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 REVIEW:
SPLINTER CELL: PANDORA TOMORROW |
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Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow is regarded
as a standard of graphical excellence for the Xbox market.
With that in mind, Splinter Cell: PT boasts highly detailed
character models that take full advantage of the Xbox.
The models are extremely realistic, and the main characters
reflect the general appearance of a Special Operations
soldier.
In this review, I focus specifically on analyzing the
character models, because of Splinter Cell’s prowess
in this area. This way I can analyze the finer details
that the graphics engine that powers Splinter Cell:
Pandora Tomorrow, and discuss what works well and what
needs further refinement. The new review style allows
me to analyze graphics accordingly. |
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March, 2004
Ubi Soft Montreal
Ubi Soft Entertainment
XBox
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GENERAL APPEARANCE OF CHARACTER MODELS |
SCORE: 8.5 |
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Splinter Cell: PT uses the bump mapping capabilities of the
Xbox to eliminate roughness and jagged lines to create a more
realistic human character. The tight clothing the main character
wears shows the details of muscle tone and body size which
give the slick and cool impression of his character.
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Here we see the main character standing in the power room
of a train. Notice the reflections of light on the character,
and the details of his gear. If you look in the window on
the right side of the screenshot you can see a mirror image
of him.
The gear the character model wears is realistically shown
as well. His assault rifle is placed over his back when not
in use and sidearm on his thigh is in a holster. Vision enhancement
goggles rest on his forehead and the satchels on his belt
flap up and down realistically when he moves.
Splinter Cell: PT also uses the lighting capability of the
engine to increase the sense of realism. Light reflects from
the character’s clothing in a realistic way; when he
enters a darker area he is surrounded in a shade of darkness
instead of completely disappearing as characters do in many
current games.
When viewed in night vision, the character’s body appears
in dark areas as visible but with a grainy effect, as though
you are viewing him through a light enhancement piece of equipment.
With heat amplification (thermal mode) turned on, the character
is represented in brighter colors where heat signatures are
higher. He rightfully appears in brighter colors where you
would expect heat to be found, such as in the facial area.
Also taken into account is the possibility of his gear getting
in the way of the heat detection, as you will see a black
area where his Kevlar bulletproof vest is positioned.
Here is the first of three screen captures of the same
scene, using three different sensor modes; this one is normal,
with no night vision or thermal goggles in use.
This is a screen capture of the same scene, with night
vision in use. Notice the grainy affect and the amplification
of the area of the previous screen capture that was almost
completely black. Also notice that the image is distorted
in the light area in the back of the scene.
Here is the same scene again with thermal goggles applied.
Notice how the higher heat signatures are detected and displayed
with brighter colors, such as shown on the hostage’s
body. Also notice that the area around his satchel is darker
because the satchel blocked the body’s heat signatures,
thus the area does not appear as bright in thermal vision
as the rest.
All in the all, realism and lighting of the general appearance and detail come together to make a remarkable character model.
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FACIAL EXPRESSIONS |
SCORE: 6.0 |
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The movement of the character’s mouth when he speaks
decently mimics the words being spoken. Unfortunately only
the mouth moves and there are few other facial expressions
that show reactions during conversation. It’s not a
huge problem but a detail about the model’s facial expressions
that definitely could be improved. If you look closely enough,
you can see that the characters blink realistically. Also,
if you can get a clear picture of the face, you’ll see
him wincing in pain when he is shot or injured.
Notice the detail in Sam’s face; you can clearly
see his determination to hack into the laptop without alerting
the guard nearby.
Enemies have unique facial expressions as well such as the
look of surprise on their faces when they are startled by
a noise, or a slack face when they are simply standing. When
you have the enemy in a choke hold, his face is contorted
just as it would be if he were struggling to fight your hold.
Civilians, however, show facial expressions of fear when they
find you in the dark with a gun.
In my view, these expressions are adequate for a game, but
not good enough to be memorable. The facial expressions exhibit
nothing new or groundbreaking in Splinter Cell: PT.
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CHARACTER MOVEMENT AND ANIMATIONS |
SCORE: 9.0 |
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Splinter Cell: PT has some really nifty animations for character
movement including running, walking, moving in a crouched
position for stealth and even gestures used in conversation.
Something you may not think a lot about but really adds to
a game’s graphical appeal is something as simple as
the way the characters walk or run. Splinter Cell: PT does
these animations remarkably well.
These animations of character movements are done smoothly.
They have details such as having the whole body moving with
the legs instead of what you see in characters in a lot of
games where the chest stays in position as if the character
has no spine. When a character is walking, his legs carry
him and his arms move in unison to create believable movement.
When he’s running, his chest leans slightly forward
and his legs move up and down unlike the gliding you might
see in characters in other games.
The other movement form is the stealth crouched movement a
character uses to get around undetected. While he does this,
he is slightly hunched over and moves slowly with a quiet
and precise appearance. The characters also have animation
to handle the transitions from one position to another. With
this smooth transition in place you do not see the visual
snap from position to position that is noticeable in other
games.
An example of the stealth crouched movement a character
uses to get around undetected.
Another example of the game's realistic character movement
is the use of hand gestures. Try talking without moving at
all -- it's pretty hard, huh? In the production of Splinter
Cell: PT this is another detail Ubi Soft took the time to
add to make the characters more realistic. As a character
speaks, his hands move for emphasis. Small details like this
one add realism, and make a good game a great game from a
graphics standpoint.
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Splinter Cell: PT was built for a console and Ubi Soft didn’t
have to worry about consumers with different system specifications
and PCs. Knowing that all users of the game would be playing
it on an Xbox gave them an advantage. They could use every
tool possible without concern for losing part of the game
market to poor system performance.
In this game all the graphical areas are pretty equal in quality;
there is no graphical trade-off between having strength in
one area and weakness in another. Instead they took the time
to push the Xbox to its limits, which is hard work and usually
requires a team who has experience with the hardware (check),
skill (check), and development time (check, considering that
they used the same technology from the first Splinter Cell
game).
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