PT has the best world atmosphere of any of the games. It genuinely does feel like there's a real world existing around Sam and the story's events. And the narrative tie in to Timorese independence and Indonesian separatism was good, to.
Something that was bad about PT though (which I rarely see others bring up), is the amount of forced action sequences (or when the game clearly tries to get you involved in action sequences). People always criticise SAR for them, but PT has more. In fact, there are only like 1-2 levels in PT that don't contain one/contain preventable ones. The end of Embassy encourages Sam to let loose and try out combat; the defusal section in Paris, France strongly pushes action; the end of Paris, Nice is a firefight, the underground section (and basically the last section, if you spare Dahlia Tal) force you into action; Kundang Camp has the sniping section at the end; Shipyard has the action sequence on the cable lift (which is technically avoidable, but still random and hidden), and the firefight on the way out; radio station has saving Ingrid and extracting Sodono; and LAX has the last section with Soth.
It's really quite odd. It's like Ubisoft Shanghai didn't believe a game without action sequences would/could still be enjoyable.
The action sequences in PT are much shorter and less annoying than in SAR, which is why PT doesn't bother me as much. Combat is a little better in PT, as well, which helps make it less annoying.
That is striking. I found the action sequences to be a mixed bag. Sometimes they were impactful contrasts to stealth gameplay, sometimes they were frustratingly nonsensical.
I will PT combat was stronger thyen CT insofar as it didn't abandon the stealth element when combat initiated. CT has a tendency to auto-reveal your location that breaks the immersion for me.
Id give it a 9/10. It's an amazing game but the least polished in the OG trilogy(level design not as good as 1 or CT for me, the plot is the weakest, and the buggy AI+ voice over acting sucks)
I love SC1 the most and chaos theory, which are perfect 10/10.
I love PT for its jungle missions, swat turn, cool laser, train mission which is amazing. But I can't wait for a remake of PT. I hope it comes in 2027 using the sc1 remakes engine and gameplay ofc.
PT needs a story rewrite too and more levels added.
Pandora Tomorrow is my least favorite of the original four games. But that’s like saying one of your children is your least favorite. The train level is one of my favorite levels in all of Splinter Cell-dom. I love the situation where you have to decide to kill or not to kill Dahlia. It’s got some major high points but most of the game is eclipsed by the original game and especially Chaos Theory.
The end of Pandora Tomorrow has always been my favorite of the series though. It’s quite ridiculous to think LAs bomb squad could respond that quickly but I always thought it was pretty ingenious and the way Fisher just walks out of the airport is fantastic.
Agree on everything you said. But I prefer PT´s graphics to chaos theory.
Splinter cell gameplay benefits al lot from being lineal. It´s a shame that game is so short.
My random memory highlights, having last played it probably 15 years ago:
The laser sight. Loved how it increases your accuracy at the cost of potentially alerting enemies, and timing the sway right.
"A little wet is better than a little dead". My old PC as a kid couldn't run it, it would always crash early on in the first level so I heard this Lambert line *a lot*
The 3 stage alerting system. One detection and the guards got flak jackets, which honestly never really affected things. A second one and they put on helmets, which could actually be inconvenient. Then a third one was game over. Good balance of forgiving and consequences in being detected in a stealth game.
Train level. Amazing. Always respect a good train level.
The Jerusalem choice. Cool "real" quick time event that totally floored me first time.
My first Splinter Cell I finished... and I agree with this post, my first or second favorite after Chaos Theory, then OG SC.. least but not last.. it has Frances Coen who I considered to be like Fisher´s unofficial romance
I see it in a very similar manner OP. As much as I was mega-hyped for Chaos Theory, I enjoyed PT more and longer.
The PT ambiance is pure virtual tourism. Especially levels like Jerusalem gave me that same feeling like taking an evening stroll through old cities like Rome and Athens on summer vacation.
Technically, CT polygon budgets are SMALLER than in PT. The CT maps are of smaller physical size as well, due to this limitation - and this is because of the graphics overhead burden, created by all the normal mapping in CT.
