Sam Fisher is back to show all those pretenders to the stealth throne just how sneaky the competition can be.

The gaming world rejoiced when Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, the inevitable sequel to the stealth legend was announced and despite the quality of its predecessor, it actually manages to be a lot better! Thankfully the gameplay and graphics engine remain the same whilst a few gameplay refinements, new abilities and plenty of stunning new locations make this more than a worthwhile purchase, whether you've played the first game to death or not.

The story begins when a group of Indonesian guerrillas attack a U.S. Embassy and Sam is sent in, not to stop this attack, but to find out why an American agent is one of the hostages and prevent vital data falling into terrorist hands. The game starts off very unusually, with Sam handcuffed to a chair. The same ingenious lock picking system is here, with a visual representation of the lock reacting to how you move and wiggle the left thumbstick in order to unlock each part of it, so a bit of stick twiddling later and you're free - only to find out it was just a training exercise. News of the attack breaks and you head out to East Timor embassy.

One of the few things I didn't like about the first game was the training level - not only was it pretty dull, but you were bombarded with so many techniques, controls, gadgets and moves that it was quite intimidating. This has been ditched altogether now, so it's straight into the mission but you'll soon discover you've actually been thrown in at the shallow end. When the mission begins you find yourself stood at the base of a pier and as you rotate the camera around, those breathtakingly gorgeous graphics hit you all over again. There's an atmospheric sunset with a beautiful sky and the calm sea stretching out, the palm trees making the buildings ahead almost look inviting, if you didn't know there were a bunch of terrorists camped out there.

You run forward and the first in a series of prompts tells you how to use the controls to negotiate each obstacle in your way. There are no enemies in this first section of the game and you weave your way through the landscape in a fashion that teaches you almost all the skills you need but gives them context too, rather than some faceless training course trying to do the same job. You learn how to jump, use a zip line, crouch, detect land mines using your thermal vision, climb up drainpipes, along ropes, wall hug and sidestep through narrow gaps and that's just for starters. A couple of nifty new features include the SWAT move, which allows you to glide past open doorways like a shadow and an addition to the split jump. You can still do the split jump, where you jump up between two walls, launch yourself higher and then hold yourself in position, but now you can use this position to reach up to even higher locations. You really feel cool after trying out each of these moves and watching the gorgeously realistic and smooth animations of Sam carrying out each move swiftly and with purpose.

However, the fun really gets started when you reach the first of the many guards on this frankly very large and tough first level. Not only are you not allowed to use lethal force but you can't be spotted even once or it's game over. You soon learn to creep up behind unwary guards and despatch with them silently under these conditions. Watch his movement patterns then, with your heart in your mouth, you sneak towards his and grab him, silenced pistol to his head. You can then walk him into the shadows or knock him over the head and carry him there; it's your choice. Occasionally in the game you have to grab and interrogate, which is always a lot of fun. One of the first lovely new graphical touches can be found as you enter the embassy via a stream, that of the water reeds, which move and flow like real reeds as you walk through them. Later on, the long grass in the jungle looks even better; you simply won't believe it until you see it. This game is so jam packed with these lovely touches that I couldn't possibly list them all and I wouldn't want to spoil it all, either.

Once into the embassy you have a series of missions to accomplish, beginning with finding the American agent. One of the best parts of the Splinter Cell missions is that things change as you gather information and new objectives come into play, meaning that regardless of what your mission is, you never know what might happen next. As you weave a path through the embassy you'll find the use of your optic cable to be absolutely vital and you should really use it at every door as standard. The first of the refinements is noticeable here - when you approach a door, ceiling vent or anything else you can open and pass through, the option to use the optic cable appears, as does the lock pick option for locked doors. Not having to select the gadgets each time is a big bonus and really streamlines the gameplay. Also, the white button now brings up a quick select function where you can select any item and even change the alternate weapon on your gun. Again, not having to faff about in a selection menu is a big plus and helps keep things smooth and fast. Be careful not to hit the black button by mistake though, as this causes you to whistle, another new feature for drawing the enemy into a trap or diverting them whilst you sneak past. Now you don't have to hope there are bottles and cans littering the place up, although these are still around and very handy for throwing off the enemy.

By the time you leave the embassy you are greeted by a big, full moon and a purple night sky at the pier, yet another gorgeous view to end the first mission with. The addition of the sound of rippling water and the chirruping crickets completes the atmosphere. Intelligence you gathered at Indonesia leads you to a cryogenics lab in Paris. This second mission is huge and really tough; boy did I repeat it over and over in my vain, perfectionist attempt to not raise any alarms (on this mission lethal force is allowed and you can have two alarms, with the third striking out). Upon returning to this level after playing further into the game, I completed it a lot quicker than before but this game can be so tough and frustrating that sometimes you have to cut your losses, swallow your pride, take the alarm and move on.

Anyway, Paris brings with it some more graphical and audio delights. You begin in an abandoned subway station and when a train passes through the adjacent passage, newspapers fly up in the wind and the lights shine through the fencing in a totally convincing fashion. A fire blocks your way a bit further down and when you shoot the sprinklers above it, the water effect looks lovely. Best of all in this level, however, comes the cryo lab itself, which looks great thanks to an awesome cold gas effect in the frozen areas. You know how in warehouses they often have those heavy strips of fabric hanging down? Well they have those here and you really should take the time to just run through them and watch how each individual piece swings around totally naturally. I then stood for almost a minute, just watching the strips swing less and less, gradually settling until they stopped. It's the most realistic animation of this kind of thing I've ever seen and more proof that the quality these days, provided you have a great game, come from the finishing touches and attention to detail.

