We got a DS no more than a month ago and one of the first games we tried was Chaos Theory for the DS. Having played the Splinter Cell Double Agent for the PlayStation 2 I have to say; man, what a lack of creativity. Porting a game like that to the DS was just one of the worst thing they could ever do. You can’t use the same effects the PS2 have on the DS, so it looks like a bad attempt to do a 3D game. It run very, very slow and the bugs make it even worst; I’m sure they did the best possible job and that’s something to admire, but man, it didn’t needed to end up like that. They could stop the development without hurting the Splinter Cell saga like this… it is really a shame.

What went right

The game has been ported entirelly, of course, with shorter levels for the DS. The graphics aren’t the same, the effects aren’t the same and the weapons menu isn’t the same but the general idea is there, you can play the same gameplay you play on the PC, PS2 or any other console; that’s really something. Let’s think about it for a minute, SC isn’t a easy game to develop, even for plataforms with less limitations it becomes hard because it’s a game that depends a lot of the AI and the 3D graphics, what they did was actually great; they “port” it (sort of speaking) almost entirelly the same.

The controls aren’t easy, they trend to be a little hard but hey, the Nintendo DS is very little so they did an amazing job. A couple of things I was surprised to see is Fisher’s (main character’s name) googles using the same effects you can see on any other console, the night-vision, heat map, all there; good work guys! Another thing that was very interesting was the lookpicking capability with the DS stylus, we could have just been happy with the PS2 mode for lockpicking but they came up with this good idea of having a look on the bottom screen and you being able to work it out with the stylus in order to open it; very effective. Althrough, the stylus isn’t very used during the game, the few times you can, it’s worth it. For example, you can move your camera at any time, something that is extremelly useful in this kind of games to sneak around a corner or see what is going on behind an obstacule. You can also hack into computers during the game, let’s say you need to know a criminal’s profile and it’s on a computer at some warehouse, you just go near the computer and select “hack” and you are all set; it’s a very fun game from that point of view.

The music is something to remember, music and sound effects + 10. They put it all there and if you use a headset you can listen to the most coolest sounds ever on an action game for the DS. They worked hard there, it deserves to be mentioned; almost the same than PS2. The main character’s animation works like charm, this is something that reallly fascinated us here, it moves exactly like on the more powerful consoles; let’s get real, the Nintendo DS 3D isn’t meant to do such a thing, but they accomplished it anyway; good call. You can move Sam Fisher through the levels climbing, rolling, going sneak, shooting, aiming, running, moving in the dark; excellent animations all the time.

What went wrong

The bugs. Oh my god how many bugs. I’m sure if they had two more months the game will be almost bug free, but in this condition its almost unplayable. I was hanging from a pipe at the first level and suddenly the character wasn’t hanging form the pipe but from the air! and it crashed the DS! another bug comes when you move fast through a level, you can easily start running through the floor and that’s it, it crashes again!.

But again, I’m sure that if they had only 2 more months, it will be almost bug free. Those bugs are expected on a plataform like the DS; it isn’t meant to have powerful games like Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, but some people wants to go beyond the line (thank god for them!) The 3D chip can’t handle such a game, it just can’t. In some parts, the game actually runs very slow and you can see how the poligons are being drawed at the far left/right on the Nintendo DS screen; that’s another bug right there, it isn’t bad but sometimes you think “oh, now is gonna crash!”. The Nintendo DS is an excellent portable console but for games that you can actually play without the risk of crashing, and that may take a little fun from playing Splinter Cell on the DS.

Conclusion

With all it’s flaws, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is a great game, really fun, great sound, good graphics (3D on the DS isn’t good, but if you like the Xbox or PS2 version of Splinter Cell, you will enjoy the DS one), 9 and plus levels of pure infiltration fun, and an excellent storyline with a remarkable character like Sam Fisher.

From my book, this one gets 7 out of 10.