It was pretty clear Ubisoft Montreal hit it out of the park with Splinter Cell. A great foundation with a few rough patches, it was a great time... on Xbox and PC. On GameCube and PS2, the reins were handed over to Ubisoft Shanghai, making a slightly similar stealth action romp for the more underpowered consoles of its generation. With Montreal busy on the next big hitter for Splinter Cell, it was natural Shanghai would likely come up to bat, but entering the arena with a steel chair was Ubisoft Milan!
Much like Shanghai, the Italian Ubisoft subsidiary was a support studio, having worked with Montpellier on pre-packed with Canadian cheese Beyond Good and Evil, they worked with Shanghai closely on Sam Fisher's next stealth-action adventure. But before I go into how this game turns out, big shoutout to the Internet Archive user ReubenUK for creating a fully patched and ready to go version of the game, saving me the headache of having to read PCGamingWiki and few year old Reddit posts on whatever issues to get it up and running.
Sam Fisher's second adventure came with a checklist of improvements, some of which have been gladly crossed off. Picking up incapacitated or merked foes and being able to open a door while they're slumped over your arms is a change I can't welcome enough! There's less clutter with your optic cable and lock pick now being permanent additions to your character over them being pieces of inventory you swap to when needed. You also get a laser sight for more accurate aiming, with the downside your combatants can see it.
New to Sam's kit is a SWAT turn, which comes in handy more than the split kick ever did. Speaking of, there's slight usage of Sam's underutilized move here. A few mandatory, but the move still looks and felt good to nail.
While Pandora Tomorrow improves on some gameplay aspects, it sucks in others. Personally, I never used the laser my playthrough as shuts flubbed regardless of using it. Bullets always seem unpredictable with how they come out, and add to the issues of why the "action" part of its genre name is where Splinter Cell oft falls flat. There are action sections, but they're not Abattoir levels of putrid, regardless of how much Milan and Shanghai force them down your throat. As the title suggests, this game can get utterly repetitive with trailing missions. Exciting levels like the train mission fall prey to Sam needing to slowly follow behind whatever NPC Lambert is telling him to.
As I slowly follow behind that last paragraph, let's talk about the levels. They're way more varied! Going for a spy action approach, Sam gets to go through moving trains, stealth his way onto a submarine, and conclude by sneaking around the LAX. There's a lot of great ideas, and most stick. Some fall a bit flat in execution, if due to the trailing missions or forced action bits, but I mostly enjoyed my time through Pandora Tomorrow's 8 missions.
Pandora Tomorrow is that awkward middle title of the trilogy. Boasting a better grasp of its mechanics, but some lackluster levels and story, it's more of a Splinter Cell 1.5 than a Splinter Cell 2. Chaos Theory being around the corner, I'm dying to dig into it. Will Montreal's year away from the series prove worthwhile? Who's to say!