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This review was previously a bit shorter, but I wasn't satisfied by how much I analysed the game so I added a few more sections.
I have found a newly acquired love for stealth games. I haven't played many of them, played the first 2 Thief games and Mark of the Ninja and those latter two games are spectacular. But, perhaps it was a bad idea playing those first since it may have given me a skewed impression of the genre, set my expectations a little too high. I don't think this game is bad, oh no, absolutely not. This game is great and worth a shot if you're willing to put up with certain design choices, but I don't think it's perfect, or at least, some of what it offers isn't what I look for in a stealth game.
First of all, let me say that the sound design in this game is excellent - surprising for a stealth game, I know - but so much of the soundscape sounds borderline perfect. Every footstep and gunshot feels just right, the guns aren't very impactful but they are abrasive, which deemphasises you to not use them; makes sense because this isn't a game intended to be played like a shooter. I played this with EAX 4 Surround sound so perhaps that contributed to how good it sounded, but regardless, it absolutely nails the required feel for sneaking around. Similarly, the soundtrack is great; it wasn't something I was expecting to praise but it has a nice "spy thriller" feel to it, but not an overly played one, like it's purposefully playing off of 80s nostalgia, but subdued enough to the point where it's still pleasant to listen to.
One of the defining aspects of the stealth genre is level design; it's a particular point of praise towards those games that I mentioned earlier, and in my opinion, you can have as deep of a mechanical system as you want, but if you don't have good level design then your stealth game is trash. The core of the matter is giving room for options, letting the player use their toolkit however they please. For example, Mark of the Ninja, my current favourite stealth game, has a level where you need to set fire to a tower in order to draw troops away from a neighbouring building, you do this by letting gas out of the basement, and work your way up the tower allowing the gas to spread through the building via ventilation; in a lesser game it would require you to go through each room one by one and open these ventilation points but Mark of the Ninja plays its cards well. You are block off from progressing via lasers which can be deactivated through destroying their fuse box, as expected from a game as intricately designed as this, however, there are two things which make this segment truly excellent; you always have 2 routes you can go down first and you also have access to smoke bombs, an item which can block lasers and allow you to pass, meaning you have almost total player freedom throughout this portion of the level as long as you have that particular item equipped. This design philosophy of player choice is consistent throughout all of Mark of the Ninja, usually being pretty good with a few high peaks.
So, that's how my current favourite stealth game handles its level design, but how does Chaos Theory fair in this regard? Well, before we get into that we also need to discuss something else, it's a factor that is arguably as important as level design, and you can notice it in that earlier paragraph, it's the tools you have at your disposal; the tools in this game are good, but still kind of limited, the main 2 items you're going to be using throughout this game are the pistol and the machine gun, which may sound strange considering this is a stealth game but what makes these guns interesting aren't the bullets, it's what they’re equipped with. The pistol is equipped with a jamming device which can shut down light sources and cameras; this'll be your most important tool as it's the main way of sneaking past certain obstacles, and the machine gun is equipped with various different kinds of non-lethal projectiles which will be your main source of taking down enemies from afar. This is the basic stealth stuff and it works well here but what I think makes them interesting is the time it takes to switch. Sam is no gunslinger, he takes his time switching between his tools which is not good once you're caught, so therefore it de-emphasises direct combat and playing it like it's a shooter. There are several grenades you can use but the only one I feel is worth mentioning is the smoke grenade, which will obscure the view of anything and allow you to slip past, but this also includes you, so you have to plan your movements in advance; it's good.
However, you can't talk about the equipment of Splinter Cell without mentioning the various vision modes; there's 3 of them, each with a distinct purpose. The night vision goggles are what you'd expect them to be, they allow you to see in dark areas, which is what you'll be seeing through for most of your time with this game as around 60 or 70% of this game is nearly complete darkness. Then there's the thermal goggles which do have a single use case for prolonged use near the end of the game, but I'll save that for later; their main use is to see through soft material such as fabric which is incredibly useful as unlike other stealth games there's no mini-map, you have to keep track of enemies yourself. The last mode is easily the least useful and that's the electromagnetic mode, its only use is to show you where there's electricity being used, which can usually be jammed with your pistol. This can occasionally be used to find generators for certain things and allow you to shut them down permanently but it's very niche and not used often.
The final tool at your disposal that I'll be talking about is the interrogation mechanic; you can sneak up behind enemies, grab them and disable them, but whilst you have them in that hold, you can interrogate them about certain things. This mechanic was present in previous games but wasn't used nearly as much, you can gain intel about where medical supplies are or about the mission itself. It's really only useful on a first playthrough but it does make it interesting as you have to go out of your way to get the information. Another thing this is good for is Sam's personality, it really comes through in these little exchanges and makes him a very charming character. He's by no means deep, but very entertaining. However, there's some missed potential in this mechanic as even though Sam and the guard are talking very clearly, this makes no noise. Now, usually you could chalk this up to "video games being video games" but in the co-op campaign for this game, you can use the in-game voice chat to talk with your friend and it creates noise in-game. I haven't played the co-op campaign (though I want to get around to it at some point) but this is such an awesome idea, why isn't something like this in the main game? Why can't we have tense sections where you're trying to dodge enemies whilst they keep following your voice in the darkness? Why not have certain guards scream when they're being interrogated so the current section is completely flipped on its head? This could've been an incredibly interesting idea but it's just not present at all.
I wanted to talk about the various mechanics because it's essential to the level design, as I believe it's where the main appeal of Chaos Theory's gameplay comes from. Let me give a few examples of this game's design philosophy. The first one is the bank, toted as the best level in the series and I definitely see why. You have different ways to approach the level, with a few distinct paths to take; at the beginning of the level you can either sneak your way in through the front door, juggling multiple mechanics to slip right in, or you can go the more subtle route of repelling yourself from the roof. Once you're inside, you have 2 paths to go down, either the left side or the right side, each of which connects and loops back on each other, providing a smooth gameplay experience no matter the route you take, assuming you know what you're doing. After you've finished your objective you need to head back to a central area of the map where the final part of the level begins, stealing the intelligence you're after, and if you're a keen-eyed player, you'll also spot a laser which, when tripped over, sets the entire facility on alert; the entire level has just been flipped on its head and now you have to use all that you've learnt from the level design to make your way back out. This is on top of being able to simply turn the laser off as you're on your way out of the vault where the intelligence lay, making for a smooth ride out. You can see the aspects of player choice here, having multiple routes as well as certain mechanics which incentivise different approaches, this is what stealth games should be.
But, there's an issue, not with the level itself, but with everything around it, and it's that the game is wildly inconsistent when it comes to maintaining player choice throughout the game. Some levels such as the aforementioned Bank and others such as Displace and the Bathhouse offer a lot of choices when it comes to getting around a level in interesting ways, but then there's others like Seoul, incredibly linear borefests with no variation. The first half of Seoul is fine, linear but not very obtrusive, it has some interesting side-objectives and it's overall a decent break of pace, but then you get to the second half of the mission and it's terrible, absolutely god awful. You're being constantly tracked by this collection of UAVs and you have basically no alternative route to go down, you have to do exactly what the game tells you to do or else you'll be seen and definitely killed. There is an interesting side objective right at the end of the mission where you can carry 2 unconscious pilots to safety and it does offer a unique challenge, but the sincere lack of player choice killed all enjoyment of this level for me. This level is emblematic of what most Splinter Cell games are actually like, not an open, interactive experience, but more of a linear series of moment-to-moment challenges, and to be honest, I'm kind of mixed on that.
On one hand, it turns each level into a sort of puzzle, trying to figure out how to get past the the current obstruction, however, you don’t need to make your game linear to accomplish this; in Bathhouse, there are many challenging obstacles in your way but you always have options and it’s an awesome thrill ride from start to finish. Making it linear only makes the player feel more frustrated as they can’t use their toolkit and navigation skills as much as they would want to. In Displace there are some lasers which block a piece of progress and you could find another way around them, but you can also just pick up a guard’s body and use it to quietly slip through them, undetected. Linearity is just making sure the player encounters these challenges, but having alternative pathways and “solving the puzzle” in different ways will always be more fun.
