The original Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell was a gaming revelation. Purists may scoff and claim Solid Snake is the Sultan of Stealth, but they need only take a look at the numerous accolades and mountains of praise heaped upon Sam Fisher's first covert insertion. After extrapolating all the best bits of every stealth game ever made, we were left with an outstandingly atmospheric and extremely playable third-person actioner. It seems that whatever Tom Clancy puts his name to turns to gold, and although his moniker is distinctly absent from this sequel, previous glimpses through our night vision goggles and hushed whispers captured over laser microphones hinted that complete with a rumoured online multiplayer mode, Pandora Tomorrow could be something very special.

Gameplay is, unsurprisingly, very similar to the first Splinter Cell game. Players undertake missions involving specific objectives provided by your CIA backup (and Fisher's mentor), Lambert. A terrorist cell, headed by Suhadi Sadona, has stolen a smallpox virus, and is threatening to release it in the US unless daily ransom demands are met. Fisher travels all over the world trying to uncover the plot, paving the way for a fantastic variety of mission objectives including hostage rescue, trailing suspects, defusing bombs and assassinations. Because of the covert nature of the operation, lethal force is occasionally not permitted, and here is where Fisher must use his Pandora’s box of gadgets to silently knock out enemies. Each level, from the gorgeous-looking Indonesian jungle (the first real outdoor outing for Fisher) to the exhilarating train pursuit is significantly longer in this sequel, though this only provides greater scope for more absorbing puzzles. Although there's greater character interaction in Pandora Tomorrow, and more varied conversations, Fisher is a lot more hard-bitten this time round, and the whole tone of the game is a lot darker - it's often necessary for Sam to kill innocent people just to ensure his own survival.

Splinter Cell was renowned for its groundbreaking graphics, but by that measure, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow boasts a positive earthquake of graphical goodness. The cutscenes are drastically improved, with the opening intro (set in East Timor, where we get introduced to Suhadi Sadono) displaying amazingly lifelike characters and water effects.

After a stylish depiction of the terrorists' raid on the US Embassy, it's straight into the first mission; namely, entering the Embassy to rescue a captured CIA programmer. There's no tutorial as such; players are gradually introduced to the Third Echelon way of thinking through handy pop-up hints courtesy of Lambert. This is a great way of easing the player into the action, and a more inventive way than the CIA training camp at the start of Splinter Cell. The whole thing is surprisingly easy and remains the core of the gameplay for the duration of the game: don't be heard and don't be seen.

The developer makes a point of showing off its real-time lighting effects at every opportunity, and rightly so. Never before in a game has the environment had such an influence on both the graphics and the gameplay. Every slat of wood, every partially drawn blind or curtain, every nook and cranny will all cast amazingly lifelike shadows, which our spy must use to his advantage when negotiating each level. Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow still retains the gritty feel of the first game, but complements this with some vibrant outdoor environments.

Fantastic bump-mapping too means Sam Fisher is even more detailed, with every little ripple of muscle on display. Ooer!

If you thought the first Splinter Cell was impressive, wind your neck back in because Pandora Tomorrow blows all your preconceptions about character animation out of the water. Fisher's silky smooth movement is unbelievable, be it running, climbing or jumping, and it genuinely feels like you've got a real person's life in your hands as soon as you get inserted. We loved the way Fisher scales a drainpipe, then seamlessly shifts his bodyweight over to an adjourning ledge, all in one continuous, fluid movement. Brilliant!

To complement his new look, Sam now has even more moves up his sleeves. The innovative camera, a strong feature of the first title, is back, and it's thanks to this that such a wide range of moves are possible. Crouched in a doorway, but need to see what's round the corner? No problem, thanks to the fully rotational camera that will automatically zoom in and out to avoid getting stuck, making cautiously exploring the environments a pleasurable, and not painstaking, experience.

Staying hidden is still crucial, and to aid this Sam has a whole host of new gadgets and features at his disposal. A quick click on the Right thumbstick activates your built-in binoculars (complete with adjustable zoom, night and thermal vision), which saves the previously frustrating action of drawing your rifle, zooming in, then putting it away again just to see what's up ahead. Hiding the limp and lifeless bodies of fallen enemies was always an entertaining and vital part of the first game, but annoying was not the word if you got near the end of a level, only for one of their comrades to find an ill-concealed corpse way back and raise the alarm - thus forcing you to try the whole level again. Now, the newly designed stealth meter clearly shows your varying degrees of visibility, and flashes when you are completely concealed - so now you know exactly where it's safe to effectively hide a body. Sam's puckered up this time round, and has a great new feature enabling him to wolf whistle at enemies to get their attention - highly effective for drawing them into the shadows where he's lurking to dispatch them.

