Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Review

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Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Review by DavoMay 2005

Tom Clancy’s Haunter of the Dark

The world is a dangerous place. Terrorists, religious fanatics and dictators seek every opportunity to destroy the free world.  Iraq. Iran. Syria. Afghanistan. These countries evoke images of car bombings, terrorist kidnappings and insurgent attacks. The most unstable country of all, however, may be North Korea with its dogged pursuit of nuclear weapons. North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong Il, revels in hysterical proclamations that war between the Koreas is an inevitable outcome of U.S. aggression and imperialism.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory imagines a near future in which North Korea attacks an American military target as a prelude to sending its troops streaming across the South Korean border to capture Seoul and eject the U.S. from the Korean peninsula.  North Korea may not be working alone, however. A massive Asian conspiracy is afoot, with China, North Korea, South Korea and Japan all maneuvering behind the scenes to advance their own causes at the expense of U.S. interests. What is the official U.S. response to this morass?  Fire up the nukes and launch a preemptive nuclear strike against North Korea. The only thing that can stop the nukes and uncover the real motives behind the North Korean attack is the super-secret U.S. spy organization, Fifth Echelon.

Chaos Theory puts the player in the third-person shoes of Fifth Echelon’s top operative, Sam Fisher. Fisher is a jaded assassin skilled in the deadly arts necessary to infiltrate foreign nations and gain access to their most precious secrets. Playing as Fisher, you’ll creep unseen through the shadows, breaking into foreign government buildings, capturing enemies, interrogating them for vital information and dispatching them with extreme prejudice when necessary. You’re equipped with the most advanced weaponry available: night vision, remote cameras, sniper rifles, electronics neutralizers, sleeping gas, hand grenades, machine guns and more. Despite the weaponry, you have the choice in most instances of taking out your opponents using nonlethal means. The gameplay is nail-biting, gut-wrenching and nerve-wracking. You’ll creep through the shadows on the edge of your seat totally confident that you’re about to get the drop on an enemy unaware of your presence only to inadvertently trip a hidden alarm that brings a swarm of heavily armed combatants hunting after you with a vengeance. You’re silent death in the shadows but dead meat in the light.

Chaos Theory provides excellent gameplay, and it’s a good thing too because the Gamecube version of the game contains some serious flaws. The graphics in particular are a real disappointment at times, which is a shame because this game relies on its imagery like few others to deliver a compelling gameplay experience. Although this realistic feel is accomplished much of the time, it suffers in the Gamecube version because of graphical deficiencies that pop up throughout the game. Too many portions of the game are plagued by dark, glitchy graphics that are difficult to see. (A side note on the Gamecube version: If you’re wondering whether the graphical deficiencies plague the Xbox and PC versions, the short answer is “no.” I haven’t played the PS2 version at all, so I can’t comment on it. This review is based entirely on the Gamecube version, which also lacks many of the online and cooperative features common to the other versions.)

The Gamecube controller also presents a few problems. It isn’t always up to the task of letting you do what you want to do as quickly as you need to do it.

A lesser but still significant problem common to all versions of Chaos Theory is the story. Although it is steeped in horrifically plausible real-life events, it’s meted out in a rushed and abbreviated style that doesn’t really create a resonant emotional hook. It’s not a bad story—it just ends up feeling unnecessary. It’s a lot of hot air that does little more than provide you with minimal motivation for traveling to exotic places and killing people.

In spite of its flaws, Chaos Theory manages to offer players an incredibly exciting experience. The game excels at forcing you into tense situations that require you to creep behind a guard in the shadows hoping he won’t detect you before you can slip an arm around his neck and drag him into the darkness for interrogation.  Chaos Theory focuses on stealth over gunplay, even during those moments when you’re running and gunning. You can sometimes succeed by charging in with guns blazing, but you’ll always need to return to the shadows to survive. If you get any kind of thrill from sneaking through the shadows armed to the teeth and catching enemies off-guard, you’ll enjoy the game immensely.

Your Mission, Should You Decide to Accept It …

Chaos Theory is a third-person mission-based action stealth game. You begin each mission with a series of objectives that you must complete to finish the level. The objectives you receive are varied and compelling. They range from interrogations to kidnappings to rescues to assassinations. Many times, the intelligence you gather leads to midlevel mission changes that flesh out the story and add an element of urgency. You may start out gathering information by hacking into a computer to discover an enemy leader’s motives only to have that information trigger the need to assassinate said leader immediately.

