Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory®

one of the best stealth games ever made

Friendship ended with Metal Gear Solid 3. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is now my best friend

Windows 11 does not support this game

Stealth-action masterwork.

Excellence in design and execution that earned a cult classic status from the doorstep remains as endearing as it ever was. Happy 20th birthday, Chaos Theory!

     A gold standard for the genre continues to remain seemingly unthreatened by (sadly increasingly scarce) competition, that in all important departments manages to hold up with a shocking grace and confidence despite passing decades, which speaks to the talent and forethought of its creators- with just a very straightforward and effortless tweaking, Chaos Theory runs, sounds, looks and plays amazingly well and bring as much joy as it did in 2005.
Parts of its presentation that show the merciless passage of time like the complexity of 3D models, advancement of the facial animation system, or the resolution of most textures do not harm the end experience, which to this day is widely recognized as the true peak of the series and among the best games in the stealth genre.
  Pretty much everything else is highly impressive, entertaining and praiseworthy- an expanded and polished gameplay, satisfying AI, enjoyable pacing, varied and memorable locations with intricate level design, relevant more than ever political thriller story in the foreground, well-balanced humour and tension, likeable and genuinely-feeling characters, good and cohesive writing in general with special praise for the character of Sam Fisher- written believably and charmingly and brought to life by awesome Michael Ironside who in the role feels even more comfortable than before.
  All that is coated with very competent sound design and a truly phenomenal original soundtrack created by Amon Tobin (which is inseparable from the game's spirit and identity, similar to the work of Jesper Kyd from the classic entries in the Hitman or Assassin's Creed series) and supported by a visual presentation that aged like wine, as these often do when focusing their efforts on play between lights and shadows as the main actors, which cleverly soothes and masks the passage of time and initial technical shortcomings- similar to games like F.E.A.R; DOOM3 or Dead Space.
The result is a highly enjoyable formula working wonders in remarkably replayable single-player and cooperation campaigns, as well as in the fantastic rendition of Spies vs Mercs competitive multiplayer mode, still enjoyed to this day by most dedicated of enthusiasts.

   A delightful, exciting atmosphere from the opening cinematics to the ending credits and focused gameplay true to the spirit of the series and the genre, among many other good qualities, makes the third instalment in the Splint Cell series one of the best games bearing Tom Clancy's name and worthy of almost blind recommendation without any caveats- if you enjoyed previous SCs, this is a no-brainer. If you're looking for a great entry series to the genre- look no further and to play this game make your way through the debut title and Pandora Tomorrow ASAP. Just check out PCGamingWiki and Steam guides for config tips beforehand.

   Huge thanks to all the developers who worked on this game and everyone else who contributed to its success, as an outstanding creative achievement with a passionate following, a poster child and champion of the genre, and a crown jewel in Ubisoft's classic catalogue.
And while we're at it- of course big thanks to the company itself, for its exceptional stewardship and doing absolutely fucking nothing on this joyful occasion.
Apparently, the 18-ish thousand employees don't add up to the ability to show the most baseline acknowledgement and care about the product in the form of, for example, finally uploading graphic files (logo, banners) to Steam's database, so in the library it doesn't present itself like a 3rd league abandonware from some derelict company.
I guess the available effort went to smearing Splinter Cell's terminology and iconography over highly demanded endeavours like XDefiant. We all have to make sacrifices.

May the mother company patronage be more kind to you in the future, Chaos Theory.



                 - Who are you?!
                 - I'm the guy you never saw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIwLHyggjBc

John Splinter Cell is the protagonist of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.

He is a good shoot man, but a better sneak man.

His patented "sneak skills" are unparalleled, and he uses them often and with great bravado. He'll often quip, while sneaking, "I'm sneakin' here!" (in a whisper of course) before either shooting or sneaking a poor passer-by with his knife or big gun (or, if he's feeling not quite so sneaky, his even bigger gun).

At the end of the day, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is about family, which makes it all the more tragic when John Splinter Cell needs to confront his father and kill him.

With his big sneaky gun.

It's a mid 2000s Tom Clancy game, impossible to dislike those for the atmosphere alone. There are some issues thought like the mouse movement doesnt feel smooth at all on windows 10/ with logitech mouse.

poopiesoft/boobiesoft, it's over, sell the company and give the ip's to people who care pwetty pewease

Played this for the first time in 2025 and damn, it aged pretty well. Really good stealth game

The best game Ubisoft ever made.

