Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory®

Finest Splinter Cell game ever created.

John Splinter Cell and Joe Chaos Theory be like

Best stealth game I've played

I don't think a game like this would be made today.
It's way too slow-paced, pretty janky, has terrible weapon mechanics, and horrifying facial animations. But that's what makes it such a special game.

This is by far the best and most creative game i have ever played. SVM is amazing.

Been a fan of Splinter Cell since the PS2 ports, as they were my first experience.

The real Xbox versions do have far more to the level design, thanks to the fact that the system had more horsepower behind it, and it is why even if you're a PS2 or even GameCube fan, that you'll wanna get the PC versions.

What isn't so great, is how you have to do some modding and settings being messed with, for it to run and run properly on PC here. Sadly modern Ubisoft is spying on their customers, treating them like garbage, and they're now owned by Communist China pretty much too. I don't think we'll get any other way to play these games in HD, that'll be trustworthy, unless some other somehow more trustworthy 3rd party buys up Splinter Cell and remasters it all for modern consoles and PC.

You CAN get it working on Windows 11, and this is my favorite game in the series, but know it will take a bit of time to get it working fully.

classic stealth game

Best stealth action game even up to this day. If you haven't played Chaos Theory yet, you are missing out.

If you wanna be stealthy but absolutely body people this game is for you 100/10 must play.

Splinter Cell has earned it's coveted reputation over the two decades since the first game dropped and I still wholeheartedly believe Chaos Theory is the best stealth game ever made. The on-the-ground gameplay is fluid, responsive and thorough enough to allow the player to express their forward-thinking into creative solutions in every level. There's a whole arsenal to pre-select before each mission and there's enough at hand to reward either careful planning or precise shooting without much restriction on how you express your gameplay. The intricacy of detail baked into design of Chaos Theory makes it a stand out for me. Smoke can bleed through holes shot through cloth, bone can crack through harsh impact and shoes can squeak on polished floor. The entire game is so painstakingly and carefully constructed that how they got this running on the original Xbox is witchcraft.

The original cast return and Michael Ironside still shines confidently as Sam. It's written well and balances a tense atmosphere with some levity carefully, The story as a whole can wobble into being a little campy but the atmosphere overall is tense, thick and immersive. I wasn't gripped by the cutscenes and every cinematic looks a lot more like Playdough than cutting edge CGI. You spend 99% of the time in the field though so it's the only way the game shows its age. It's graphically still excellent with light and shadow being a staple of Splinter Cell. Some of the guards faces look like cheap rubber masks as they contort in shock but otherwise the game is a graphical powerhouse that's been nicely preserved in the twenty years since release. Everything is dynamic and in flux from the moment you're boots are on the ground laying everything on a nice strong foundation of unpredictability when the games systems collide with one-another. The enemy have a reactive AI that caught me out more than once being deductive and clever in how they interact with the environment leaving the impression that they're thinking and slowly sniffing out an intruder. I loved how they could either dismiss their suspicion or investigate a threat based on how many guards were around, the amount of light in the room or even if certain doors were left open.

The whole game was groundbreaking back in 2005 and this is one of the best games ever made. I did have a few technical hiccups with the game when played vanilla. Loading into a level for the first time can cause the shaders to bug out and blur but this was solved on a quick dip back into the main menu. I really wish it worked with my X1X controller but I could not bind the triggers at all. Otherwise, the game ran perfectly and loads quickly.

It's amazingly paced and a decent challenge. The fact you can pick this up for less than a coffee and it works on modern machines is a dream come true. I completed it 100% in 9 hours and I would recommend this game to absolutely everyone.

love this game. the night vision bug sucks tho :( not really playable

I AM VENGEANCE, I AM THE NIGHT, I AM SAM FISHER!

good features, good game

Best Splinter Cell game

Fisher deserves more than 25 cents and hour... just saying

Please ignore time played. I've played all the way through this at least twice just never on Steam. I did play this briefly to test it and it ran smoothly, no or minimal manual fixes required
Pros: Finally Sam is great at unarmed combat. The knife is not only for short range killing, it can also make new openings to tents and the like, giving you more freedom of movement. Similar to some of the Assassin's Creed games you can now kill without a ranged weapon from various situations, including hanging under a guard that you pull over a railing. You can actually get through a lot of this without firing a single round if you prefer. Cool new equipment such as EMF vision revealing electronics, useful for figuring out where you can use the OCP to disable electrical stuff. The SC-20K receives some very welcome upgrades, for example the scope lets you use it as an actual sniper rifle. Hacking is something you do rather than one click and it's done, and it's not overused; it enables you to circumvent retinal scanners and keypads instead of coercing someone or finding the code, respectively. The split jumping is the simplest and actually most awesome looking of these first 3. There is now a noise meter, helpful in gauging how loud the surroundings already are, thus letting you know very accurately how silent you have to be to not be heard. Improved graphics and animation, and this has more elaborate cutscenes, almost invariably fully rendered. Great story, interesting and well told. High realism, revealing Tom Clancy's fingerprints. The load up is a great addition, letting you choose between recommendation, stealth and assault. The freedom is increased, there are sometimes more than one way to solve the varied objectives, and several ways to get to where you need to go, and many ways of getting rid of or outright avoiding guards. The streamlining rarely goes too far and is almost exclusively a great thing. The map is back and now actually useful, it's a 3D model that you can rotate 360 degrees. This has the least amount of you just trying to even figure out where you're supposed to go and how, so you can focus on just carrying it out. Stealth remains tremendously fun. Audio is excellent, music, voice acting and effects alike. This is the first of these to have replayability, with unlockables, optional assignments and a rating system that gives a percentage readout of how well you did.
Cons: there are definitely some cliches to the plot, and though the twists are good, they're not entirely unpredictable. The altered movement controls for direction can be awkward, especially when trying to grab or choosing where exactly you're throwing or ditching enemies. Ultimately, the freedom of approach was not mastered yet by this point in the franchise.
Mildly recommended to people who have played the sequels or are not used to games from back then, strongly recommended if you love the concept maybe played one or both of the first two and thought there was room for improvement
I got this on sale so that I could leave this review in the hopes of helping others decide whether or not to buy this