A lot of the fun in the game comes through your interactions with the environment. The game itself is mostly linear. Each level, however, permits a number of ways to complete your objectives. You may decide to pick a lock on a side door and slip into a building quietly.  Alternatively, you could shoot out a light bulb to lure a guard away from the front door, grab him for a little interrogation, and then dispatch him before slipping inside. Or you might decide to take out a guard with a silenced bullet to the head or a nonlethal projectile. Then again, you might find a pipe on the side of the building that permits access to the interior duct system on the roof. You have a great deal of freedom in how you choose to complete each level.

The game promotes this open-ended approach by offering you three weapons and equipment selections at the beginning of each level.  The Stealth Kit provides you with a wide selection of devices like cameras, sleeping gas, plastic bullets and other silent equipment.  The Assault Kit offers a variety of mostly lethal weapons like sniper rifles, shotguns, hand grenades and extra ammunition. Redding’s Recommendation, named after your weapons provider, offers a mix of the Stealth and Assault kits. This kit gives you a little of everything, permitting many opportunities for stealth while still providing the means for an all-out assault when you feel so inclined.

The most important piece of equipment is your visor, which permits you to switch among three modes. Night vision enhances your sight in totally dark environments, bathing everything in a soft green hue. Thermal mode lets you see the heat emanating from objects, especially humans. EMF mode blacks out everything except electrical items like hidden video cameras and light sources. Judicious use of the goggles is critical to your success because you play in mostly dark environments. It’s also a total blast to tiptoe through a pitch-black room with your night vision on and sneak up on a nervous guard who can’t see you at all.

You have a wide variety of moves and attacks at your disposal that further support the game’s open-ended mission design. You can sneak around undetected, attack from behind with a knife or a fist, hang from ceiling pipes, hack into computer networks, shoot light bulbs, open doors silently, bash doors into unsuspecting guards, disable electronics, use enemies as human shields and distract opponents with environmental objects. The sheer number of moves available promotes a real sense of experimentation and freedom while still supporting different playing styles. The Gamecube has one move not available on the Xbox or PC: the water grab. You can crouch down in any pool of water deep enough to hide you, grab an unsuspecting enemy as he walks by and drown him. You don’t get to use it very often, but it’s thrilling when you do.

Most of the game’s moves are easy to perform with the Gamecube controller. Creeping around silently is no problem at all. Switching weapons, however, can be a real pain. There aren’t enough buttons on the Gamecube controller, and the manual doesn’t adequately explain the necessary manipulations. I had a 15-minute wrestling match with my controller before I figured out how to install the sniper attachment.  It requires a combination of button presses that just isn’t explained adequately in the manual.

The enemy A.I. is excellent. Enemies will react appropriately to your presence. If an enemy spots you or sees you moving, he’ll come looking for you with reinforcements. Enemies alerted to your presence will sound alarms, hide behind objects, work in groups, and even try to outflank you.

The single-player portion of the game contains 10 missions, each of which takes about 60 to 90 minutes to complete. My fastest mission time was 67 minutes, and my longest mission lasted 109 minutes.  Add another three or four hours for reloading after death, capture or blowing a mission objective, and you have a single-player game that clocks in at approximately 15 hours. Each of the individual missions, with one notable exception, maintains the excitement and tension until the end of the level. The exception is the North Korea level, which has you maneuvering for two hours through a series of dark, boring, rectangular warehouses.

The game allows you to save anywhere, but the Gamecube version has only one save slot that you have to keep overwriting. In addition, loading times for the saves are horrendously long. It would have been great to have at least a few save slots for those moments when you realize too late that you’ve saved after blowing one of the optional missions. Once again, Xbox and PC gamers get the goodies because they have unlimited saves.

The optional mission objectives, by the way, have no real effect on the outcome of the game. The game ranks you in terms of how effective you are at completing your objectives and moving through the levels stealthily. Failure to complete the optional objectives, however, has no impact on the game other than to lower your ranking. It’s not as if a high ranking unlocks weapons, levels, new challenges or anything else. Still, many of the optional objectives were fun to complete because they offered unique challenges.

Mr. Fisher—Will You Tell Me a Bedtime Story?

