I just completed the game on PC.
These were screenshots taken from youtube videos because I uninstalled the game after beating it.
I think environmental design and artistic style is important.
I can't believe this was an xbox game.
People say Chaos Theory looks good. I still think Splinter Cell 1 looks phenomenal.
I will go over each level and provide some general thoughts.
Detection from enemies
You can be in exactly the same spot and the enemy will randomly see you. I think there is an issue with how the a.i cheats in being able to detect where you are and what you should be doing.
For example in abattoir. There were many instances where I was hiding in a protected place and sometimes the enemy would see me. Other times they wouldn't.
There were also times when in theory I should be protected due to the level design according to other people's playthroughs, however the enemy instantly saw me in the shadow.
You can reload after dying and I think the enemy will detect your controller inputs as sound, when you might not even be moving on the screen. The dog section on the pipe was an example.
Trial and error
This game has no way to improvise. You either do it the developer intended method, or you get shot instantly by every single enemy on the screen.
You may find yourself in a new situation. There is a strict enemy path and objects you need to interact with. Every item and enemy placement is designed to do it in a linear way. A > B > C.
If you haven't discovered the next path / item / object, you will die and have to start again.
For new players this is horrible.
Even for me after having played the game many times but not remembering some of the harder and terrible spots, when you find yourself in a bad setup, reloading checkpoints adds to the frustration, it makes you want to speed up even more, just to get to the next good part of the game. Going 1mm faster than the enemy wants, will mean they detect you and kill you. So you have to restart.
Shootouts
They would be good if you had more options in battle.
The gun is fine at taking down enemies with 5 bullets at once.
However the level design means you can't hide, you can't set traps. The enemy just finds you and kills you. Or they kill the people you are meant to be protecting.
These levels were poorly thought out.
The environment and tools you have should be the weapon. Not just running and gunning and hoping they don't shoot you all at once.
Police Station
This is a training map.
One of the most memorable locations. I used to think the streets were far bigger than they are. Avoiding being spotted by citizens and the lighting effects near some of the holes in the wooden building are amazing.
It is cool visiting a real life place and pretending like you are infiltrating something which exists without you.
When you replay it, it's obvious most of the enemies and level design are just filler. You are only intended to go in certain spots. In 2002 this effect was fine.
The policemen on the computers upstairs. If you happen to walk 1cm past a developer placed line, right to the side of them. They will both get up and alert an alarm.
If you walk around the room and go to the same place, they won't detect you.
The developers cheat for the detection system.
Defense Ministry
Projector room
Crashing through Nikoladze's Office
Laser mic
This level is really well rounded and exciting. It keeps you moving.
The projector room looks fantastic. The lighting is so good.
Oil Refinery
Near the beginning my character got stuck in the geometry many times. I had to jump to brute force getting past.
This level is random. Jump from a big pipe 40ft and hope you catch a 5cm ledge with your fingertips.
You won't catch it everytime. You have no control over it.
Then you need to try to get past the guy on the stairs.
I didn't know you could sprint up to him undetected? Before that I was trying to ghost slowly. Awful design.
The only part I remember is climbing a horizontal pole near some flames and army people whilst everything is kicking off below you. That was cool.
I got stuck near a water pipe switch with two enemies.
It was impossible to ghost past them when they were standing outside the door. I ended up brute force taking them out.
The end of the mission I didn't know where to go after killing everyone.
Turns out you need to backtrack all the way to the start to get the guy with the briefcase. But the enemies were placed higher and higher on different floors. This is poor design.
CIA HQ
The guy outside the computer room with partition wall offices, kept seeing me through the shadow in front of the server room entrance.
No matter what I did, he would alert straight away.
On youtube you can stay hidden in the middle easily.
This level was fun when blending in with employees going about their day.
The game is at it's best when you aren't the sole focus of every single character in the entire world.