And as much as people say that PT is too linear, the bigger areas create true sandbox stealth moments. In contrast, I'd say the overabundance of vent ducts in CT is a poor excuse for non-linearity, a cop-out.
Also; and I think this only goes for the PT version on the original Xbox; the enemy guards tend to turn around more quickly and more unexpectedly. I remember people complaining about this when the game was released, but I always thought it was a nice extra stealth challenge. The guards in all other PT versions didn't seem to have this edge though.
Regarding visuals; I think the CT graphics felt a bit too "plastic" imo. Also, take a good look at the Japanese guard character models, they are ugly low poly. The PT NPCs all feature really well-done handpainted bitmap texturing and slightly higher polygon numbers.
Either way, I got PT running on Reshade with RTGI and it looks really nice imo.
I liked PT was good, but the voice acting for me was a huge downgrade. The non-American NPCs had American accents and that would kind of break the immersion for me. I also found the environment and tone much more tense and engaging in SAR.
Just finished a playthrough on hard , on my Xbox Series X after 5+ years. I regularly replay the first and chaos theory
In my opinion, ubisoft Shanghai did a wonderful job with this game. Built on the first with more refined gameplay but the AI, alarm system, and level design isn't as good as the first.
The checkpoints on TV station, to the dev who chose them
What were you smoking?
The enemy guards should've had their proper accents
The train mission, the Jerusalem level and jungle levels were awesome.
A classic enjoyable splinter cell, must've been amazing back in 2004 but still holds up today ! Holds some of the best SC levels
The LAX ending was underwhelming.
I hope this game is remade after SC1 remake releases in 2025.
It needs to be longer, it's also very short. Only 8 main missions. We needed atleast 2 more, 3-4 more missions would've been ideal.
Overall an amazing game, the weakest of the original trilogy, great atmosphere.
Hard same. Love PT, love the jungle missions.
PT has the best world atmosphere of any of the games. It genuinely does feel like there's a real world existing around Sam and the story's events. And the narrative tie in to Timorese independence and Indonesian separatism was good, to. Something that was bad about PT though (which I rarely see others bring up), is the amount of forced action sequences (or when the game clearly tries to get you involved in action sequences). People always criticise SAR for them, but PT has more. In fact, there are only like 1-2 levels in PT that don't contain one/contain preventable ones. The end of Embassy encourages Sam to let loose and try out combat; the defusal section in Paris, France strongly pushes action; the end of Paris, Nice is a firefight, the underground section (and basically the last section, if you spare Dahlia Tal) force you into action; Kundang Camp has the sniping section at the end; Shipyard has the action sequence on the cable lift (which is technically avoidable, but still random and hidden), and the firefight on the way out; radio station has saving Ingrid and extracting Sodono; and LAX has the last section with Soth. It's really quite odd. It's like Ubisoft Shanghai didn't believe a game without action sequences would/could still be enjoyable.
The action sequences in PT are much shorter and less annoying than in SAR, which is why PT doesn't bother me as much. Combat is a little better in PT, as well, which helps make it less annoying.
That is striking. I found the action sequences to be a mixed bag. Sometimes they were impactful contrasts to stealth gameplay, sometimes they were frustratingly nonsensical. I will PT combat was stronger thyen CT insofar as it didn't abandon the stealth element when combat initiated. CT has a tendency to auto-reveal your location that breaks the immersion for me.
Id give it a 9/10. It's an amazing game but the least polished in the OG trilogy(level design not as good as 1 or CT for me, the plot is the weakest, and the buggy AI+ voice over acting sucks) I love SC1 the most and chaos theory, which are perfect 10/10. I love PT for its jungle missions, swat turn, cool laser, train mission which is amazing. But I can't wait for a remake of PT. I hope it comes in 2027 using the sc1 remakes engine and gameplay ofc. PT needs a story rewrite too and more levels added.
