Splinter Cell Essentials PSP Review Wichita KS

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Ever since Sony announced the PSP, there was always going to be speculation that Ubisoft would bring across what some would say is its most popular franchise to the PSP. Sam Fisher has once again returned in his sixth game, and amazingly the formula is just not getting old at all. Ubisoft have crafted a game that tests your mettle with action skills, puzzle solving skills and adventure skills while putting together some of the most enthralling, yet realistic storylines. This is exactly what the PSP version has tried to replicate, and while the game has run into a few problems during transition to the platform, overall it plays extremely well and gives us a nice sneak peek at the first next-generation Splinter Cell due later this year.

Splinter Cell Essentials is basically a compilation of the best and most popular levels from the three main games so far as well as a few filler levels that provide information about the upcoming game such as the training level where Sam visits his daughters grave after she is killed by a hit and run driver while he is on assignment. He continues to blame the government and it is this that causes him to defect, a key factor to the storyline. It's a twisting storyline that will leave you speechless and wondering just how one of the US army's proudest turns his back on them.

As with the other games, you control Sam from a third person perspective but due to the PSP controls a few changes have been made, which are commented on further in this review. At the base level everything remains the same, and this familiarity will be welcoming to those veterans of the series. Sam has all his moves and the game will actually use context sensitive controls to determine what you can do where. For instance, the game will detect an area that Sam can do his famous splits jump to reach high ledges. Sam moves extremely well and basically anything you can do in the other three games, can be done in the PSP version, all in extremely high graphical detail.

There are a few problems we have with the game and the first stems from the structure. Although Ubisoft has worked to re-design the levels from previous games, it still doesn't excuse them for what some may call a cash cow. Essentials is far from it, but it's also not as original and in-depth as the other three games. The other major problem with the game is the controls. Having to stop, press a button, and move the camera before shooting can lead to many unfortunate deaths and the small screen also makes it hard to spot well camouflaged enemies. This makes the game more of a challenge but this should be caused by good programming, not a flaw of the system itself.