Slogging the fat man at the end, in the pouring rain was also a memorable moment. I think they could have done more with this. I had to run to kill the van people. Then go back and collect mr fatty. Good 15 minutes of carrying him around a pathway.
Kalinatek
The car park sucks. Hard to take them down without using tools.
Climbing the pole / zipline outside the car park was one of the most memorable moments of this level.
That and shooting a fish tank and some mines.
The rest is a blurry mess. Straight up sprinting around with flames and people with guns. This isn't splinter cell.
Trying to be fast into an elevator and pick locking a door was also a highlight. The game needs more timing moments like this.
Chinese Embassy
Used to be my favourite mission. Roaming through the streets above everyone, remaining undetected is so fun.
Ziplining across one street to the next, in the dark, with the street lights and ambiance is something I truly remember.
I forgot about the sewers. This setting was also memorable and unique.
This level has it all. Topped off with a fun dog and water section.
Abattoir
Good idea, poorly executed.
The rooms are too small.
Enemies sometimes see you, sometimes they don't.
Hide outside the plastic door flaps > they don't see you.
Hide outside the plastic door flaps > they see you.
Jump from a pole onto the floor > they hear you.
Jump from a pole onto the floor > they don't hear you.
It's random and terrible.
The turrets were pointless.
You can't get past one turret without taking damage, even if you use a flare, since they don't last long enough.
Chinese Embassy 2
There is one room where you cannot get past it unless you shoot out the huge light in the middle.
This is the room where you have to climb on a pole behind some curtains. It took me 30 times to realise this.
It's difficult knowing which lights are invulnerable and which lights can be broken. Since the spotlights near the curtains don't do anything. But the main light does.
Presidential Palace
Feeling pretty sad right now because this is the last level of the game.
The opening climbing moments are horrible. Splinter cell 1 does not do well with movement based athletic climbing and ledges.
The double jump to get to a ledge is random. You end up spamming the button and hoping he jumps in the right way and not fall to his doom.
You end up thinking these pipe placements are a bit video gamey. Why is the building so high, with a huge drop and why is there a random pipe attached to nothing.
It looks impressive when you see the skybox with the city.
Then you are presented with 2 dogs barking like mad whilst you are on a pole.
The game cheats and knows you are there before you even reach the destination.
If you move the joystick too far up on the pole, the enemies will go "the dog has detected a scent".
Even if you stay still, sometimes the dogs will know you are there.
I took about 60 attempts to beat this part to get through the maze and obtain the keycard.
I shot every light.
It's still b.s.
The search lights aren't random. As soon as the game tells the dog "look here". The search lights will go onto your exact position and within 0.1 seconds you are dead by every gunner, 2 dogs biting you and searchlights on you.
Horrible game design.
Ghosting in this mission is impossible.
Yes there is one central area which the searchlight can't see you. But the dogs will get you no matter what.
You can't beat this without taking the dogs out.
Unless you just happen to shoot the outside lights and the dogs go to that position behind the fence.
The fountain.
So chinese embassy tells you water is safe from dogs.
But they forgot about that and the dogs will both detect your trail and stay outside the fountain barking forever. They won't go away. Normal enemies will continue walking around.
This is poor design.
Water = no scent.
I wonder which order they made the levels in.
Interior
The design of the rooms and exterior is nice.
Sneaking past the enemies with carpets and cameras is fun. It feels realistic. Like they are actually protecting something.
I just didn't like how some portions are designed explicitly as filler areas and enemies.
There are countless no-use corridors and a single enemy protecting a blocked door, with the sole purpose to try and throw you off and kill you.
Avoiding these areas and sticking to the intended shadow route is the only way to play the game.
The developers literally draw the racing line of where to go.
Exterior
Great design
Shootout
Same issues as with the other action sequences.
They don't provide you with choices.
Trial and error.
You might not even have the tools required.
I ended up chucking 2 smoke grenades after memorising the spawn points / locations of some enemies.
