Man, did my opinion hit the fan last year. When Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow arrived for the Xbox last year, hot on the heels of the trend-setting, "Solid-Snake-who?!" original, I played it for hours on end, online and off. It frustrated me several times, and it made me wonder what I was doing wrong. But it also make me think, and made me work for my efforts. And in the end, I was so compelled by the beauty of the game and the power that went into its development, I slapped it with a five-star rating and called it one of the year's best games. I got a little feedback on it from people, telling me I was nuts and that the game was too hard for its own good, but I stood by my rating. After all, the multiplayer aspect alone that the game introduced brought it to a higher level than most game companies will ever achieve in their lifetime of business. I couldn't wait for part three.

And now here it is, another chapter of Splinter Cell to keep me on my toes and work my action and stealth tactics down to the very bones in my fingertips. I knew I would be in for a fight when I picked up the game and registered it for online play, and I prepared myself for what new challenges lie ahead. But, surprisingly, the game turned out to be more accessible than Pandora Tomorrow was, on a number of fronts, and I found myself enjoying Chaos Theory more than I expected to. It didn't make me sweat up a storm, but I still worked at it nonetheless and found the experience to be just as rewarding as previous chapters...although one little thing slipped it from the five star status that Pandora Tomorrow previously earned.

Let's get the story out of the way so I can dive right into the game content. The year is 2008, and cyber-terrorism is on the rise. Government systems are getting hacked into and held for ransom by terrorist cells, and this includes the control of national defense systems that have crucial handling of all sorts of weapons. The NSA has once again called on the elite agent Sam Fisher to sneak into locations linked to the terrorists, where he must find out more about how the plan is unfolding and take out any subjects who could be linked as a threat to America. It's once again a one-man situation against an army, but this is no ordinary man. Fisher is heavily trained in all aspects, from weapons handling to the all-important element of stealth.

With that said, let's first talk about the game's solo mode. In this mode, you take control of Fisher as he jet sets to different locations where he's notified about particular threats, through solid radio banter that explains his missions, regular and secondary. Throughout each mission, Fisher must basically sneak his way around, be it climbing around on pipes, sneaking through alternative routes, or avoiding lighting that would otherwise give away his location. If he comes upon an enemy, he has the option to interrogate for information, knock out and move out of the way, or just plain kill- the option is yours.

Let me first talk about the level design. In Pandora Tomorrow, you were basically given a route and then all sorts of setbacks, like alarm systems in place or enemies that got a little bit too nosy over the slightest of noises. It was challenging, to be sure, but that's where some of the frustration came into play. With Chaos Theory, the folks at Ubisoft now give you the option of taking one of several routes to get to your objective. Some are as clear as day, while others take a little work, like ripping through a paper wall or kicking your way through a secured door to gain access to another room. This brilliantly ups the ante on the game's replay value, as you can try to go through a level a different way and see what unfolds as a result. The enemy AI will match up with you most of the way, especially in higher difficulty modes.

Stealth tactics once again come into play, and you're given all the necessary tools to sneak around once more. When you come upon a door, you can try to creep it open just enough to get a glimpse of what's going on, or sneak a wire cam under the door to take a look at who's behind it and plan your next move. You can shoot out lights and turn on your thermal vision or alternate vision modes to pinpoint the location of enemies, and act accordingly. They still react to noise and can even form groups to bear down on your location, so this is still an important element to the game, beautifully executed.

But there's a bit more emphasis on action as well, and fans are sure to be pleased by this (unless they consider it to be a pushover as a result, I'm sure a couple of skeptics will see it that way). For instance, Fisher now has the capability of using a combat knife, which can come in handy in terms of interrogating the enemy (holding it to their throat) or simply taking them out with random stomach stabbings or a quick slash to the throat. Brutal? Oh, sure, but it's very effective. The SC20K rifle has also been souped up, allowing Fisher to take out enemies with typical shots, using a sniper mode to hit particular points on an enemy target (like hitting them in the leg or taking a head shot), and using an alternate firing mode for frying circuits that will cut off lighting in particular sections of a level.