Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory review

If donning a lycra catsuit and sneaking around on dangerous foreign assignments to save the world from terrorist plans is your idea of fun, then you'll love this, the new instalment in the high-tech Splinter Cell spy series.

It's not easy being a super spy for a shady ber-secretive government organisation. One minute you're happily listening to Radio 4 and checking your cornflakes for cyanide, and the next, some gravelly voiced fellow is telling you to get your gear on for a reconnaissance mission in hostile territories. But for our hero Sam Fisher, it's all in a day's shadow creeping.

Slipping into the boots of a secret agent, you might think that life is going to be easy. Simply stroll into a stronghold filled with gun-toting bad guys and reduce them to an unconscious heap - armed only with a biro and one hand tied behind your back. Well, it's not quite that simple.

The previous Splinter Cell instalments quickly impressed the need to employ tact and subtlety, a wild departure from other shoot-'em-up games where the best bet is so often to go running around wildly firing a rocket launcher. But Chaos Theory builds on the base of previous games by giving the player more freedom to tackle each mission in his own style.

At the beginning of each mission, you can choose what equipment you think will be best for your style of play. Whether you want to go on an all-out assault, or prefer to remain hidden in shadow and entirely undetected - it's up to you. And if you can't even be bothered to decide for yourself, you can just go with a recommended list of kit and get spying.

Before you get started, you can also tailor the game's difficulty level to your abilities. Normal difficulty is perfect for Splinter Cell novices, but once you've played through a few missions, or if you're just feeling confident, the Hard and aptly titled Expert modes ramp up the challenge on offer. But even on the game's normal difficulty level, you'll need to keep your wits about you.

Luckily, Sam's a pretty limber chap. Sneaking around the various mission locales, you'll often find his rubber-limbed abilities come in handy. Whether it's pressing himself flat against walls as guards wander past inches away, or shimmying along pipes and rappel lines, the inventiveness of the action never lets up. And with guards, terrorists and other nasties lurking in the dark, it pays to be able to blend into the shadows. Luckily Sam has both night and heat-vision goggles at his disposal, so navigating in the dark is easy. When you need to be sure that you're hidden in shadows, a little gauge in the corner of the screen lets you know how much light you're standing in. But although seeing where you're going is pretty important, it pays to know how much noise you're making too. Another useful gauge measures this too.

Strap a launcher attachment onto Sam's trusty SC-20K rifle and you can turn it into a sniper rifle, shotgun or launch objects like sticky cameras to spy on your opponents.

But before we'd had a chance to try out our armoury of spy-gadgets, we were blown away by Chaos Theory's stunning good looks. Fisher is superbly animated, and details such as watching guards move past unaware of his presence

are brilliant.

The crisp graphics make sneaking around and dragging unconscious guards into dark corners even more satisfying than before.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory may not be a giant leap forwards from previous incarnations in the series, but it refines their blend into a far more enjoyable gaming experience.