And if you think this looks cool, wait until the next level, where you are airlifted onto a speeding train! When you end up crawling along underneath the train, the combination of the roaring sound of the wheels on the track, the speeding lights and scenery, the sparks that fly from the wheels and the way the whole screen shakes will blow you away. Later when you're on the side of the train, another train speeds past and you flatten yourself, hanging from one hand, just keeping your grip in the wake of the rushing wind as it passes. It's nail biting! Every level brings new surprises and combines the diverse gameplay elements in new and interesting ways, whilst the story continues to deepen and escalate so that you always want to see what's coming next for many reasons.

On the weapons front, although the emphasis is on stealth, you still have plenty of devices at your disposal - silenced pistol, custom rifle with aerofoil rounds and sticky shockers, diversion cameras (fitted with a whistle and gas release as before), plus frag grenades, flashbangs, smoke grenades and more. The maximum zoom mode of your rifle still drifts a hell of a lot, so getting that stealthy head shot is still pretty tricky, but it also feels fairly realistic, considering Sam is simply steadying the rifle in his hands. Another good change is that medical kits are now placed on the walls at various points in each level, meaning you can't carry them around and you have to hold out if you get shot. I much prefer this system and Sam can still very easily be killed, with only a few shots, which is also a good thing, adding to the realism.

The same all round quality of the visuals (fans of the original will grin broadly when they notice the way Sam now eases the body of a guard he's just knocked out silently to the floor) applies to all aspects of the sound. The sound effects are totally realistic, from Sam's footsteps to the weapons fire, explosions and ambient sound in each environment. The voice acting is of the highest quality, with an intelligent script that has just the right element of humour to show you it's not taking itself too seriously - Sam's quip about French brains is something we can all laugh about. Well, almost all of us. The CGI cut scenes, whilst not the most realistic looking ever, are all very stylishly done and the news reports are great, with some very cool news bytes to read scrolling along the bottom of the screen, although the way they are brief snippets of stories is a bit disjointed and annoying. Still, you get what you need to know from them and too much would have been boring. The music plays a strong role mostly in the way you don't really notice it - sometimes it's not there at all, sometimes it's slow and stealthy but then it kicks into action as soon as the enemy spots you, providing the perfect dynamic soundtrack.

Having not managed to find the time to get online with Pandora Tomorrow, I will now hand over to our esteemed American reviewer, namely Christopher Martin, to cover just how great the online play is.

Though the first Splinter Cell can easily be considered revolutionary and helped give stealth games a bigger spot on the map, Pandora Tomorrow's single player mode didn't do much to reinvent the genre. However, the online multiplayer mode more than does so, giving gamers the first hide-and-seek online game. Four players join a server, two as Argus Mercenaries and two as Shadownet spies. The mercs play in first person view and can lay mines, spy traps, shoot out flares, grenades and use laser sight, torchlight, motion tracking and electro-magnetic vision. The spies play in third person, much like the single player mode, and can easily access areas that the mercs just can't get to, as the spies have advanced acrobatic abilities. You can slide down wires, roll, leap over railings, drop onto the mercs' heads and knock them out, or even sneak up behind them, grab them and break their necks (and even taunt the merc with your own voice while doing so).

Spies are equipped with very innovative tools such as spy bullets (allowing you to listen in on the merc players' conversations), spy camera (look into rooms nearby and emit sleeping gas), use three types of grenades and view things in night vision or thermal vision. Splinter Cell is perhaps the most balanced game I have ever played. Spies cannot lethally shoot the mercs but can kill them by sneaking up on them and executing them with their hands or feet. Mercs have different vision modes, thankfully, as it would be far too easy if they had night-vision or thermal-vision. Three game modes await and players across the world have invented custom game types such as Deathmatch and Tag. Pandora Tomorrow is the online experience of a lifetime and is worth the price tag alone, as just switching between mercs and spies feels like you're playing two different games. Unlike most third person games, the first person mode is actually very good, better even than Rainbow Six 3's engine. If you have Xbox Live or PlayStation 2 online, buy this game now if you haven't already.

Thanks Chris! So there you have it and with such a glowing recommendation for the online gameplay of Pandora I'd better get myself online for a bit of spy action quick smart! The one criticism of this game is also still here - it can be incredibly frustrating. If you are an impatient gamer and the first game drove you insane, what with missions going wrong one way or the other over and over, this one will do it to you again and it you can't handle that aspect of the gameplay then that's the only reason not to get this now.

Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow is not revolutionary like the original, yet is just as much a must have title. It's oozing with every bit the quality of the original but is more refined, with even more attention to detail, more streamlined gameplay and more missions. The addition of the unique online modes makes this even more of a priority buy for gamers hooked up to Xbox Live. With some of the best graphics and sounds yet seen on Xbox and a gripping story to match, this is without doubt one of the best releases of the year and one for every Xbox owner to snap up.

Reviewed by Geoff Holland and Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).