It's also obvious in Seoul’s 2nd half that they wanted to offer a challenge since this is the 3rd to last level in the game, however just in the next mission, they manage to do challenge in stealth whilst also not taking away the player's options. The previously mentioned Bathhouse is a great level, you start outside and need to get past a technician and two guards, whilst having to deal with a singular, overhead light that illuminates so much area that you barely have enough time to grab the technician; it's easy enough though, you’re more experiences in stealth by this point so something like this is trivial, but then you get into a more linear section where you need to take a guy out quickly before he turns on the lights and spots you; these two sequences are to set the tone of this level, there’s high stakes at every turn and you need to be very careful with your traversal across the map. After this, the level opens up a bit, and you have multiple options when it comes to tackling the next objectives, right up until you meet Shetland. This map doesn’t function so much as a loop like the Bank but more like a double helix, where there are paths which lead into each other but ultimately you’re going in one direction, each with it’s own spin on the combination of lights, guards and occasionally cameras. It puts everything you've learnt to the test and I wouldn’t have been disappointed if it were the last level.
However, there's an issue with this game that prevails throughout the game but becomes really noticeable at this point: inconsistency. Occasionally, a guard would spot me with an audio cue indicating that he saw me, but had his back turned, or how a guard could somehow not see me even though I was completely illuminated, sometimes I couldn't slip past a singular guard without him instantly shooting me despite the fact that I made no contact with him, made no noise and was completely surrounded by darkness. Nowhere is this more apparent than the shower rooms within Bathhouse (showers in a Bathhouse? Who would’ve thought); it's a single set of rooms where steam can occasionally appear and block your vision, and the guards, when interrogated, say that they can't see anything either. This is a lie, as they can see perfectly fine within the steam and will detect you as normal. This is definitely something that has simply aged poorly in Chaos Theory, this was 2005 after all and despite what some people may say, AI was still incredibly underdeveloped in gaming; hell, that's rumoured to be the entire reason why Metroid Dread was never fully developed until 2021, because the technology simply wasn't there to create a believable stalker enemy on the level of the emmis, especially on a handheld device like the DS.
On a similar note to the segment about the AI, I feel as though I should talk about the enemy design, or lack thereof. There are only 5 enemy types in the whole game, 2 of which serve the exact same purpose but are technically different enemies. You have the regular guard, which is the enemy you'll be encountering for 99% of the game and the only one that's almost as used as the guard is the turret, which will appear in certain sections of the game, but I honestly can't remember them being used outside of two sections -- please do correct me if I am wrong about that. I lump the portable turrets alongside the motion detection ones found at the end of the game since they both serve the same purpose. The remaining 2 only ever appear once, the first being the aforementioned UAV which is an interesting enemy in a vacuum but is spoiled by how incredibly linear that level was; in a more open level I think they would've been much more interesting. The other enemy is a guard with thermal vision, which I can only recall being at the end of the Bathhouse level, though once again, correct me if I'm wrong. These enemies aren't "bad" but there definitely could've been more done here. Going back to the Mark of the Ninja comparison, that game had many different enemy types, all of which had unique ways of approaching them and their own weaknesses and strengths, such as the dogs which can sniff you out of hidden areas or the snipers which have an incredibly long range of vision. Perhaps it is unfair to compare them but Thief 2: The Metal Age was released 5 years before this game and that game had way more enemy types and used them much more creatively.
There is one more level after the Bathhouse but I don't have much to say about it, it's a classic linear test of skill, similar to Thief II or Mark of the Ninja's final level. It does its job well and promptly fucks off, though those turrets near the end are dickheads. I think Chaos Theory is a good game, it has some very interesting level design at times and some compelling mechanics, however, some people will say this is one of the best stealth games of all time and also one of the best games of all time. I strongly disagree; this game is great, but it's plagued with issues of the technology at the time and inconsistent level design. I recommend that you play it, and you may even like the linear levels and will put this into your favourites. I hope the in-development Splinter Cell 1 remake takes what this game does well and makes it even better, because the potential for this series is insane.