Despite the developer’s efforts at creating a compelling back story through between-level movies and mission briefings, it’s nothing more than a piece of scenery that frames the gameplay. If the movies and mission briefings were removed completely, it would not detract from the game at all. The game could have delivered the same information through in-game communications between Fisher and his handlers a lot more efficiently and effectively.

The story begins with a Korean/Chinese blockade against Japan and the simultaneous theft of a cutting-edge technology that allows its holder to hack into any computer or bypass any security system.  The hunt for this technology takes you through terrorist camps in South America and a blackout in New York, eventually requiring you to travel to Asia after a successful North Korean attack on a supposedly undetectable U.S. missile cruiser. Although the missile is launched from North Korea, the North Koreans may not be responsible for the attack. The Chinese, the South Koreans or the Japanese may be in possession of the stolen technology and manipulating the attack behind the scenes. This is a great setup for a techno-thriller, but it never reaches its potential.

The story is doled out in animated cutscenes and mission briefings.  The animation in the cutscenes ranges from very good to jerky and unrealistic, while the mission briefings are delivered by smeared static portraits. The story moves from one narrator to the next without pause, giving everything a rushed feel. It’s almost like an MTV video editor got hold of the game and decided to tell the story with a strobe light. The initial story about the hunt for the stolen technology isn’t all that interesting, although there are a few intriguing twists and turns involving a former spy who used to be Fisher’s comrade. The storytelling becomes more problematic when it switches to the Korean crisis because the rapid-fire storytelling doesn’t give you any chance to make an emotional connection with the horrific events unfolding in Korea. If you told me tomorrow that North Korea had just invaded Seoul and China was urging the world to butt out, I’d have a horrible sinking feeling in deepest recesses of my stomach. Would this mean nuclear war is inevitable?  Would it mean we were at war with China? Would the United States be attacked? I never experienced any of these fears during the game because of the rushed presentation.

Besides, the story doesn’t really matter. Chaos Theory is about the journey rather than the destination. The story works best when it focuses on delivering the barest information you need to complete your objectives. It is immensely satisfying when you complete a difficult task and obtain information that advances the story.  This sense of satisfaction makes the between-level movies and mission briefings seem unnecessary and intrusive. As Fisher, you’re a nearly invincible shadow of death. The excitement for you comes through the successful completion of a mission objective that yields valuable information. It’s so exciting to advance the story through your in-game actions that you almost feel cheated when you have to sit through a poorly animated movie or mission briefing. I endured every movie and briefing dutifully, suppressing an urge every time to hammer on the A button and get back to the game.

The interactions that draw us in, at least in terms of story, are the ones that take place between Fisher and his environment. Many of the enemies yield not only valuable information, but also priceless little snippets that linger long after the game ends. My favorite moment occurred when I grabbed a guard in a Japanese pagoda in a choke hold only to have him begin blathering loudly that I was a ninja and he knew that ninjas really existed. I was trying to sneak into a creaky bamboo building filled with enemies and this ninja-worshipping guard was attracting unwanted attention. I squeezed a little harder and threatened to kill him if he didn’t quiet down.  His enthusiastic response: “Cool! I’m going to be killed by a ninja.”

My Eyes!

The graphics in the Gamecube version of Chaos Theory are, at times, disappointingly mediocre. I’ll take gameplay over graphics any day, but the Splinter Cell games rely on the high quality of their graphics to create a realistic environment befitting the real-world setting. You’re engaged in the dirty work of espionage and assassination. Chaos Theory excels when it places you in a contemporary setting that looks and feels completely realistic.  The game relies on hyper-realistic graphics to create that realism. 

The most noticeable problem is that everything is too dark. It’s true that the entire game takes place in the dark, but do you have to struggle to see the events on the screen because the game renders everything in pitch-black hues? You need to see the game to enjoy it.

Then there are the glitches. The frame rate drops at random moments.  Lights flicker on and off when you turn one way or another. The camera occasionally catches on the scenery or flies straight into Fisher’s head (surprisingly, it’s empty).

It becomes even more disappointing if you compare it to the Xbox or PC versions, which look about the same except for the higher screen resolutions on the PC. The lighting is the best example of the disparity in graphical quality between the PC/Xbox versions and the Gamecube game. On the Xbox and PC, light washes over the characters and the settings, creating realistic shadows and highlighting darkened areas conducive to stealth. The lighting in the Gamecube version looks like a swarm of insects or a cloud of smoke filled with weird rings spinning in the air. It’s not very realistic, and it doesn’t always permit you to identify shadowy areas that allow you to sneak about unseen.