Your gun too, has been modified, offering a range of zoom options and a customised barrel optimised for silent kills, and the great new interface system means selecting and applying gadgets both looks and feels a lot more intuitive.

The game forces players to use a lot of these gadgets quite early on. You get the rifle, complete with Sticky Shockers and Diversion Cameras on only the second level, and right from the off it's vital to use Sam's night and thermal vision to progress.

This does speed up the whole learning process in general, but there is an assumption that gamers have already played the first Splinter Cell - when you stumble across Wall Mines, for example, there's no explanation for how to safely defuse them.

Whilst we're all for challenging gameplay, the first Splinter Cell was notorious for some annoyingly difficult sections, and we've got mixed feelings when we say Pandora Tomorrow repeats this right from the start.

It's no fun when games are a complete walkover, but some gamers may find the difficulty has been cranked up a fraction too high. On most levels, a display shows the number of alarm stages you're allowed to trigger, either by noisily disposing an enemy or being spotted. This is fine where lethal attacks are permitted, as if you remain quiet for long enough the alarm stages will eventually decrease, and it's easy to take enemies out from a distance.

When lethal force is not authorised however, foes must be dispatched with either Sticky Shockers or the low-impact Airfoil rounds, or by a swift crack to the head. Whilst this means Sam must stay hidden right up until a bad guy is almost on top of him, more often than not they'll emit a yelp when hit, raising the alarm stage. The difficulty of killing enemies is compounded with each increasing alarm stage, as they go from wearing normal clothes (body shots count), to wearing flak jackets (headshots only) to wearing helmets (face shots only).

Opinion is divided on whether Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow can be called a non-linear game, as although it isn't strictly open-ended (you ultimately have to reach the same goal at the end of each level), due to the amount of different gadgets at your disposal and the slightly different routes through each scenario, there are many, many different ways of working through the game. The upside of this is that there's always a great variety of things to do throughout the levels, you're given a huge amount of freedom, and replayability is immeasurably increased. The downside, however, is that it's quite easy to bypass a cache of ammo and health, leaving you stuck at the next checkpoint with low energy, an empty clip and several angry guards - forcing you to backtrack to the previous save point and replay a significant chunk of the level. There is a fair degree of trial and error gameplay, too, and although the enemy AI is intelligent in an immediate sense, they behave in exactly the same way each time you repeat a stage.

Splinter Cell was a great standalone, single-player title, and although they say in the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is king, in the kingdom of the Live the one-spied man won't last two seconds. The inclusion of Xbox Live-enabled, four-way multiplayer madness takes stealthing to the next level, as gamers choose to play as Shadownet Operatives or defending Mercenaries in a whole host of maps and scenarios. Having the Spies controlled via third-person and the Mercs as first-person is a fantastic way of balancing out the gameplay, and perfectly complements the guards’ superior weaponry against the spies' more refined movements. Multiplayer mode encourages the spies to step up the pace a bit, and the emphasis is less on sneaking and more on frantic dashing into areas to defuse the ND133s. Far from ruining the stealthy experience, this genuinely enhances the gameplay, and allows you to charge through the levels in the complete opposite way to the softly softly approach necessitated by the main game.

By enhancing everything that was good about the original Splinter Cell, the developer has surpassed itself both graphically and in gameplay with the sequel. The single-player game is a thing of beauty to both behold and play, and although occasionally frustrating, is immensely satisfying. The multiplayer mode, however, raises the online bar and paves the way for a new breed of game - and believe us, things don't get any tenser than this. It's an absolute gem, as Fisher again sneaks out of the shadows to silence any possible opposition with extreme prejudice.

1. Tons of ways to complete missions
2. Outstanding character animation
3. Brilliant on Live
4. Unbearably tense

1. Tough trial and error gameplay

Power
Incredible environments and Sam moves in a frighteningly realistic way. No slowdown on Live, either.

Style
Gritty, rain-drenched suburbs mixed with lush jungle environments are gorgeous.

Immersion
It's assumed gamers have played the first Splinter Cell, but an intuitive first level tutorial makes up for this.

Lifespan
It takes a fair while to crack, but on Xbox Live this will live on long after the single-player mode.

Summary
Redefines how a stealth game should look and play, with a fun and furiously addictive multiplayer mode. Superb.