This review was previously a bit shorter, but I wasn't satisfied by how much I analysed the game so I added a few more sections.
I have found a newly acquired love for stealth games. I haven't played many of them, played the first 2 Thief games and Mark of the Ninja and those latter two games are spectacular. But, perhaps it was a bad idea playing those first since it may have given me a skewed impression of the genre, set my expectations a little too high. I don't think this game is bad, oh no, absolutely not. This game is great and worth a shot if you're willing to put up with certain design choices, but I don't think it's perfect, or at least, some of what it offers isn't what I look for in a stealth game.
First of all, let me say that the sound design in this game is excellent - surprising for a stealth game, I know - but so much of the soundscape sounds borderline perfect. Every footstep and gunshot feels just right, the guns aren't very impactful but they are abrasive, which deemphasises you to not use them; makes sense because this isn't a game intended to be played like a shooter. I played this with EAX 4 Surround sound so perhaps that contributed to how good it sounded, but regardless, it absolutely nails the required feel for sneaking around. Similarly, the soundtrack is great; it wasn't something I was expecting to praise but it has a nice "spy thriller" feel to it, but not an overly played one, like it's purposefully playing off of 80s nostalgia, but subdued enough to the point where it's still pleasant to listen to.
One of the defining aspects of the stealth genre is level design; it's a particular point of praise towards those games that I mentioned earlier, and in my opinion, you can have as deep of a mechanical system as you want, but if you don't have good level design then your stealth game is trash. The core of the matter is giving room for options, letting the player use their toolkit however they please. For example, Mark of the Ninja, my current favourite stealth game, has a level where you need to set fire to a tower in order to draw troops away from a neighbouring building, you do this by letting gas out of the basement, and work your way up the tower allowing the gas to spread through the building via ventilation; in a lesser game it would require you to go through each room one by one and open these ventilation points but Mark of the Ninja plays its cards well. You are block off from progressing via lasers which can be deactivated through destroying their fuse box, as expected from a game as intricately designed as this, however, there are two things which make this segment truly excellent; you always have 2 routes you can go down first and you also have access to smoke bombs, an item which can block lasers and allow you to pass, meaning you have almost total player freedom throughout this portion of the level as long as you have that particular item equipped. This design philosophy of player choice is consistent throughout all of Mark of the Ninja, usually being pretty good with a few high peaks.
So, that's how my current favourite stealth game handles its level design, but how does Chaos Theory fair in this regard? Well, before we get into that we also need to discuss something else, it's a factor that is arguably as important as level design, and you can notice it in that earlier paragraph, it's the tools you have at your disposal; the tools in this game are good, but still kind of limited, the main 2 items you're going to be using throughout this game are the pistol and the machine gun, which may sound strange considering this is a stealth game but what makes these guns interesting aren't the bullets, it's what they’re equipped with. The pistol is equipped with a jamming device which can shut down light sources and cameras; this'll be your most important tool as it's the main way of sneaking past certain obstacles, and the machine gun is equipped with various different kinds of non-lethal projectiles which will be your main source of taking down enemies from afar. This is the basic stealth stuff and it works well here but what I think makes them interesting is the time it takes to switch. Sam is no gunslinger, he takes his time switching between his tools which is not good once you're caught, so therefore it de-emphasises direct combat and playing it like it's a shooter. There are several grenades you can use but the only one I feel is worth mentioning is the smoke grenade, which will obscure the view of anything and allow you to slip past, but this also includes you, so you have to plan your movements in advance; it's good.
However, you can't talk about the equipment of Splinter Cell without mentioning the various vision modes; there's 3 of them, each with a distinct purpose. The night vision goggles are what you'd expect them to be, they allow you to see in dark areas, which is what you'll be seeing through for most of your time with this game as around 60 or 70% of this game is nearly complete darkness. Then there's the thermal goggles which do have a single use case for prolonged use near the end of the game, but I'll save that for later; their main use is to see through soft material such as fabric which is incredibly useful as unlike other stealth games there's no mini-map, you have to keep track of enemies yourself. The last mode is easily the least useful and that's the electromagnetic mode, its only use is to show you where there's electricity being used, which can usually be jammed with your pistol. This can occasionally be used to find generators for certain things and allow you to shut them down permanently but it's very niche and not used often.