It’s a shame because the Gamecube is capable of graphics as good as anything on the Xbox. Have you seen Resident Evil 4?

The Sounds of Silence

Sound is a critical component of Chaos Theory and just about as important as the visuals. You spend most of your time trying to infiltrate enemy territory unnoticed. Sneaking around undetected in combat boots requires you to move slowly and carefully to avoid attracting attention. Guards will hear you if you try to run past them in the darkness, and if they do hear you, they’ll start hunting for you. You also have to be aware of what kind of surface you’re walking on. Your boots will rap loudly on concrete if you walk in anything but the slowest crouch. Wood floors creak. Other surfaces produce appropriate sounds when walked on. You can also whistle and whisper to guards to attract their attention or try to lure them away from a group of enemies.

Michael Ironside of Scanners and Highlander fame does a great job providing the voice of Fisher. His deep, raspy growl fits the character perfectly.

Although there is some music in the game, it’s primarily used to alert you that you’ve been spotted. It’s fast-paced and appropriate but mostly forgettable.

It’s Two—Two—Two Spies in One

Chaos Theory for the Gamecube has an awesome cooperative mode that is a blast to play but mostly irrelevant because it’s so short. Each of the four cooperative levels can be completed in 20 to 30 minutes. It’s a shame that these levels are so short because it’s great fun to work through the cooperative mode with a teammate.

Cooperative mode is played in split-screen with each player serving as a Splinter Cell operative in training. You’ll work together with moves available only in cooperative mode. You can stand on each other’s shoulders, climb up to otherwise unreachable areas and take out guards using team tactics.

The first cooperative level in Seoul is by far the best because it connects to events in the single-player game. At one point during the single-player game in Seoul, you get a request to interrogate an enemy officer for the benefit of two other agents working in the area. It turns out that those two agents are the very ones you play in cooperative mode. It’s great fun to see these events from two different points of view.

This Review Will Self-Destruct in Five Seconds

Chaos Theory gives a compelling gameplay experience that suffers a bit from a weak narrative and a failure to make consistent use of the graphical power of the Gamecube. Even with its flaws, it’s one of the best games available for the Gamecube and definitely a game not to be missed by fans of stealth-based action games. If you have an Xbox or a capable PC, however, you should really play this game on one of those platforms to take advantage of the superior graphics and more robust online modes. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Ubisoft Publisher: Ubisoft Release Date: March 28, 2005

Available for: Game CubeWindowsXboxPlayStation 2

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Screenshots

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System Requirements

Windows 2000/XP AMD Athlon or Intel Pentium III 1.4 GHz (Athlon or Pentium IV 2.2 GHz recommended) 256 MB RAM (512 MB recommended) 64 MB DirectX® 9.0c-compliant graphics card (128 MB recommended) DirectX 9.0c-compliant sound card (EAX 2.0 or higher recommended) DirectX 9.0c (included on disc) 4X DVD-ROM drive 4 GB free hard disk space Windows-compatible mouse and keyboard only Multiplay: 64 Kbps broadband (128 Kbps recommended)

Where to Find It

Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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29 Responses to The Long, Sordid Tail of DRM

  • Meho

    Good one.

    Of course, it will be very interesting to see the battle between crackers and UBI’s cryptographers. PC version of Assassin’s Creed II is already circulating the warez scene, although as yet uncracked. Everybody seems to think it will be cracked in a couple of weeks time at worst, which, admittedly is better for UBI than what usually happens (games cracked before release). Of course, I won’t be buying it because I find this practice unnacceptable (and I do have the console version anyway) but the success of this game and its DRM might mean quite a lot in the future. Of course, we ARE moving towards the age where you will be required to be connected to do any playing at all, whatwith the Gaikai and OnLive systems rearing their heads on the horizon. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, eh?