The mad lads actually patched it to support wide screen, hazzahhh!

I've downloaded this 3 times and every time I do I'm reminded of how insanely awful the controls are on pc. I will recommend it because the game itself is amazing but get ready to struggle for awhile trying to learn how to play.

THIS IS NO VIDEOGAME FISHER

It's one of the best stealth games made. This, MGS3, and Hitman Blood Money are the trifecta from that era.

this game is a masterpiece in stealth played alot but this steam port is trash couldn't work with out a widescreen fix

This game is a classic, and the fact that the scroll wheel controls move speed is a mechanic I wish more stealth games had.

I got to play it several times over the years, so that playtime should be triple what it is... ^_^

Unless you're very nostalgic, this game is way too much outdated in its graphics, gameplay and animations. Even the AI is dumb as a pair of socks. Don't waste your time. Nice that it works under Windows 11 though.

The best splinter cell, and stealth game of all time.

why is Sam Fisher staring at me in the main menu

I dropped the game like four times because the controls were too strange, but I learned to enjoy it after understanding how it works. The two downsides are the controls and figuring out the 3D map.

How I understood it, wherever you're facing is the orientation of the map when you select it, and the red cube is the objective. You can also check your primary, secondary, opportunity objectives, and notes if you're lost.

Tips:

SC Pistol: Right click disrupts electronics and light sources. You can temporarily turn off lights and distract with disrupted laptops, computers, and radios. (Most OP mechanic)

Ladder fast fall: climb down, but increase your speed with mwheelup

Rappel fast drop: hold down and press shift for a quick descending jump

Climbing horizontal pipe: Bring legs up by pressing shift

Roll: Mwheelup to speed up then long press crouch button (c)

Lean on the wall: Press q

OTS: while aiming over-the-shoulder, press q to change left to right orientation and vice versa

Change weapons: Hold control and select using the mouse cursor or by wasd and confirming with spacebar

Bring out selected weapon: Press e

Interact: press spacebar

Hacking: If you let the timer end you trigger an alarm, but to prevent this you can actually just press esc and try again (Some won't allow).
> Press the numbers the light up in the bottom right corner and completing all four numbers automatically completes the hacking process.
> You don't need to completely hack, if you know the combination just select the right sequence of numbers with e.

>>You can wireless hack by using the EEV (press 1) by looking at a retinal scanner, computer (look at the chassis not the monitor), keypad, et cetera by completing the scan and if it displays a symbol with numbers 01010 something like that or a wifi symbol, it means you can hack it from afar by pressing spacebar.

Split jump with two closeby walls: look at one wall opposite to another and hold shift. Sam will jump and do the splits with both legs against the opposing walls.

Great game. Very fun. Just the controlls feel dated.

Best game in the series. Stuck with a terrible company.

Desperately needs official controller support.

My all time favorite Splinter Cell game. Played and replayed this for the past 20 years. Im Playing it on Steam Deck and love it.

I love this game, but I wish it had controller support. I don't wish to download an extension either. But for now I'll bite my tongue and continue to use keyboard and mouse.

I wish I could play this game with my friend, without it killing all of my desktop icons. please remake it

ubisoft is the most garbage game company to ever exist. the game is great, but due to various technical problems caused by the game alone, the coop does not work.

Greatest game known to man and I will die on that hill.

That's a cute sound.

من الالعاب اللي تحببك بتصنيف كامل (التخفي)
اجواء اللعبة القيمبلاي الافكار الذكاء الاصطناعي كلهن ولا غلطة اما المراحل فيه اربع مراحل هن الافضل اللي هن السفينة والبنك وهوكايدو واللي بكوريا الشمالية هذولي التوب بالنسبة لي

This game is genuinely an experience on its own level- Originally i played this game (the hd remaster) on my ps3 and now that i have a pc, i decided to get it. this game still looks pretty okay thanks to the lighting. The stealth in this game is pretty fun, though a little clunky sometimes, but thanks to quicksave and quickload, you can just retry that part, allowing you to try all sorts of different approaches to each level. Theres a handful of neat things to find, cool attacks you can do, and overall the stealth is pretty fun and the level design is pretty dense and nicely done, even if a little awkward in some levels. overall, a great game.

