Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow 3D

This is, perhaps, as big a man’s game as any we’ve seen at Pocket Gamer. Yes, motor racing games often has as much testosterone flowing through them as they do gasoline, and sports games are as slanted towards the male audience as the barbell rack at your local gym. But Splinter Cell combines every man’s secret fantasy – to be a spy – with action that’s like playing with the coolest GI Joe toy in the world. Ever.

It’s also an object lesson in how to do 3D gaming on the mobile platform, as it looks eye-wateringly superb. Even though it is, in essence, a sideways-scrolling platform game and could easily be rendered in two dimensions, so much care and attention has been taken to make the 3D environment more than just a gimmick.

The camera angle via which you view the game, for instance, moves from a sideways-on position to rotate around you, depending upon your route and your surroundings. It also enables you to more carefully judge your movements, something you need to be wary of if you wish to remain undetected. Stealth is a large part of the game, so much so that there’s an alarm meter at the top of your screen that’s equally important as your health. Make too much racket and you risk drawing the guards’ attention to yourself. When they’re armed with automatic weapons and all you’ve got is a silenced pistol, it can work out rather one-sided.

Thankfully, you’ve got the element of surprise on your side. You can sneak up behind guards without making a sound or pop them with your silenced pistol whilst they’re unaware. Each guard you come across (there aren’t many, usually between half a dozen and a dozen) must be dispatched in a slightly different way and this puzzle element keeps you thinking and keeps you interested in a game that otherwise could have been rather flat. This is all rendered with such grace, style and panache that you’ll be completely entranced, much to the detriment of whatever it was you’d been in the middle of. Bus journeys (unless you're on the arduous Exeter/Glasgow route) just aren’t long enough any more.

Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow 3D

An action/stealth masterpiece that plays as good as it looks
Score