Advertisement

10/27/2017

Splinter Cell: Another reputed military/stealth zero kill game

Splinter Cell (aka "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell," even though Clancy was apparently not directly involved with the games) is a modern-era stealth game in which the player has to step into the role of a "black ops" agent working under a secret division of the NSA.
Military games have not historically been our main area of emphasis due to the assumption they'd inevitably involve lots of mandatory killing, but due to the gratifying growth of "stealth" gameplay's popularity (thanks to franchises like Thief and Metal Gear Solid, among others), we now see stealth-based military games in a new way...
At the moment though, we're still hazy about just how nonviolently you can pull this one off, but have definitely read assertions that you can win at least the first Splinter Cell game as a zero kill run. It definitely shows promise by including non-lethal objectives in some cases...
A mission to use computers to access a server is theoretically also a mission that does not require bumping anyone off...
The Wikipedia article makes the gameplay of the original Splinter Cell sound more or less like most stealth games: "The encouraged way to progress through the games is to remain hidden, select non-obvious routes, and utilize diversions to pass guards." Apparently some of the sequels also introduced a morality factor in the player's decisions as a gameplay element, to try to make the player's decisions more challenging and thought-provoking.
"Vyacheslav Grinko is dead" in this promo screenshot, but hopefully won't be after G.W. Trevelyan one day tries his own zero kill run through Splinter Cell...