The combat in Splinter Cell 3 has remained true to what's come before, it's just been refined. The game is still about precision, remaining unseen, and cool gadgets. You'll want to remain in the shadows same as always. The refinement here comes in just how deadly the enemy becomes if you're caught out of the shadows. They're not messing around and more often than not you're dead if you can't correct the situation within mere seconds of it having gone awry. Coupled with the new enemy AI and their more dogged search, remaining unseen is even more important this time around. There is still some room for improvement in the enemy AI in this regard though. You will have to suspend some level of disbelief here. For example, two guys are sitting around talking to each other. You intentionally make enough noise by whistling to get their attention so they move to check out the sound allowing you to take one of them unnoticed. The other guy you didn't grab goes back and sits down without any concern for where the guy he was in mid conversation with has gone. He sits there just waiting to be taken by you. No game in the genre has evolved enough to come up with AI to cover something like that as of yet. Splinter Cell is far and away in the lead in that regard, but it's not all the way there. Maybe they'll get there in Splinter Cell 4. It's the one true hurdle left for the genre of tactical stealth action. The refinement in the gadgets comes in a couple additions to the already stellar roster. Everything from the previous games returns plus three additions. To the already coolest weapon in all of gaming, the SC-20K Rifle, they've added a shotgun attachment. This is rather obvious in its purpose. I have to say I haven't used it because it's not suited to my personal play style. To Fisher's pistol they've added an OCP attachment. It's an Optically Channeled Potentiator. In other words, you use this to temporarily disrupt electronic devices for a short period of time. Lights, cameras, motion sensors, laser emitters, and the like. Doing so allows you to move around unnoticed. With the lights for example, a guard is far less suspicious of a light that appears to flicker out than he is of a bulb suddenly exploding and is less likely to be a major threat. The third addition is to Fisher's goggles, to which they've added EEV. EEV is Electronically Enhanced Vision which allows Fisher to see the electronic devices he can interact with in some way. Items he can hack, lasers, things he can access remotely, and items that are effected by the OCP. This allows you to plan your actions for any given room. That leads us into the precision aspect of the series. The game becomes about mastering the gadgets and using the darkness to be as precise, as perfect as possible. The games do have moments of frenetic action when things go wrong. And they're designed in such a way to ensure a few things are going to go wrong along the way. It's extremely rewarding when your tactics and patience and precision execution get you through. This is one of the smartest games around. From what I've played so far, they've only improved things. I have no complaints thus far. Let's see if it holds true to the ending.
Next time will cover cooperative online play.
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