The final tool at your disposal that I'll be talking about is the interrogation mechanic; you can sneak up behind enemies, grab them and disable them, but whilst you have them in that hold, you can interrogate them about certain things. This mechanic was present in previous games but wasn't used nearly as much, you can gain intel about where medical supplies are or about the mission itself. It's really only useful on a first playthrough but it does make it interesting as you have to go out of your way to get the information. Another thing this is good for is Sam's personality, it really comes through in these little exchanges and makes him a very charming character. He's by no means deep, but very entertaining. However, there's some missed potential in this mechanic as even though Sam and the guard are talking very clearly, this makes no noise. Now, usually you could chalk this up to "video games being video games" but in the co-op campaign for this game, you can use the in-game voice chat to talk with your friend and it creates noise in-game. I haven't played the co-op campaign (though I want to get around to it at some point) but this is such an awesome idea, why isn't something like this in the main game? Why can't we have tense sections where you're trying to dodge enemies whilst they keep following your voice in the darkness? Why not have certain guards scream when they're being interrogated so the current section is completely flipped on its head? This could've been an incredibly interesting idea but it's just not present at all.
I wanted to talk about the various mechanics because it's essential to the level design, as I believe it's where the main appeal of Chaos Theory's gameplay comes from. Let me give a few examples of this game's design philosophy. The first one is the bank, toted as the best level in the series and I definitely see why. You have different ways to approach the level, with a few distinct paths to take; at the beginning of the level you can either sneak your way in through the front door, juggling multiple mechanics to slip right in, or you can go the more subtle route of repelling yourself from the roof. Once you're inside, you have 2 paths to go down, either the left side or the right side, each of which connects and loops back on each other, providing a smooth gameplay experience no matter the route you take, assuming you know what you're doing. After you've finished your objective you need to head back to a central area of the map where the final part of the level begins, stealing the intelligence you're after, and if you're a keen-eyed player, you'll also spot a laser which, when tripped over, sets the entire facility on alert; the entire level has just been flipped on its head and now you have to use all that you've learnt from the level design to make your way back out. This is on top of being able to simply turn the laser off as you're on your way out of the vault where the intelligence lay, making for a smooth ride out. You can see the aspects of player choice here, having multiple routes as well as certain mechanics which incentivise different approaches, this is what stealth games should be.
But, there's an issue, not with the level itself, but with everything around it, and it's that the game is wildly inconsistent when it comes to maintaining player choice throughout the game. Some levels such as the aforementioned Bank and others such as Displace and the Bathhouse offer a lot of choices when it comes to getting around a level in interesting ways, but then there's others like Seoul, incredibly linear borefests with no variation. The first half of Seoul is fine, linear but not very obtrusive, it has some interesting side-objectives and it's overall a decent break of pace, but then you get to the second half of the mission and it's terrible, absolutely god awful. You're being constantly tracked by this collection of UAVs and you have basically no alternative route to go down, you have to do exactly what the game tells you to do or else you'll be seen and definitely killed. There is an interesting side objective right at the end of the mission where you can carry 2 unconscious pilots to safety and it does offer a unique challenge, but the sincere lack of player choice killed all enjoyment of this level for me. This level is emblematic of what most Splinter Cell games are actually like, not an open, interactive experience, but more of a linear series of moment-to-moment challenges, and to be honest, I'm kind of mixed on that.
On one hand, it turns each level into a sort of puzzle, trying to figure out how to get past the the current obstruction, however, you don’t need to make your game linear to accomplish this; in Bathhouse, there are many challenging obstacles in your way but you always have options and it’s an awesome thrill ride from start to finish. Making it linear only makes the player feel more frustrated as they can’t use their toolkit and navigation skills as much as they would want to. In Displace there are some lasers which block a piece of progress and you could find another way around them, but you can also just pick up a guard’s body and use it to quietly slip through them, undetected. Linearity is just making sure the player encounters these challenges, but having alternative pathways and “solving the puzzle” in different ways will always be more fun.