  • Spike

    I went to the Ubisoft website and looked at their list of published games.  It seems that the last of their games I played was the last Myst game in 2005.  In fact the only Ubisoft games I’ve played have been Myst games.  So I don’t see that their new DRM crime-against-my-privacy will have much of an effect on me.  But I hate the idea.  It’s an “Off with their heads!” kind of development.  Reminds me of the idea that people will put up with lost privacy in exchange for security.  In this case the security is only to benefit Ubisoft.  Yes, I allow my privacy to be violated every day – each time I visit Amazon, or read Google News -the list goes on and on.  BUT THOSE ARE MY CHOICES.  I also have a choice about where and how I spend my money, and I’d refrain from buying a game that allows so much intrusion into my computer/life.  A game that tells me how I must live my life even in the smallest of ways such as always being connected to the internet is a game I can forgo.

  • Jason O

    Consoles CAN be connected to the internet 100% of the time, but there are still many consoles that never go online. Modern Warfare 2 sold over 11 million copies, yet XBox Live only shows 840,000 users that have been on-line with it. That’s not played online, that means they played the game in any mode while connected to XBox Live.

    Games that have required an internet connection and were multiplayer only have a history of vanishing quickly from the console marketplace. Phantasy Star ONLINE did much better on the Gamecube then it did on the XBox. What was the difference? Oh yeah, you could play PSO without an internet connection on the Gamecube, the XBox version require a live account and an internet connection. That’s hardly the only example but one that is near and dear to my heart.

  • Bennet

    No, no, you don’t get it! Ubisoft’s “always connected” requirement isn’t DRM, it’s value-add for you, the beloved customer. Just like the Albertsons supermarket chain requires employees to plaster obnoxiously bright orange “Thank you for shopping with us!” stickers on your Coke and milk not because they think you’re stealing them but to express their sincere gratitude for your patronage.

    Maybe my memories of a time when consumers paid for a product and got the product, unadorned by FBI warnings and impossible to open wrappings and authentication servers that can vanish at any time without warning were planted by aliens. In the current cultural climate it’s certainly difficult to believe that time ever existed.

  • Meho

    But Steerpike makes a good point: business model, retail model is lagging behind the times. And developers, instead of researching ways to use the existing systems to sell more games rather research new ways to piss off their paying customers.

    Seriously, in my opinion, pirates pirate games because they are better value than retail games. Not just in the sense that they get to spend less money on them, but they get them faster, do not have to go through any hassle with DRM and have full control over the game. I think that Gabe Newell put it best saying that Valve sees pirates as customers who haven’t been served yet.

    I think UBI and their ilk should look for ways to make retail games more valuable to their customers than (free) warez copies. Yes, stuff like achievements/ trophies helps a little, sure. There are other ways too and one of them is resale value. But, oh, what a surprise, used games market pisses publishers off MORE than pirates do. In fact most of the current DRM schemes are only effective against resales. EA’s ten dollar project and all other free DLC on day one initiatives. So, honestly, I’m afraid that UBI’s online-all-the-time-or-no-service DRM is basically only going to affect sales of used games. The crackers are going to bring their games to pirates eventually. I believe that draconic DRM schemes such as this will only inspire people like GeoHot, Dark Alex and Yoshihiro to spend more of their time on circumvention. Their street cred is going to be huge after all…

    What Valve seem to understand is that playing games through Steam should make playing MORE valuable/ comfortable than not playing games through Steam (which is, at the end of the day a DRM system). Being able to instal a game on as many machines as you want and not having to have a disc in the drive is exactly what pirated games give us too, but with Steam you also retain all your stats, friends lists, achievements and everything. So it’s BETTER than playing pirated games. I only hope that UBI wake up and realise they have to ADD value, not just subtract freedoms.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not really sure I see their DRM as a huge problem.  If my PC is turned on, so is my internet.  I’m fully aware that my name is probably on a million data bases already, and although it might be annoying knowing that Ubisoft have implemented such a security feature, if you don’t physically notice it, I don’t particularly care.

    I’m currently playing Myst at the moment, having never before.  What an odd game…

  • Meho

    Well, you know, just from a philosophical standpoint: if the game is unplayable as soon as you don’t have Internet connection (which, I’m afraid, happens to me more regularly than I am comfortable with) for no other reason than making sure you have paid for it then to me this is pretty much unnacceptable. Requiring a connection for something that is a function of the game itself is OK, but enforcing it just for the sake of protection of the publisher, sorry, no sale.

