The original Splinter Cell just got a big unofficial remaster thanks to modders

There are a lot of Splinter Cell games, but the first may be the best of them. Though a bit rougher around the edges than sequels like Pandora Tomorrow, and lacking the fantastic soundtrack of Chaos Theory or higher fidelity of Blacklist, the 2002 original has a murky charm that makes its vision of shadowy international special operations stand out from what came after. While we continue to wait for Ubisoft's planned remake to come out, now's as good a time as any to return to the game or play it for the first time with the launch of an impressive new mod that serves as an unofficial remaster.

Splinter Cell can still be played, but the start of the stealth game series requires a bit of tinkering to get working on PC and looking its best. Enhanced Splinter Cell looks to streamline the process by offering a sweeping range of improvements in a single mod.

The most striking change is a visual fix that gives the PC version the original Xbox port's higher quality lighting effects and textures. Enhanced Splinter Cell also includes widescreen support, shadow buffer rendering, and ups the FPS to a cap of 60. There's better keyboard support, too, which makes the user interface far more intuitive, and provides the ability to alter Sam's movement speed or turn the game's HUD off or on with a key press.

Lastly, the Nuclear Power Plant and Severonickel missions and the cutscenes that surround them — the former present in the PlayStation 2 version but not on PC and the latter cut from every version — have been added back in as well, though they're currently still being ironed out before being considered properly finished.

You can download Enhanced Splinter Cell and read a guide to installing it right here.

Otherwise, you can find more to play with our picks for the best single player games and best old games on PC.

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