tobin. Jesper Kyd has a couple of tracks on his website.
[edit] Collector's Edition
A Limited Collector's Edition was available for PC, PS2, Xbox, and GameCube. Each version is packaged in a collectible tin, and the PC, PS2, and Xbox versions include the following bonus features on an extra disc:
- Exclusive G4 "Making Of" Video
- Music from the official Chaos Theory soundtrack by Amon Tobin
- Development Team video diaries
- Penny Arcade Comics
- Mega 64 Videos
The PC version also contains the version 1.3 patch for the original Splinter Cell to add the Kola Cell, Vselka Infiltration, and Vselka Submarine missions that were originally only available as downloads on Xbox Live. The initial release contained a corrupt patch that would not install and had to be requested separately from Ubisoft, after which they would send a CD-R with the patch. The bonus disc can also be obtained with the Game Cube version by contacting Ubisoft.com via e-mail.
[edit] See Also
| Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Characters |
|
Sam Fisher — Irving Lambert — Anna Grimsdottir — William Redding — Admiral Otomo |