At first i though the game was pure shit. vision was white, i was slow because i didnt know i can change speed with the scroll wheel, i didnt know about the melee kill, i woud get spotted way too easily. but then i bought the game again and watched a few in game tutorials and fixed the white vision glitch and i had a really fun time.

best splinter cell game ever and one of the best stealth games

A classic of the stealth genre that still holds up in 2025. Some control issues on mouse and keyboard, but the gameplay and freedom of exploration is so much fun, even if stealth isn't your typical genre. At the current price point, there's no reason not to try Splinter Cell CT.

Pretty fun game, its a bit clunky but fun

This is probably the best Splinter Cell game, if you want the original experience with less jank but still has that PS2 era grittiness this is the game for you. I've never played a game with movement mechanics like this but oh boy do they work

man. the game of my childhood. 2007~ played every day for hrs. passed every mission in many different ways. still remember many lines and where what npc goes xD

I went full ninja in the dark, turned off lights like I’m not paying the electric bill, and choked out half a country—all in the name of freedom.
Sam Fisher is the dad you wish you had: sneaky, grumpy, and armed with night vision that makes him look like a techno frog.

Graphics? Old but gold.
Gameplay? Smoother than Fisher’s voice.
Stealth? So satisfying I whisper IRL when I play.

Still better stealth than 90% of modern games.
11/10 would neck-snap my way through chaos again

There are a few issues with running this game on modern computers, but other than that, I think it is easily among the greatest stealth games ever made. The only main issue I noticed (not saying it was the only one, just the only one I noticed) was the lighting and shaders being awful, but it is fixed by pausing, changing your resolution, un-pausing the game, letting the shaders reload, then changing it back.

If you like an action game with some solving puzzle talent!

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory remains one of the best stealth games. The levels are fun, the game play satisfying, and the story solid. Sure, modern AI has advanced, but this classic still holds up incredibly well with simple controls and rewarding stealth.

one of my favorite childhood games. nothing better than this installment.

Sam Fisher :

"Want me to kill this guy?"

In earpiece "No! We need him alive"

"Well they said I should kill you, so..."

10/10..

the best sealth game in the 2000 s . and might still be even today. i know there s more of splinter cell but this is the only one i played so i won t comment about the other games and only about my experience i ha playing this game.
the game does feel old.. a remaster will be enough to make it feel "new". if you want a challenge or even test yours skills (sealth talking) then thi game is def. the choice.

One of the best stealth games to date + Excellent OST.

Hello,

I would say this is probably the best Splinter Cell game of the series. I would 100% recommend this game either on PC or Xbox Series X. Happy Gaming! :)

Very solid game, enjoyable stealth and satisfying takedowns, funny interrogation dialogues, great voice acting with lots of flavor that elevate the game, and mildly interesting briefings before missions to get you in the op mood. There is some variety to the locations you visit and they are not just plain buildings that all look the same. Secondary objectives and mission completion stats along with multiple paths to your objectives add some replayability. There is a co-op mode, but I am not sure it is working as it asked me for a code when I tried searching for a lobby list menu. You have some cool gadgets, although the guns accuracy sucks making using guns for quiet ranged disposals a source of frustration with bullets recoiling around the crosshairs, or failing to kill enemies with helmets resulting in alarming not just your target but all guards near them too.

I only encountered one bug, my various goggle vision modes going dark or blinding white whenever I would alt-tab out of the game or loading a new map. I tried all the workarounds I found on guides, the only thing that worked for me was changing my in-game screen resolution in the pause menu settings (going from 1920 to 1020 for example), saving and returning back to the game. You can returned back to your preferred resolution afterwards and save again if you would like, the bug would still be fixed until your next alt-tab.

The game goes on sale regularly with Ubisoft sales.

Honestly, it's in need some revision to make this game properly work, but once you get over the quirks, this is enjoyable experience.

