Endorsed by author Tom Clancy, it follows the activities of NSA black ops agent Sam Fisher (voiced by Michael Ironside).

[18] A side-scrolling adaptation developed by Gameloft was also released in 2003 for Game Boy Advance, mobile phones and N-Gage (the latter with the subtitle Team Stealth Action).

The success of the game lead to multiple sequels, starting with Pandora Tomorrow in 2004, and a series of novels written under the pseudonym David Michaels.

In August 2004, former U.S. Navy SEAL officer Sam Fisher joins the National Security Agency, as part of its newly formed division "Third Echelon", headed by his old friend Irving Lambert.

Two months later, Fisher, aided by technical expert Anna "Grim" Grimsdóttír and field runner Vernon Wilkes Jr., is sent to Georgia to investigate the disappearance of two CIA officers.

One had been installed into the new government of Georgian president Kombayn Nikoladze, who seized power in a bloodless coup d'état following the assassination of his predecessor; the other was sent in to find the first after their disappearance.

Shortly after this, North America is hit by a massive cyber warfare attack directed at military targets, to which Nikoladze claims responsibility before declaring war on the United States and its allies.

He captures the treacherous employee, who explains that the laptop was later exploited by a Virginian-based network owned by Kalinatek, Inc, a tech company controlled by the Georgians.

After Grim's efforts to access their servers spooks them, Fisher is sent in to recover an encryption key from a technician in the building, before Georgian-hired mafiosos attempt to liquidate all the incriminating evidence.

Fisher discovers Nikoladze is working alongside Chinese general Kong Feirong, supplying him with nuclear waste in exchange for arms and munitions.

After being prevented from committing suicide in a drunken stupor, Feirong is threatened at gunpoint to access his computer, with its data revealing that Nikoladze had fled back to Georgia in order to activate "The Ark".

After Cristavi's forces arrive and escort Nikoladze to safety, Lambert rescues Fisher from execution by creating a diversion via power blackout.

The National Guard eventually locates the bomb in an apartment complex in the state of Maryland, and secretly recovers it after evacuating the building under the pretense of dealing with a gas leak.

While watching the U.S. president giving a speech on the end of the crisis, Fisher receives a secure phone call from Lambert for another assignment.

"[14] The game's designer and writer Clint Hocking also said Splinter Cell "owes its existence to" the Metal Gear series, while noting he was also influenced by System Shock, Thief and Deus Ex.

The GameCube and PlayStation 2 versions, released later, were developed by Ubisoft Shanghai and are similar to each other, but have many small changes over the originals with the result that they are generally easier.

The GameCube version includes the same cinematics, uses the Game Boy Advance link cable to give players a real-time overhead map, a new sticky-bomb weapon and progressive scan (480p) support.

Scott Alan Marriott of AllGame gave the Xbox version four-and-a-half stars out of five and called it "one of the few games to elicit a feeling of suspense without resorting to shock techniques found in survival horror titles like Resident Evil.

[103] The game's PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions each received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),[104] given to titles that sell at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom.