Pandora Tomorrow sneaking on PS2: Hands-on, developer speaks!

Sam Fisher - a man often on the stealthiest of missions, but while PC and Xbox owners have been knocking themselves out with his freshest adventure Pandora Tomorrow, up until now, PS2 - and GameCube - aficionados have missed out on all the action.

Well no longer, as the shiny silver PS2 version of Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow has finally fallen into our clutches, so camo-ing up and donning our best stealth socks, we went hands on with Pandora PS2.

As per usual the pesky terrorists of the Darah Dan Doa, an Indonesian terror organisation, have taken exception to a US military base on East Timor and now hold the US embassy in their iron grip. With hostages taken and the embassy under lockdown, one man has to infiltrate, penetrate and then exfiltrate without leaving a trace and guess who just got nominated?

Pandora Tomorrow opens up with a training level set in the village which guards the approach to the US embassy and this small but perfectly formed little outing provides you with all the basic moves and training required to get into the full game.

Pop up tips guide you nicely along the way and slowly introduce how to get the best stealthy response from Mr Fisher, and your eyes are constantly flicking to that little sliding bar in the bottom right hand corner to see how visible you are.

Unfortunately for the purposes of this mission enemy fatalities are not permitted (huh? why?) but from the off, it's immediately obvious that using the PS2's DualShock is a mighty fine way to handle Mr Fisher. All the controls are logically laid out and a few minor gripes about the camera aside, everything proceeds swimmingly.

We're soon taking a zip line ride down onto the docks and then sneakily swinging hand over hand to finally reach dry land.

As ever, lighting plays an important role and with the temporary no-fatalities rule, the only real use for your gun is to knock out light sources to enable you to sneak up on the scattering of guards milling about the village. Get in close behind them and you're able to knock 'em cold, before carefully stashing the bodies.

One nice additional touch is the ability to distract them by whistling and once they come to investigate the noise, they're all yours. Hehe.

The use of Sam Fisher's groovy goggles and various vision modes is also rather well done. Once you've knocked the light sources out, the guards really flounder in the dark, enabling you to sneakily circle them, come up from behind and then it's almost always goodnight Vienna.

Occasionally switching to thermal mode to check out new ground is always a good idea, as you never quite know where the sneaky blighters have concealed some mines - and let's face it, it's not much fun finding out the hard way.

So we snuck, we stealthed, we used the shadows and just about managed to reign in our murderous impulses long enough to safely dispose of the guards on our approach to the embassy proper. Once you get the hang of Sam's stealth moves - and there are quite a few to learn - it's blindingly obvious that Pandora Tomorrow is going to be as huge as the original Splinter Cell on PS2.

Add in the fact that your using the best controller in the universe in the DualShock and it's blindingly obvious that PS2 fans will be counting the days until June 11 when Pandora makes its full debut.

Well, with Pandora Tomorrow PS2 hands-on impressions now done and dusted, we shall hand you over to producer Julien Bares who recently agreed to park his backside in the interview hot seat to answer questions on both the PS2 and GameCube versions of the title.

There's been a considerable gap between Tom Clancy's Pandora Tomorrow on Xbox and PC and on PS2 and GameCube. Why the delay?

Bares: For the quality, it is obvious that expectations are high on PS2 and that we want to guarantee the quality of the final game. So we took all the necessary time to tune the game and guarantee such things as framerate, rendering and to get the best game available on PlayStation2.

Both PS2 and GameCube versions of Pandora Tomorrow feature content not included in the PC and Xbox version. What are your favourite additions, and why?

Bares: My favourite addition is the less obvious one: it is called refining and tuning. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is such a game it needs hours of tuning, we are always surprised to see what people dare doing and so we have worked a lot on that. In addition, we have also provided extra content on the booby trap for example and the extra level based in the Indonesian jungle environment.

What challenges have you had to overcome, in terms of technology, in bringing Pandora Tomorrow to PS2 and GameCube?

Bares: The thing to remember is that even if PS2 and GameCube have a lot of power, they just do not work the same as the Xbox or a PC. But we know how to work it out, so we had to focus on managing the textures, the scripts, the size of the levels. At the end, the PS2 version is something we are very proud of.

What graphical/technology features have you had to omit, if any?

Bares: Nothing technical, but we had an idea on the whistle function that did not work because of design issues, it should be in the next one. [It's] Something that will make the game even more immersive

Is multiplayer in the GameCube version, and generally, what changes if any have you made to Pandora Tomorrow multiplayer for PS2 and GC?

Bares: There is no multiplayer in the GameCube version since the game does not work on split-screen, but we have added a link for GBA which works like a radar for Sam. On PS2, the game is even better since it was tuned according to the gamer feedback.

You've just announced Splinter Cell 3, and although so far it's only been officially confirmed for PC everyone will surely assume that it will also be released on console. Aren't you concerned that this will affect sales of Pandora Tomorrow on PS2 and GameCube?

Bares: I do not think so. Pandora Tomorrow is out now and the experience on PS2 and GameCube is such a climax that I see no reason why gamers should miss this one! Also SC3 is for the moment only a PC game

With future Splinter Cell games on console, will you aim for a simultaneous release or will PS2 and GameCube owners once again be left waiting?

Bares: We hope to do so but we will never release a game that doesn't match our quality standards.

Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow releases on June 11 on PS2 in Europe and July 2 on GameCube.

CVG Staff