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Coop mode
I tried the coop mode first and loved the game play. This mode is basically a lot like single player mission only you play it with a team member. You get all the thrills and an extra team mate.
What’s the use of that? you might wonder, well your mate can help you get higher ledges and then in turn help you climb up there too.
If a guard should come your way and pin you down, your team mate can either kill him for you or manage a diversion to distract him so you can kill him yourself.
The missions for coop mode are adapted to play better with 2 players, for instance there are occasions that you need to hack 2 retinal scanners simultaneously to enter a door.
Your team member can also launch you at a guard to knock him out, or launch you over obstacles to reach the other side.
Communication is of course a key factor in this mode, you can type in text to send to your team member or use the microphones.
Be careful using microphones though, if you talk to loud, you will attract attention, which is unwanted most of the time.
Versus mode
Versus mode is more like the traditional multiplayer games out there, two teams battle it out to complete a set of objectives.
In this mode you can either select to be the spy or to be the mercenary.
It’s the spy’s job to infiltrate and complete their objectives and it’s the mercenary’s job to protect and safeguard the facility the objectives are placed in and prevent the spies from succeeding.
First thing to notice is the changed keyboard layout. The regular keys to control the character have been altered and this makes for a new experience. For instance, the keys to switching your goggles on and of have been moved and the jump and use keys have been switched.
Also the graphics engine seems to be running on a lower detail level by default to allow smoother game play.
Spies have all kinds of good gadgets like smoke bombs, frag grenades and sticky cameras. A new gadget included with this multiplayer game is the camouflage suit, which allows you to blend in almost seemlessly with your surroundings for a small amount of time.
You don’t get lethal firepower though; instead you use a stun gun and hand to hand combat. And of course you have the goggles, with heat sensing vision, night vision and EMP vision.
There can be several objectives that need to be met before a mission is deemed successful.
Usually one objective is to disable the alarm system, so you have clear access to achieve other objectives. Other objectives are to steal a hard drive designated in a certain location and dropping it off elsewhere, a sort of capture the flag, or perhaps to bomb a designated device.
Spiesare played from third Person view as apposed to mercenaries played in first person perspective.
The mercenaries have objectives which primarily involve stopping the spies from achieving theirs. And yes, they have gadgets in their arsenal as well.
They can use mines, frag grenades and they have slightly more lethal fire power with sniper capabilities.
Of course to see in the dark you also get a flashlight and mercenaries also haul goggles with EMP vision and motion detection vision.
Aside from the goggle modes that are available for both teams, they both have the enhanced reality mode. This mode lets you see your objectives while you are walking around, kind of like a heads up display. It makes it easier to follow your objectives and see where and how far away they are.
Both sides have tutorials to train you how to use the gadgets and take advantage of the surroundings to maximum effect.
It’s very useful to walk through these to make sure you don’t have any surprises.
Windows XP x64
There’s one problem when running this game in Windows XP x64 in that the copy protection system, Star Force 3, prevents the game from running.
The only way is to circumvent the copy protection system, which is not an easy thing to do. Of course there are some ways to go around this for the die-hards among us, but it involves a lot of hassle.
One way is to create an image of the game CD/DVD and disabling the DVD/CD-ROM drives in the computer, then use to image to create a virtual CD/DVD drive.
Another road traveled is to install the Star-Force 64 bit compatible drivers and try to let the game run.
I’ve tried to get both methods: the first method fails for me because the image is not compatible with the virtual drive software available for Windows XP x64; the other method just simply failed, the drivers installed but the game still refuses to run, returning the message that the OS is incompatible with the game.
The demo of the game runs properly though, but that is because it doesn’t have the copy protection system implemented.
Also Versus multiplayer game runs fine too, since it runs on it’s own system and doesn’t have copy protection in it.
In this case Ubisoft needs to fix the game to be able to run on Windows XP x64, Star force already stated on their website it does have 64-bits drivers.
It took Ubisoft 4 patches to enable Shader Model 2 for ATI video cards and still no x64, it will probably take them another 4 patches to enable this support, if it comes at all.
Since Splintercell isn’t the only Star-Force protected game out there, there have been many complaints in several forums.
One big thread is located here, it has several links for trying to obtain support on the issue and it also features a petition to ask for support.
In the forums you can read the responses many users have received from Ubisoft and most of them state that Ubisoft does not intend to support the game under Windows XP x64.
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