It's also obvious in Seoul’s 2nd half that they wanted to offer a challenge since this is the 3rd to last level in the game, however just in the next mission, they manage to do challenge in stealth whilst also not taking away the player's options. The previously mentioned Bathhouse is a great level, you start outside and need to get past a technician and two guards, whilst having to deal with a singular, overhead light that illuminates so much area that you barely have enough time to grab the technician; it's easy enough though, you’re more experiences in stealth by this point so something like this is trivial, but then you get into a more linear section where you need to take a guy out quickly before he turns on the lights and spots you; these two sequences are to set the tone of this level, there’s high stakes at every turn and you need to be very careful with your traversal across the map. After this, the level opens up a bit, and you have multiple options when it comes to tackling the next objectives, right up until you meet Shetland. This map doesn’t function so much as a loop like the Bank but more like a double helix, where there are paths which lead into each other but ultimately you’re going in one direction, each with it’s own spin on the combination of lights, guards and occasionally cameras. It puts everything you've learnt to the test and I wouldn’t have been disappointed if it were the last level.
However, there's an issue with this game that prevails throughout the game but becomes really noticeable at this point: inconsistency. Occasionally, a guard would spot me with an audio cue indicating that he saw me, but had his back turned, or how a guard could somehow not see me even though I was completely illuminated, sometimes I couldn't slip past a singular guard without him instantly shooting me despite the fact that I made no contact with him, made no noise and was completely surrounded by darkness. Nowhere is this more apparent than the shower rooms within Bathhouse (showers in a Bathhouse? Who would’ve thought); it's a single set of rooms where steam can occasionally appear and block your vision, and the guards, when interrogated, say that they can't see anything either. This is a lie, as they can see perfectly fine within the steam and will detect you as normal. This is definitely something that has simply aged poorly in Chaos Theory, this was 2005 after all and despite what some people may say, AI was still incredibly underdeveloped in gaming; hell, that's rumoured to be the entire reason why Metroid Dread was never fully developed until 2021, because the technology simply wasn't there to create a believable stalker enemy on the level of the emmis, especially on a handheld device like the DS.
On a similar note to the segment about the AI, I feel as though I should talk about the enemy design, or lack thereof. There are only 5 enemy types in the whole game, 2 of which serve the exact same purpose but are technically different enemies. You have the regular guard, which is the enemy you'll be encountering for 99% of the game and the only one that's almost as used as the guard is the turret, which will appear in certain sections of the game, but I honestly can't remember them being used outside of two sections -- please do correct me if I am wrong about that. I lump the portable turrets alongside the motion detection ones found at the end of the game since they both serve the same purpose. The remaining 2 only ever appear once, the first being the aforementioned UAV which is an interesting enemy in a vacuum but is spoiled by how incredibly linear that level was; in a more open level I think they would've been much more interesting. The other enemy is a guard with thermal vision, which I can only recall being at the end of the Bathhouse level, though once again, correct me if I'm wrong. These enemies aren't "bad" but there definitely could've been more done here. Going back to the Mark of the Ninja comparison, that game had many different enemy types, all of which had unique ways of approaching them and their own weaknesses and strengths, such as the dogs which can sniff you out of hidden areas or the snipers which have an incredibly long range of vision. Perhaps it is unfair to compare them but Thief 2: The Metal Age was released 5 years before this game and that game had way more enemy types and used them much more creatively.
There is one more level after the Bathhouse but I don't have much to say about it, it's a classic linear test of skill, similar to Thief II or Mark of the Ninja's final level. It does its job well and promptly fucks off, though those turrets near the end are dickheads. I think Chaos Theory is a good game, it has some very interesting level design at times and some compelling mechanics, however, some people will say this is one of the best stealth games of all time and also one of the best games of all time. I strongly disagree; this game is great, but it's plagued with issues of the technology at the time and inconsistent level design. I recommend that you play it, and you may even like the linear levels and will put this into your favourites. I hope the in-development Splinter Cell 1 remake takes what this game does well and makes it even better, because the potential for this series is insane.