From negatives, it does work on modern hardware, but you do need couple mods and a lot of tweaking to make it work. I'd say start mapping controls, because without it the game is unplayable; like they were back then playing it on kitchen oven as controller bad. Once you figure out it you can skip watching the tutorial videos, because they don't add any valuable intel and are bad/sluggish at explaining stuff. BIG TIP FOR HACKING is that you use mouse to navigate UI and you have to select 4 numbers from small right panel, watched video for that 3 times explaining mechanic and found by mistake on YT how to hack stuff even tho its essential to progress trough. 2ND BIG TIP: use scroll to define how fast you're moving, I discovered that by mistake on literally last mission, so the whole game was very problematic to play trough without this info.

"Cool moves" as tutorial video title, give me a break.

What also has not aged gracefully is animations, especially facial ones, they are over the top all the time. Some mission objectives are right down annoying and you can progress trough sections based on planet alignment when you were born aka luck.

Plot, idk what was going on there and tbf couldn't care less. You die very easily and for some assignments you can select aggressive gun arrangement for "do not kill anyone" missions.

Once you get over all of these hoops, its a great title for stealth fans!

This is best game in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Series.still age like wine

Step 1: Enter the Kill Nobody mission
Step 2: Kill the first guy accidentally
Step 3: Profit

This is my Chaos Theory, I think it was a Splinter Cell.

I personally liked the game mechanics, very intricately made with sound and visibility system.
Classic 2000s quality, memorable.
Also, there is this one annoying bug where the night vision doesn't work which makes the player quit to main menu and load the save again. Other than this it's all fine.

I enjoy this game, but the Steam version is flaky. In particular, more often than not the night vision doesn't work at all and just washes the screen out. Fix that, and it'll be fine.

Absolutely blown away by how well this game holds up today, The stealth mechanics feel smooth and intuitive, the level design offers so many creative routes, and the atmosphere is pure espionage bliss. Revisiting those iconic moments transported me right back to the early 2000s ,utterly nostalgic and endlessly fun. If you love stealth games, the whole bundle is worth it

Fun game for maybe 1 or 2 playthroughs but the guard's psychic hive mind insta-notification of where you are when you fire an apparently SILENCED gun will get on your nerves eventually, especially on harder difficulties. And the twitchy aim reticule will make you miss dead cert head shoots on stationary targets constantly, which in turn makes all the guards aggro and know exactly where you are in about 0,5 seconds. Best bet use sticky shockers and airfoils, which I guess was the intent of the devs but the useless guns drive me crazy. Light shooting is all they are good for. They over did the *don't kill enemies or use guns* to be stealthy mechanic imho. Other games do stealth so much better.

Among the greats of the stealth genre. Timeless game, still feels fresh to play 20 years later.

"I loved Splinter Cell as a kid, let me see what the new games are like" - 1st most common sentence heard before suicides

Also can't bring myself to give this one a negative review. Out of all the games I no longer own, this one hurts the most.

The very best of the original Splinter Cell trilogy. The controls are great, like a dream. There are some forced action sequences in this game, never a good thing for stealth games and their controls, however good the classic Splinter Cells' are.

Great music, gameplay, overall good game even with the evident flaws. Give it a try, it's better than the PS3 HD Collection version.

Awful controls never fixed an looks like bad an deserves a remake or something but ubi doesnt care they will keep milking azzcreed as usual typical every year more slop in that cafeteria an its disrespected its fan base as well i cant support a horrible port of a game either

One of my favourite games of all time, and one of the greatest stealth games ever made.
10/10

Chaos Theory remain one of the best stealth games of its time, rivalling the stealth mechanics of modern games. I've returned to this game countless time and each time I am surprised at the intricacy of the stealth. Although not all levels are created equal I can without a doubt say that the gadgets and tools at your disposal create massive amount of variety in your play-troughs. The game goes on sale quite often but even at its base price, its totally worth it.

storyline was goated just save every time you turn a corner

finally finished the game after the long trial and error. definitely need some adjustment cause the control was rather unfamiliar, nonetheless the experience was unbeatable. one of the best classic stealth game I'd ever play.

Based and peak stealth gameplay

This is a great Stealth game.
It pains me so see Ubisoft go from this, to "current day".

For a legacy game, it runs very well on modern hardware; legacy Bioshock crashed often.
Never did I feel like I got in a bad situation unfairly; the enemy a.i. can be tough and alert on the harder difficulties, which encourages stealth takedowns and enviornment hazards to progress with as little detection as possible.
The Light and Sound detection mechanic is intuitive and useful.
Player choice abounds, too. Depending on the level, you can tackle the objectives in any particular order and dispatch enemies in divers ways, or even spare them with knock outs or other non-lethal gear you are given.
Granted, there will be an optimal way to play, but it's not mandatory; one can opt in for the special forces load out and go in guns blazing. As long as the primary objectives are completed (and some restrictions met, depending on the level) the Player can progress.
The plot and general conflict the game wants you to resolve is basic, but compelling; the game keeps escalating what happens as you progress; making the player feel like a hero by the end.

All in all, play this, and elevate your palate.

one of the best stealth games ever made