And just blindly ran to the person blocking the door and knocking him out.
Before that, I would just get spotted by everyone when they turned their night vision on.
I will go over each level and provide some general thoughts.
Detection from enemies
You can be in exactly the same spot and the enemy will randomly see you. I think there is an issue with how the a.i cheats in being able to detect where you are and what you should be doing.
For example in abattoir. There were many instances where I was hiding in a protected place and sometimes the enemy would see me. Other times they wouldn't.
There were also times when in theory I should be protected due to the level design according to other people's playthroughs, however the enemy instantly saw me in the shadow.
You can reload after dying and I think the enemy will detect your controller inputs as sound, when you might not even be moving on the screen. The dog section on the pipe was an example.
Trial and error
This game has no way to improvise. You either do it the developer intended method, or you get shot instantly by every single enemy on the screen.
You may find yourself in a new situation. There is a strict enemy path and objects you need to interact with. Every item and enemy placement is designed to do it in a linear way. A > B > C.
If you haven't discovered the next path / item / object, you will die and have to start again.
For new players this is horrible.
Even for me after having played the game many times but not remembering some of the harder and terrible spots, when you find yourself in a bad setup, reloading checkpoints adds to the frustration, it makes you want to speed up even more, just to get to the next good part of the game. Going 1mm faster than the enemy wants, will mean they detect you and kill you. So you have to restart.
Shootouts
They would be good if you had more options in battle.
The gun is fine at taking down enemies with 5 bullets at once.
However the level design means you can't hide, you can't set traps. The enemy just finds you and kills you. Or they kill the people you are meant to be protecting.
These levels were poorly thought out.
The environment and tools you have should be the weapon. Not just running and gunning and hoping they don't shoot you all at once.
Police Station
This is a training map.
One of the most memorable locations. I used to think the streets were far bigger than they are. Avoiding being spotted by citizens and the lighting effects near some of the holes in the wooden building are amazing.
It is cool visiting a real life place and pretending like you are infiltrating something which exists without you.
When you replay it, it's obvious most of the enemies and level design are just filler. You are only intended to go in certain spots. In 2002 this effect was fine.
The policemen on the computers upstairs. If you happen to walk 1cm past a developer placed line, right to the side of them. They will both get up and alert an alarm.
If you walk around the room and go to the same place, they won't detect you.
The developers cheat for the detection system.
Defense Ministry
Projector room
Crashing through Nikoladze's Office
Laser mic
This level is really well rounded and exciting. It keeps you moving.
The projector room looks fantastic. The lighting is so good.
Oil Refinery
Near the beginning my character got stuck in the geometry many times. I had to jump to brute force getting past.
This level is random. Jump from a big pipe 40ft and hope you catch a 5cm ledge with your fingertips.
You won't catch it everytime. You have no control over it.
Then you need to try to get past the guy on the stairs.
I didn't know you could sprint up to him undetected? Before that I was trying to ghost slowly. Awful design.
The only part I remember is climbing a horizontal pole near some flames and army people whilst everything is kicking off below you. That was cool.
I got stuck near a water pipe switch with two enemies.
It was impossible to ghost past them when they were standing outside the door. I ended up brute force taking them out.
The end of the mission I didn't know where to go after killing everyone.
Turns out you need to backtrack all the way to the start to get the guy with the briefcase. But the enemies were placed higher and higher on different floors. This is poor design.
CIA HQ
The guy outside the computer room with partition wall offices, kept seeing me through the shadow in front of the server room entrance.
No matter what I did, he would alert straight away.
On youtube you can stay hidden in the middle easily.
This level was fun when blending in with employees going about their day.
The game is at it's best when you aren't the sole focus of every single character in the entire world.
Slogging the fat man at the end, in the pouring rain was also a memorable moment. I think they could have done more with this. I had to run to kill the van people. Then go back and collect mr fatty. Good 15 minutes of carrying him around a pathway.
