This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.

The Splinter Cell series has seen action on every current platform; even the portables like the DS, N-Gage, and mobile phones had some incarnation of it. However, Sam had yet to make an appearance on the PSP – until now. Splinter Cell Essentials marks Sam’s triumphant appearance on Sony’s little machine, but does it continue SC’s trend of excellence?

Splinter Cell Essentials borrows a few levels from each of the previous SC games, so think of this more as a compilation more than anything else. There are a few new levels though including some from the upcoming Double Agent console title, and the way it’s all tied together is interesting. Essentials takes place after the events of Double Agent. Sam visits his daughter’s grave on the one-year anniversary of her death and is then caught by the government on charges of treason. Treason you ask? You the come to find that Sam had left Third Echelon after his daughter died and it was reported that Sam had been associating with terrorists.

This leads Sam into the interrogation room where he’s hounded by Homeland Security officials into revealing information about himself and why he’s been dawdling in terrorism. Someone will mention an old mission of Sam’s, though with loads of wrong information and so Sam corrects them. Thus, the old levels that Splinter Cell fans have come to know are presented as flashbacks, exploiting Sam’s daredevil heroics. The old levels aren’t exactly like vets will remember them. Some enemy placement and patterns have been changed to keep things fresh. However, it’s nothing substantial that will totally change the way you attack the area.

There are nine total missions in the story mode plus an extra three bonus missions. Those familiar with SC will easily blow through Essentials while those new to the series will have a much tougher time due to the numerous trial-and-error sections each level contains. But, at least it’s not easy to get lost because all the levels play in a very linear fashion.

We’re going to move on to the bad now. However, I’d like to note that this isn’t all that’s good about SC Essentials; it’s just that the negatives tend to cancel out what was done right.

Visually, Splinter Cell Essentials looks pretty good. The character models are relatively robust and animate well. But, it’s not without it faults. The backgrounds and environments look muddy and the biggest hindrance to the gameplay is how dark the game is overall. In some missions, particularly ones that take place indoors, it’s impossible to make out some things. And SC vets know that hiding in the shadows is your best friend, but the lighting effects don’t do a very good job at letting you know if you’re hidden well enough or not. This will make you dependent on the light meter that is displayed in the bottom right corner.

The sound, thankfully, is a saving grace. Whereas one might be dependent on the light meter due to the complete darkness, you won’t really need to rely on the sound meter as much. Sam’s footsteps sound solid and always reflect what kind of surface he’s walking on, whether it’s on a bare floor or through a leaf-littered forest area. You’ll want to play with a good set of headphones to really appreciate the subtlety of it. Heck, being able to hear the slightest sounds may save your bacon on occasion.

Sam comes with his complete repertoire of moves – hanging/shimmying along pipes, split-legged wall climbing, lethal/non-lethal attacks, etc. Thankfully he controls just like his console counterpart. Analog is used for movement, D-pad for inventory and other functions like backing up against a wall and weapon switching, and the face buttons to control other function like crouching and jumping. That sounds fine and all but then you get to the camera control.

The camera control is simply atrocious. The default scheme works like this – tapping circle snaps the camera back behind Sam while holding circle in conjunction with the analog nub gives complete camera control. Yes, that means you must be stationary to change the camera to an angle you like. You can alleviate that problem by using the other scheme which changes camera control to the face buttons. While that fixes the changing the camera on the fly problem, you now have to exit camera mode to do any functions that are controlled by the face buttons. The static camera is a pain in the first place, but making adjustments just as painful is a bad move.

Load times – we all loathe them, there’s no escaping that. PSP launch titles were plagued with overly long ones though most developers have been doing a good job reducing them as of late. Ubisoft must have missed the memo on this one because Essentials contains a lot of long load times. Starting up the game seems like it takes an eternity. And don’t even get me started about how long it takes to get started again after dying. Luckily, you can save anywhere at anytime, which is a blessing and a curse at the same time. Being a portable game, saving anywhere makes it perfect for on-the-go gaming, but it decreases the difficulty a bit because you can always save every few moments to avoid losing your progress due to death.

The moronic AI also doesn’t help the difficulty. Actually, I should change that to sometimes moronic as there are times when enemy soldiers are fairly competent. But, there are other times when you can walk in front of a soldier and not raise any attention. How you ask? If you’re in complete darkness (light meter in full black), then you’re almost undetectable to the eye. Kind of cheap, but what can you do when the enemies are legally blind? Again, at least they aren’t deaf because making too much noise will definitely bring Sam unwanted attention.

There’s also an ad hoc multiplayer mode, but the reason why I haven’t mentioned it until now is that it’s neither very functional nor fun. Two players can face off in a deathmatch on four different maps. Four – that’s it. And then you have to deal with the dark environs again, so good luck trying to find whom you are trying to kill. The introduction of framerate issues makes it even more of a mess.

The idea of a PSP Splinter Cell is great especially when it packs console content and more. Unfortunately, the execution is way off, leaving disappointed on-the-go Splinter Cell fans in its wake. The dark muddy visuals and horrendous camera issues are a far cry from what we’ve seen in this series. If you’ve played the console Splinter Cell games, then there is really no need to pick this up. Splinter Cell Essentials is nonessential for any Sam Fisher fan.

The tried and true SC gameplay is here, but the horrible camera controls kill it.

Characters look good and animate well but the darkness that hinders play is disappointing.

Makes up for the mediocre graphics.

If you can get past the controls, you’ll be fine. But it’s a big “if”.

Three bonus missions are all that’s extra. Oh and there’s a fairly useless multiplayer mode too