Chaos Theory is the latest installment on the Splinter Cell series. Much like the previous games, Sam Fisher finds himself in the middle of complicated politics and military tensions. This time, Asia is on high alert and it seems someone is purposely trying to cause issues between China, Japan, and Korea. One of the “good guys” goes missing and Sam is sent in to rescue him and find out what the enemy knows.

One of the most important things in a stealth game is the AI. The AI in this game is actually pretty good. Guards in groups will work together to protect one another. In one instance, a group of guards detected something suspicious. One guard opened the door and came inside the room I was in while the others stayed outside of the door against the wall to protect themselves. Another amazing encounter with the AI was when one of the guards hid in the bushes waiting to get a clear shot of me sneaking around. The AI isn’t perfect, however, as there were also instances of complete stupidity. I’ve actually had a guard confident enough that he saw me that he at shot me. I remained still and he suddenly got confused. Several seconds went by and he continued to stare into the shadow I was sitting in. Aside from a few rare exceptions, the AI is really good.

Another important feature of the game is the graphics and fluidity of motion. Sam Fisher has many different actions he can perform and they are easy to enact. Typically, when you come upon an object you can interact with a context sensitive menu in the upper left will appear that shows the different actions you can perform. Aside from user interactive motion, I was impressed by the non-interactive character motion. For example, when an enemy moved closer to Sam while he was hidden in the shadows waiting for an ambush, Sam changed his stance to ready himself to attack the enemy. These subtle non-interactive motions really added to the realism of the game.

Solo play is fun but the most original experience I had was in the multiplayer. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough friends on Xbox Live to play a Co-op game. I tried a few times to find a quick Co-op match but to no avail. I’ve heard it is fun to play with a partner, so if any of you out there want to try it add “Saccia” to your friends list I would be more than happy to give the Co-op play a shot. However, I did get a chance to play a couple of rounds of deathmatch. Deathmatch is a lot of fun in Splinter Cell. Unlike many first person shooters, deathmatch in Splinter Cell doesn’t mean you are the first to grab the rocket launcher and then you get to smoke everyone else. Deathmatch in Splinter Cell actually takes a bit of teamwork to dominate. Deathmatch consists of up to a 3vs3 match where mercenaries try to battle with spies. The interesting thing is that mercenaries utilize deadly weaponry like submachine guns whereas spies are more like Sam Fisher and rely on invisibility and close quarters combat. At first it seems a little unfair that the spies don’t have deadly weaponry but I’ve been up against an awesome spy team who could sneak upstairs and snap your neck before you would even sense their footsteps. It’s interesting that the teams have such different abilities but still have a good balance.

The other nice surprise was to see a “Tutorial mode” for multiplayer. In fact, you are required to pass the tutorial test before you are allowed online to compete with others. This may see strange that a game would restrict you in this way, but I did appreciate that the game made me understand the basic controls in multiplayer before I went online and got owned.

Aside from multiplayer, I was happy to see free maps available for deathmatch. Why so exited? After all, Xbox games have had free content for a while. Well, the excitement comes from the fact that I am playing this game on an Xbox360. Yes, this game is one of the excellent back-compatible games. I played Splinter Cell Chaos Theory on my Xbox360 and have to say it plays wonderfully. It is emulated so it is not perfect. One time out of the many times I played the game, I saw some blue specs around the edge of objects in dark areas. However, this was a one-time issue and I didn’t see it later when playing the game. This small quirk didn’t affect my enjoyment of the game. After all, I was playing a discount Xbox game on my premium priced Xbox360.

If you’ve never played a stealth genre, Chaos Theory is an excellent place to start. Pick it up whether you have an original Xbox or “only” have an Xbox360 like me. You won’t be disappointed. In fact, you are likely to be delighted especially once you break into the Xbox Live space and play some deathmatch games. Good luck and I hope to see you online!