Pandora Tomorrow... what did it mean? That was the question everyone was asking before we got our grubby li'l hands on the next entry in the Splinter Cell franchise. Simply, it's the code name used by Suhadi Sadono, the game's primary antagonist, to begin his campaign to unleash a biological agent onto the masses. Reprising your role as Sam Fisher, covert Third Echelon operative of the NSA, you must stop that from happening. In doing so, you will track Sadono throughout the game to various exotic locales around the world.

Which immediately brings up several points of contention. The settings for the first SC took place predominantly indoors, which was cool and all, but lacked a certain sense of grandeur. Pandora Tomorrow rectifies that situation with having the majority of the game takes place outdoors. At times, this is utterly breathtaking because the graphics engine gets a much better workout that not only makes for some absolutely incredible sequences (the speeding train being the best), but adds a lot to the overall gameplay experience. It also presents you with a whole new set of obstacles and problems to overcome, since you must rely heavily (perhaps too much so) on your stealth skills.

Unfortunately, a good 75% of the game takes place in total darkness, thus requiring you to play most of it using night vision - creating a grainy, hazy green view of the world, or thermal vision - which creates a mind numbing, Technicolor induced headache. After prolonged periods of use with either of these tools of the trade, you're ready to turn in your Covert Spy membership card for good. Conversely, avoiding spotlights and guards in exterior settings is about as tension-filled as it gets. However, it only works sometimes because the theoretical "adaptive AI system" created to make the game harder or easier according to the players' skill, doesn't always work.

Oftentimes the enemy is so alert that if you twitch a cheek muscle they spot you, while other times you can literally sneak past someone (or more hilariously - several someone's) who is only a foot away without being noticed. Wall mines, cameras and motion sensors are all similarly random in their detection abilities, making for infuriating gameplay. Which all might have been avoided with one simple feature that still hasn't been implemented. If this is a stealth game, and it does require much more sneaking around than the original, why can't Fisher lie down on his stomach and crawl? It's a mode that wasn't really needed in the first game because there weren't a lot of outdoor areas, but SC:PT has them in spades where crawling would have been very effective in many instances.

Most of the voice acting and dialogue in the game is out and out Hollywood movie quality, much like the introduction to the game! In addition to Michael Ironside reprising his roll as Sam Fisher, we have the new (and much improved) addition of Dennis Haysbert (the President on the TV show 24) voicing the role of Lambert. Unfortunately, a great deal of the believability and immersion from the voice acting and storyline is ripped out from under you the second you hear the background characters (guards, locals or contacts in foreign lands) talk. This game takes place in a variety of places like Paris, Indonesia, and Jerusalem... yet the native folk have no accents or dialects, and sound like Surfer Joe from Redondo Beach. This is an indefensible botch given the top shelf voice acting of the main characters.

Controls and gameplay, at least in the single player mode, are nearly identical to the first game, so it won't take long to jump right back into stealthy secret agent mode. Regrettably, I couldn't shake the feeling that the game was TOO linear, almost as if you were playing from a pre-defined movie script. Like the original, most of Pandora Tomorrow is based on the trial and error mode of gameplay where - if at first you don't succeed...

On the system I play test games on, I use Microsoft's Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0 and Wireless Natural MultiMedia Keyboard. For months now I've been putting it through it's paces and have had zero problems with any game... it's a sweet setup! That is, until now. Supposedly, the center mouse button acts as the bind key for your binoculars, and when equipped with the SC-20K rifle, sniper mode.

Bzzzzz! Wrong, but thanks for playing! No, what the center button did on this mouse (which is that new-fangled, multi-directional scroll wheel) was crash the game to the desktop for about 3 seconds, then bounced you back into the game. But that's not all, a great many of the out of the box default controls were wrong and I had to remap them. Granted, it's a minor problem that was easily fixed by remapping the keys, but come on... how could Ubi allow such a bug to make it of beta?

There's nothing new about the solo portion of the game, but the revolutionary multiplayer mode is where the true innovation comes in, which breaks from the norm of Deathmatch and Capture the flag. In a nutshell, you have a two-man Shadownet team (covert operatives like Sam) who have to sneak into key areas and render any biological weapons they come across inert. Trying to prevent them from doing this are two mercenaries from ARGUS Corporation.

That's right, a total of only 4 players are allowed to play. The sides don't need to be balanced, so you can have a 3-on-1 match. Here's the twist: the mercs play from a first person view, complete with standard FPS controls, while the spies play from SC's conventional third person perspective. Not only that, but the spies can't kill and the mercs can. Unfair? No. Each team's players are equipped with completely different weapons and equipment that help balance out the play.

Since there's only 8 maps (like a hospital, museum, movie theater, etc.) they've been designed to be mucho complex. Mostly engulfed in darkness and replete with hidden passages, differing entry points, hidey-holes, air ducts, rafters and so forth, they all keep the whole "stealth" factor alive and well. Needless to say, it's extremely difficult to master and will not only require a great deal of time to learn the maps, but that you use insane amounts of teamwork. Fortuitously, voice chat is supported. Unfortunately, I didn't care for the whole thing myself, plus I found the interface odd and difficult to jump into a game.

Despite some personal issues, the story that drives the solid (if not spectacular) gameplay is immersive and beautifully crafted, and the multiplayer is groundbreaking. Ubisoft has made a reputation by crafting perhaps the best story driven games in the industry (Prince of Persia, XIII, Far Cry). Pandora Tomorrow is a commendable effort worth sneaking through, but only if you live for stealth games.