Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow is the second entry in the stealth series about agent Sam Fisher, developed in 2004 by Ubisoft Shanghai and published by Ubisoft for Xbox as a follow-up to the successful first game. The story follows Fisher as he hunts down a group of terrorists planning bioterrorism against civilians, with the game building on the proven stealth formula's emphasis on sneaking through shadows, using light and darkness, hacking security systems, and quietly neutralizing guards with a wide arsenal of spy gadgets.

A meter at the edge of the screen constantly told the player how visible and how loud they were, so tiptoeing along walls, shooting out light bulbs, and climbing along pipes weren't decoration but necessity. Fisher could do a split jump between two walls, rappel headfirst down a rope, or flatten himself against a wall beside a door, and patience while waiting for the right moment was what decided things in the dark corridors. The key innovation that pushed the series forward was the very first multiplayer mode in the series' history, called Spies vs. Mercs, in which asymmetric teams compete against each other - nimble but vulnerable spies moving through the shadows against heavily armored mercenaries with a limited first-person field of view, creating a completely unique competitive experience that's still praised today.

Critics praised both the improved single-player campaign with its more elaborate light-and-shadow system and, above all, the innovative multiplayer mode, thanks to which Pandora Tomorrow went down as one of the most influential titles in the history of asymmetric online modes and cemented Splinter Cell's position as one of the generation's key spy franchises. The concept of asymmetric multiplayer later became an inspiration for many other games, and Pandora Tomorrow is still cited today as its pioneering example.