  • Lewis B

    True Meho.  I had 40 minutes the other day before I went out and thought I would have a quick skirmish on Dawn of War II.  Steam (despite my love for it) wouldn’t launch the game because for some reason it kept freezing and refusing to connect or launch in offline mode.  I couldn’t actually locate the source directory either to boot the game up manually. So, I didn’t get to play and instead spent 40 minutes in a fit of rage cursing Valve and all who work under them. 

    Not exactly the same situation, but not hugely dissimilar.

  • Gregg B

    I’m really not concerned about the privacy issue simply because that illusion is just that, and doesn’t really comfort or unsettle me. My problem with this whole thing is that internet connections can be temperamental at the best of times and the idea that if the connection falters I will lose my progress (and thus my invested time which I’d argue is more valuable than my money) then quite frankly Ubi can fuck off. I’ve been pretty placid up to press with DRM simply because it’s not seemed that intrusive but this will affect the paying customers more than the pirates. It devalues the product and I fear it will push otherwise paying customers to download cracked versions that don’t suffer from this shit. Which, of course, will play into Ubi’s hands.

    Am I right in believing all this stems from the hideous retail model that just refuses to die? Physical retail creates pressuring deadlines, costs considerably more due to increased physical production (and overheads in staffing and floor space), it’s inflexible with stock limitations and shelf space dictating the range of titles available in any given store and by the sounds of things is the sole reason for this ‘tail’. If you look at Steam, it isn’t always the newest games that sell the most due in no small part to their sales and weekend deals.

    “I wonder if we’ll ever get to a point where a person would be just as likely to invest in a beloved classic as a hot new release.”

    From my experience there are a lot of people who simply can’t stomach old looking games, even some of my friends who’ve been playing games since they were young have turned into total graphics whores. Seriously you want to see the totally underwhelmed look on their faces when I show them XCOM for any period of time. We’re at a stage now where graphics are so advanced that for a lot of people going back so far to sample an allegedly classic title is simply too much. Thankfully GOG is doing a fantastic job of making these titles as accessible, and valuable, as possible.

    EDIT: Spot on Meho. My point exactly.
    See what I mean though Lew? Time. Valuable stuff. A quick skirmish on DoW turned into a 40 minute skirmish with Steam.

  • Mat

    This seems like an awful idea.. or at least one which sounds like a good idea to somebody somewhere, but in reality is unworkable.

    Since I’ve been a paying internet customer I have lived at 3 different addresses and used around 5 different ISP’s. I have ALWAYS had problems with my internet connection. With my current set up it tends to go down if a menacing looking cloud passes overhead..

  • xtal

    Some people may like to play a game offline now and then; this is especially easy with older ones before the dawn of activation codes and online authentication. While those aren’t that annoying, having to maintain a constant internet connection just to play a game that you paid for, which is not specifically a MMO, really bites.

    Gregg B said:
    “Am I right in believing all this stems from the hideous retail model that just refuses to die? Physical retail creates pressuring deadlines, costs considerably more due to increased physical production (and overheads in staffing and floor space), it’s inflexible with stock limitations and shelf space dictating the range of titles available in any given store and by the sounds of things is the sole reason for this ‘tail’. If you look at Steam, it isn’t always the newest games that sell the most due in no small part to their sales and weekend deals.”

    I agree with this. Just a few years ago I couldn’t see myself paying for intangible, digital goods. Fast forward to now and it’s really my preferred method of computer gaming, whether it’s GOG, Steam, or elsewhere, I find it’s the model that works best for the customer. If I’m not mistaken, I believe once upon a time that was who the industry was trying to serve, no? The customer?

  • Cesar

    You know, I’m from Brazil and there piracy is HUGE. Maybe for that reason I feel for the industry and understand the efforts to stop it. However, I suspect this crack delay would have a very minor impact in markets like Brazil. People can’t afford the games, so they wouldn’t pay full price anyway.

    It is a shame that we don’t have privacy anymore. The other day a friend of mine on XBox Live sent me a message to congratulate me on a goal I scored in Fifa 10. I didn’t know but apparently not only you can see I’m playing Fifa, but you also see when I score and my avatar cheers! While that sounds very cool, it is also very disturbing. But like Matt points very well, privacy is already gone. And since I don’t have it anymore, why not help stop piracy?

    On the other hand, the plurality of solutions is a different matter, it becomes a hassle. I think the solution should be platform dependent, not publisher dependent. In Brew phones, the control is embedded in the system and you cannot use an app if it cannot be verified, which means if you are not connected to the network you can’t play.

