Upon catching a glimpse of the first beautifully rendered setting -- the ocean crushing up against the beach, the dock creaking with your every tiptoe, grass rustling with each brush-by -- you'll be intrigued. After you pick your first lock, you'll be thoroughly enthused. But it's not until you engage in shadow games with the very first terrorist -- sneaking from dark blotch to darker shadow -- that you'll be insatiably enthralled.

And I have only been playing the game for four hours! I was a huge Splinter Cell fan and played the first game the whole way through, and was actually disappointed upon completion. Luckily, with LIVE downloadable content, I was able to get some extra mileage not too mention joy joy joy.

Knowing that I have eight pulse-walloping missions ahead of me, I am totally enthrawled in this game. The original game was blueprinted with a be-seen-and-restart philosophy in tow, which Pandora Tomorrow dismisses only slightly. A few missions incorporate an ingenious, three-stage alarm tier. If you're detected -- be that from a misplaced foot, an accidentally thrown grenade, a broken lamp -- nearby guards will trigger Phase One, inciting all baddies to don flak jackets. Get spotted again and the lackeys become nearly unstoppable, armored beasts, slipping on a helmet to ward off any headshots. That's the ultimate clue to stay lurking in the shadows until the paranoia dissolves, otherwise Phase Three boots you back to the beginning of your checkpoint.

If you thought the first SC was stealthy, you aint seen nothin yet! As "splinter cell" Sam Fisher, the most badass member of the Third Echelon -- a highly secretive division of the National Security Agency (NSA) -- silence is your key to staying out of a body bag.