If you love stealth games this one is a must play. It is one of the absolute GOATs of the genre and the only other one that even comes close if you want a more modern day version is Blacklist.

After finding this franchise with Splinter Cell Double Agent I never imagined that the older games would be better. Boy are they GOOD. This is what a true stealth game is. Be a shadow, spare or dispatch those you come across, leave behind corpses or don't even leave an echo of your presence as you play as the blackest black ops operative in the world.

"You can't get a medal from this Fisher, you don't even exist"
'Medals don't help me sleep at night, Lambert'

Masterclass in stealth design and gameplay. Even before the era of "Open design" levels so called developers claim to pioneer, this is HOW a game should be made. It has multiple paths, multiple objectives that the player is able to choose. And most importantly it lets you interact with the world in a realistic and genuine way. I would instantly recommend to anyone who love THIEF or just immersive sims in general.

I played this after a few years and realised there is no "tutorial". Instead, you have watch about 2 dozen boring videos-- which of course you forget and then have to learn how to play in real time

This sh1t bugs my Steam library

Bought the game when it came out on the Original Xbox 20 years ago. I'm still replaying it to this day now on the PC! Please make a REMAKE!!!

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is one of the greatest stealth games of all time. I cannot imagine being a fan of stealth and not playing this game. 10/10 and one of my top 10 games of all time.

Yo, Ubisoft where's this type of heat these days? They were firing on all cylinders when they made this bad boy. One of the greatest stealth games of the early 2000's or better yet of all time.

It's got a few rough edges, and can be a bit punishing at times, but you just gotta get good. And if you want to play with a controller (which I recommend) then you need the Xinput trigger fix. There's a guide in the community hub that has it. I had a blast playing this one again, there's really nothing like this series that does it at this level. The flaws and slightly dated feel begin to fade once you get into the groove of the game. It's quite satisfying to 100% a level and complete all the side objectives while getting in and out completely unnoticed. Grabbing guards, interrogating them as you pull them into the shadows before you knock them out. Makes you feel like a pro.

Would love a slightly updated version w/ some achievements and ultra-wide support. No need to update visuals, they still hold up quite well, the lighting is INCREDIBLE even for today's standards. All in all, this is a fantastic game and you should definitely play it if you need a specific itch scratched.

The game is great, might be the best Splinter Cell ever made.

Let's get this motherfucker to "Overwhelmingly Positive".

Possibly the best stealth games out there. if you want to play splinter cell for the first time i recommend this one.

This game is very fun. If you're looking for an experience similar to the HITMAN series. Then this is the perfect game for you. I highly recommend.

The good ol' xbox days was the PEAK gaming (still have the disc) I had so much fun playing this again...I even got some Co-op working with a friend and its nice to progress through that campaign. Very fun game. 10/10

First Splinter Cell game I've beaten; I can already say it's up there with the greatest in the stealth genre.

The blend of tactical espionage and realistic gameplay creates an immersive experience that's hard to find in titles other than Metal Gear.

In comparison, Splinter Cell feels like a more grounded approach to espionage, but both are definitely great with their ups and downs.

Wish they still made games like these.

really good

COOL GAME (except for that one mission where you have to kill shetland)

Chaos Theory's game and level design outshine even stealth games released 10–15 years later. I instantly loved the game and went as far as to perfect each level despite being on a semi outdated p*r*ted copy. Even at full price, this game is worth it.

After buying it, be sure to install any recommended fixes listed on PCGW to improve your experience on modern PCs. Although, it should run just OK out of the box.

she splinter on my cell till i chaos theory

The third classic from the splinter cell franchise. They just don't make these games how they used to any more. Hopefully they remaster these games carefully and revive the Splinter Era!!!

This game did not age very well, the controls feel clunky like having to tap the movement keys to go slow enough to not alert guards, and there's no proper tutorial, just several minutes of tutorial videos.

with a remaster that fixes up the controls, adds a proper tutorial, and maybe adds a better map it could be great but as is I'd steer clear.

Save scummed a little too hard on this one but I am so sneaky it's actually crazy, also I'm 6"4' btw