    Unfortunately that cannot be applied to consoles, there’s a considerable number of devices outside the internet umbrella. But if the game constantly checks if you are online and tries to authenticate the copy, online piracy will suffer a big hit and the technological move towards full connectivity will make the practice more and more efficient over time.

  • Andrew

    Not going to buy the game, long tail or not, it sucks to have that kind of persistent connection needed for offline play. Not even just startup authorisation either. I must admit any Game For Windows Live games can be similar (Dawn of War 2 being one of them necessitating it) although most of them allow offline profiles, and most of them allow the saves to be moved easily between any online or offline accounts.

    Oh, and if you’re disconnected it won’t kick you out of the game too, even Microsoft didn’t get that wrong.

    I don’t even understand how privacy comes into it, my main issue is twofold:
    – The above note about simple, offline play (and disconnects for blips in service)
    – The fact it isn’t just your connection that is necessary, it is THEIR connection and servers

    The second point as a partial game historian leads me to wonder how many years (not decades) the servers will be there. Publishers have removed much more necessary servers quickly if they are a cost liability (or they want to push people onto a newer game…). Downtime is also, considering some of the services require payment (Xbox Live for instance) devastatingly poor considering the user base sizes, especially on high load days (and I wonder if we’ll see “Assassins Creed 2 unplayable at launch due to server overload” at all, heh). Lucky it’s “just games” though, no worries if we only have 99% uptime right?! 😉

    (Also, frankly their Assassins Creed 1 port was poor until they patched it, where at least then it was playable (in full on 16:9…for some reason), which makes me wary of any PC release of a console game they do. I wonder also if they still have unskippable cutscenes, I’ve not checked it out on the consoles).

    The fact they’ll never have enough sales of this PC version due to the earlier console release to either say this is a roaring success or roaring failure. It’s the longest end of the tail in the first place. Or they’ll lie about whatever happens anyway. It’s utterly bizarre…I just don’t understand it.

  • Meho

    Cesar: I’m in Serbia and here piracy reigns supreme (much worse than Brazil, I imagine) but still, this is pure and simple bullshit. I purcahsed BioShock 2 today, for my PS3 even though I’d prefer to play it on my PC just because of the stupid DRM that won’t let me control the use of a game I pay for. They can fuck off with that. So, my purchase was influenced by DRM, depsite the game being more natural to play on a PC. Protection measures should not create this kind of bitterness in a human being.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    The issue of server overload on release days is significant. Think about it – a game like Modern Warfare 2? Or any other hotly anticipated release? Of course the servers would go down. It’s not cost-effective to install a server infrastructure capable of handling Day Zero traffic. That would royally piss people off.

    Ubi and others who use draconian DRM typically insist that if they ever go out of business or shut servers down, they’ll issue patches so the games can be played offline.

    Around the holidays here, big stores like Best Buy station a guy at the exit. His job is to go through your bag and consult your receipt to make sure you haven’t stolen anything. That’s a very similar ideology to this one: treat all consumers like thieves in hopes of catching the few who are.

  • Lewis B

    Considering most MMOG servers cannot cope on launch day, I see it as a gaurentee that when the next Modern Warfare is released, if they do follow through with this, would see many unhappy players.

  • lakerz1

    This new DRM policy will totally be screwing me over because I have a wireless internet setup, but my signal is a bit weak so here and there it drops out for a 10-15 second period before it reconnects.  Plus my wireless router is a bit wonky and will just stop working once in awhile until I cycle power to it.  So, until my setup changes, I will be forced to avoid all Ubi PC games that use this.

  • Igor Hardy

    I seriously doubt a person which would normally pirate a game, will pay money for it just because she has to wait a short while longer for the cracked version. This can work only for very cheap games – like 1$ cheap.

  • Meho

    Just for those keeping tabs: the Russian version of Assassin’s Creed II has apparently been successfully cracked, with a fix for the saves too. Of course, I don’t KNOW this for sure but that’s the word circulating through the grapewine.

  • Cesar

    Brazil is a strong competitor in the piracy rates. 95%-97% if I am not mistaken.

