Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell is a third-person stealth action game that puts players in the role of Sam Fisher, a veteran operative recruited into the NSA’s newly formed Third Echelon. In the game’s near-future setting, Fisher is sent to Georgia to investigate the disappearance of two CIA agents. The assignment expands into an international crisis involving covert military activity, computer attacks, and the threat of a nuclear weapon.

The PlayStation 2 edition was developed by Ubisoft Shanghai and published by Ubisoft. It arrived after the original Xbox release, reaching North America on April 8, 2003. While it follows the same main campaign and story as the original release, this version was adapted for Sony’s console and includes features and content that distinguish it from the Xbox and Windows editions.

Stealth is central to every mission. Fisher’s light meter shows how exposed he is to hostile guards, making darkness and careful positioning essential. Players can extinguish lights, avoid security cameras, move quietly through guarded spaces, and use night-vision or thermal goggles to read environments that would otherwise be difficult to navigate.

Fisher’s equipment supports an approach based on infiltration rather than open combat. He can use suppressed firearms, non-lethal gadgets, gas grenades, sticky shock devices, and a camera launcher for reconnaissance. Close encounters can be handled by grabbing an enemy from behind for interrogation, incapacitation, or use as a human shield, though limited ammunition and mission restrictions make reckless force a costly choice.

The game also gives Fisher a range of physical moves for navigating its environments. He can climb ledges, hang from pipes, mantle over obstacles, and perform the split jump in narrow passages. These actions are used to find alternate routes, stay above patrols, and reach positions that support a quieter path through each objective.

This PlayStation 2 version includes an exclusive mission set at a nuclear power plant between the Kalinatek and Chinese Embassy operations. It also adds a new introductory cinematic, additional cinematics, and behind-the-scenes material. Those additions make the PS2 release a distinct console adaptation of the first Splinter Cell, even as its campaign remains the foundation of Sam Fisher’s series debut.