Kalinatek
The car park sucks. Hard to take them down without using tools.
Climbing the pole / zipline outside the car park was one of the most memorable moments of this level.
That and shooting a fish tank and some mines.
The rest is a blurry mess. Straight up sprinting around with flames and people with guns. This isn't splinter cell.
Trying to be fast into an elevator and pick locking a door was also a highlight. The game needs more timing moments like this.
Chinese Embassy
Used to be my favourite mission. Roaming through the streets above everyone, remaining undetected is so fun.
Ziplining across one street to the next, in the dark, with the street lights and ambiance is something I truly remember.
I forgot about the sewers. This setting was also memorable and unique.
This level has it all. Topped off with a fun dog and water section.
Abattoir
Good idea, poorly executed.
The rooms are too small.
Enemies sometimes see you, sometimes they don't.
Hide outside the plastic door flaps > they don't see you.
Hide outside the plastic door flaps > they see you.
Jump from a pole onto the floor > they hear you.
Jump from a pole onto the floor > they don't hear you.
It's random and terrible.
The turrets were pointless.
You can't get past one turret without taking damage, even if you use a flare, since they don't last long enough.
Chinese Embassy 2
There is one room where you cannot get past it unless you shoot out the huge light in the middle.
This is the room where you have to climb on a pole behind some curtains. It took me 30 times to realise this.
It's difficult knowing which lights are invulnerable and which lights can be broken. Since the spotlights near the curtains don't do anything. But the main light does.
Presidential Palace
Feeling pretty sad right now because this is the last level of the game.
The opening climbing moments are horrible. Splinter cell 1 does not do well with movement based athletic climbing and ledges.
The double jump to get to a ledge is random. You end up spamming the button and hoping he jumps in the right way and not fall to his doom.
You end up thinking these pipe placements are a bit video gamey. Why is the building so high, with a huge drop and why is there a random pipe attached to nothing.
It looks impressive when you see the skybox with the city.
Then you are presented with 2 dogs barking like mad whilst you are on a pole.
The game cheats and knows you are there before you even reach the destination.
If you move the joystick too far up on the pole, the enemies will go "the dog has detected a scent".
Even if you stay still, sometimes the dogs will know you are there.
I took about 60 attempts to beat this part to get through the maze and obtain the keycard.
I shot every light.
It's still b.s.
The search lights aren't random. As soon as the game tells the dog "look here". The search lights will go onto your exact position and within 0.1 seconds you are dead by every gunner, 2 dogs biting you and searchlights on you.
Horrible game design.
Ghosting in this mission is impossible.
Yes there is one central area which the searchlight can't see you. But the dogs will get you no matter what.
You can't beat this without taking the dogs out.
Unless you just happen to shoot the outside lights and the dogs go to that position behind the fence.
The fountain.
So chinese embassy tells you water is safe from dogs.
But they forgot about that and the dogs will both detect your trail and stay outside the fountain barking forever. They won't go away. Normal enemies will continue walking around.
This is poor design.
Water = no scent.
I wonder which order they made the levels in.
Interior
The design of the rooms and exterior is nice.
Sneaking past the enemies with carpets and cameras is fun. It feels realistic. Like they are actually protecting something.
I just didn't like how some portions are designed explicitly as filler areas and enemies.
There are countless no-use corridors and a single enemy protecting a blocked door, with the sole purpose to try and throw you off and kill you.
Avoiding these areas and sticking to the intended shadow route is the only way to play the game.
The developers literally draw the racing line of where to go.
Exterior
Great design
Shootout
Same issues as with the other action sequences.
They don't provide you with choices.
Trial and error.
You might not even have the tools required.
I ended up chucking 2 smoke grenades after memorising the spawn points / locations of some enemies.
And just blindly ran to the person blocking the door and knocking him out.
Before that, I would just get spotted by everyone when they turned their night vision on.
I wish I could take screenshots of all my favourite locations from the game.