    Anyway, I don’t have a problem with the privacy issue. Not even with the assumption that we are all thieves. If you extrapolate that idea, you will conclude we shouldn’t have patrol cars on the streets. They assume people will commit crimes and have to keep watch. Homo homini lupus. Society isn’t perfect and even though losses are part of the model, no one is ready to lose out of good faith alone. I don’t mean to say DRM and police watch are the same thing, I’m just saying it’s not that simple to draw a line where it becomes offensive to monitor society.

    That being said, it is not acceptable to have a DRM impact gameplay at all. I don’t mind it authenticating my copy. But if I am offline it has to work. And if I loose connection during the game I shouldn’t be kicked out.

    And while the efficacy of the solution might be questionable under these circumstances, like I said in the previous comment, it only tends to increase.

  • Andrew

    “Ubi and others who use draconian DRM typically insist that if they ever go out of business or shut servers down, they’ll issue patches so the games can be played offline.”

    I have seen this happen to absolutely zero games ever. The fact that it is nearly impossible to sanction any work on IP if a company is in administration is the key. That and it is non-trivial to get around your own disk DRM by producing an installer that will work with your disk copy to install it.

    I’d love to be proved wrong…this is by far the most worrying thing of the deal, just installed Bioshock 2 and it has online activation (sigh)…worried I might need to download cracked versions to install it in the future!

    Oh, did you see the patch notes of the first patch? It makes the DRM very very very slightly “better” (I mean, better as in “still shit”):

    http://www.fileshack.com/file.x/17456/Assassin%27s+Creed+2+Patch+1.01+-+US

    “Game can now be continued from the exact same point when connection is restored”

    Ho ho ho. Ho.

  • Gregg B

    I like this bit:

    “Only those who purchased a copy of ACII or SHV legally appear to be affected. Pirates playing illegally downloaded cracked versions of the game are able to play without a problem.”

    Is it apparent pirates are having no problems yet? If they’ve properly cracked it then what I feared (above) is true. Last I heard was that the DRM apparently downloads levels or important files as you play. I don’t know whether this is true or not though.

  • Spike

    Meho beat me to it.  I just read a similar article on The Register.  I don’t suppose that the DDoS attack will make Ubi rethink its evil ways, but this might (I can dream, can’t I?):

    “Meanwhile Ubisoft’s much criticised controls have been broken by software hackers. A hacker group called Skid-Row managed to bypass DRM restrictions on Silent Hunter 5 less than 24 hours after the game was published. Skid Row has releasing a crack for the game based on this work, Zdnet reports. ®”

    Full article here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/08/ubisoft_anti_drm_hack_attack/

  • Littermate

    Spike.  RE: The Register article
    There is a comment to that article that claims the crack for SH5 is not a complete crack and would only allow an incomplete experience, because not only are save games stored online but some of the game data files are stored online too, implying that the boxed game you buy is incomplete.  This seems plausible and effective IMO, because if I was demanding an internet connection for my software this is how I would do it.  It demands not only that a games code be cracked but that missing data files be supplied too.

  • Spike

    Having just read this article – link below – I’m thinking that DRM will be fine and dandy AND hunky-dory with me as long as the packaging it comes in is “green”.  Yep.  That makes it more palatable.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/1620105/ubisoft-green-recycled-case-digital-manual-sustainable-packaging

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    I would kind of like to buy games in potato cases.

  • xtal

    I was thinking… and remembered one of the most creative instances of “DRM” if you can call it that: King’s Quest VI! I looked it up and sure enough it is mentioned on KQVI’s Wikipedia page:

    A booklet titled “Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles” (written by Jane Jensen) is included in the KQVI package. Aside from providing additional background to the game’s setting, this booklet serves as part of the game’s copy-protection. The player will not be able to pass the puzzles on the Cliffs of Logic that guard the Isle of the Sacred Mountain without information from the booklet. The booklet also includes a poem encoding the solution to one of the puzzles in the labyrinth on the Isle of the Sacred Mountain.

    I guess that’s not very feasible today, what with widespread use of the internet around the world. I still think it’s more creative than the “thank you for your money, we intend to treat you like a criminal” method.

  • Bluebogle

    I played the KQVI game with the booklet. I was a kid at the time, and thought the booklet was so cool! It really added to the whole game’s experience.

    The quest for Glory games came with fun booklets as well, though I don’t remember if they had copy protection elements to ’em.

    Ahh, the good old days..

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