It’s no secret that I love Splinter Cell.  I’ve loved it since the moment I first got my hands on the original for PC, and I loved it as Pandora Tomorrow for Xbox.  The ever-brooding, dark, handsome protagonist in Sam Fisher has certainly always been icing on a gourmet cake for a girl gamer like myself, but he alone isn’t responsible of my long-term devotion to this title. 

When I play a game, I want to be immersed in the world, the experience, and the story.  I want the game to make me care what happens and a great way to do this is to make me feel like I’m actually there.  When the game’s atmosphere is created by uncannily realistic lighting and sound that’s both crucial to gameplay and an instrument of tension in any given situation, you’re going to feel immersed.  Personally, I’ve never encountered a game series that puts me on the edge of my seat as consistently as Splinter Cell. 

All of this in mind, it shouldn’t be a surprise that I now earn a living working with the game.  My overall familiarity and fondness for various Ubisoft games was part of why I got hired in the first place, but my Splinter Cell fandom in particular made me an obvious choice for Splinter Cell Community Manager.

So here I am, a ridiculously lucky girl with a job I love despite the craziness surrounding the impending release of Chaos Theory, and in the middle of a hectic GDC-filled week, I catch wind of the April issue of OXM.  It turns out that the game my online community is dedicated to, a game that I personally have been anticipating for months, just got a review score of 9.9, the highest ever given out by OXM!!!  I’d like to say that I’m not surprised because I’ve always been aware that Chaos Theory would be outstanding for a number of different reasons.  But after years of following review scores for my favorite games, I’ve gotten used to being disappointed.  To finally see a game I love AND work with get such deserved recognition has given me an indescribable sense of pride.

I could ramble on for hours about why I feel Chaos Theory deserves this unprecedented 9.9.  In fact, I did this last night to a good gamer friend of mine who has a penchant for harboring intense skepticism about good review scores for any highly publicized, AAA game.  When I told him excitedly about the 9.9 and said I felt it was a worthy score, the first words out of his mouth were “yeah, but aren’t you supposed to say that?” I then proceeded to break down for him exactly why I think this game is incredible and an improvement upon previous two Splinter Cells.  I think his ears were ringing afterwards, but at least he sounded convinced. 

Since I don’t want to start a dissertation here, I’ll just encourage you to read the new OXM article since they apparently agree with my assessment that there’s a lot to love about Chaos Theory.