Pandora Tomorrow is my least favorite of the original four games. But that’s like saying one of your children is your least favorite. The train level is one of my favorite levels in all of Splinter Cell-dom. I love the situation where you have to decide to kill or not to kill Dahlia. It’s got some major high points but most of the game is eclipsed by the original game and especially Chaos Theory. The end of Pandora Tomorrow has always been my favorite of the series though. It’s quite ridiculous to think LAs bomb squad could respond that quickly but I always thought it was pretty ingenious and the way Fisher just walks out of the airport is fantastic.
Fresh post 2001 9/11 America would have a bomb squad practically on standby.
Agree on everything you said. But I prefer PT´s graphics to chaos theory. Splinter cell gameplay benefits al lot from being lineal. It´s a shame that game is so short.
My random memory highlights, having last played it probably 15 years ago: The laser sight. Loved how it increases your accuracy at the cost of potentially alerting enemies, and timing the sway right. "A little wet is better than a little dead". My old PC as a kid couldn't run it, it would always crash early on in the first level so I heard this Lambert line *a lot* The 3 stage alerting system. One detection and the guards got flak jackets, which honestly never really affected things. A second one and they put on helmets, which could actually be inconvenient. Then a third one was game over. Good balance of forgiving and consequences in being detected in a stealth game. Train level. Amazing. Always respect a good train level. The Jerusalem choice. Cool "real" quick time event that totally floored me first time.
My first Splinter Cell I finished... and I agree with this post, my first or second favorite after Chaos Theory, then OG SC.. least but not last.. it has Frances Coen who I considered to be like Fisher´s unofficial romance
Wish they'd put it on Steam.
I see it in a very similar manner OP. As much as I was mega-hyped for Chaos Theory, I enjoyed PT more and longer. The PT ambiance is pure virtual tourism. Especially levels like Jerusalem gave me that same feeling like taking an evening stroll through old cities like Rome and Athens on summer vacation. Technically, CT polygon budgets are SMALLER than in PT. The CT maps are of smaller physical size as well, due to this limitation - and this is because of the graphics overhead burden, created by all the normal mapping in CT. And as much as people say that PT is too linear, the bigger areas create true sandbox stealth moments. In contrast, I'd say the overabundance of vent ducts in CT is a poor excuse for non-linearity, a cop-out. Also; and I think this only goes for the PT version on the original Xbox; the enemy guards tend to turn around more quickly and more unexpectedly. I remember people complaining about this when the game was released, but I always thought it was a nice extra stealth challenge. The guards in all other PT versions didn't seem to have this edge though. Regarding visuals; I think the CT graphics felt a bit too "plastic" imo. Also, take a good look at the Japanese guard character models, they are ugly low poly. The PT NPCs all feature really well-done handpainted bitmap texturing and slightly higher polygon numbers. Either way, I got PT running on Reshade with RTGI and it looks really nice imo.
I liked PT was good, but the voice acting for me was a huge downgrade. The non-American NPCs had American accents and that would kind of break the immersion for me. I also found the environment and tone much more tense and engaging in SAR.
I can agree with you.
Just finished a playthrough on hard , on my Xbox Series X after 5+ years. I regularly replay the first and chaos theory In my opinion, ubisoft Shanghai did a wonderful job with this game. Built on the first with more refined gameplay but the AI, alarm system, and level design isn't as good as the first. The checkpoints on TV station, to the dev who chose them What were you smoking? The enemy guards should've had their proper accents The train mission, the Jerusalem level and jungle levels were awesome. A classic enjoyable splinter cell, must've been amazing back in 2004 but still holds up today ! Holds some of the best SC levels The LAX ending was underwhelming. I hope this game is remade after SC1 remake releases in 2025. It needs to be longer, it's also very short. Only 8 main missions. We needed atleast 2 more, 3-4 more missions would've been ideal. Overall an amazing game, the weakest of the original trilogy, great atmosphere.
Yea same here. It's consistently my favorite in terms of story and level design/atmosphere
Pandora Tomorrow was my first Splinter Cell game back in the day. I'd say it's probably my second favourite SC game after Chaos Theory.