Splinter Cell Atmosphere Appreciation Post

As the title might imply, I think the Splinter Cell games, especially the original trilogy, absolutely nailed their atmosphere. I listen to soundtracks from the original trilogy from time to time when doing work or other things, and recently it occured to me just how atmospheric the original 3 games were. I discovered Splinter Cell about when the first game was being given away for free on Ubisoft Connect ~5 ish years ago- it was my first real dedicated stealth game, and despite not being in first person, having controls that wasn't used to, and textures that didn't exactly blow my mind, the immersion was top-notch and I was hooked. I played through the whole mainline series- minus Double Agent since the PC port is terrible- one right after the other in a matter of weeks.

While the dated graphics, controls, and 3rd person perspective all should have detracted from the immersion, I think the music and the level lighting were top notch and more than made up for it. There was a sense of tension that I really hadn't felt in any game that I remembered up to that point. I think special praise needs to go to the audio design team and the composers because even listening to the music on its own conjures up memories of Sam sneaking around through the shadows.

While I am relatively new to Splinter Cell relatively speaking, I can without a doubt call it one of my favorite series and just wanted to gush about its atmosphere for a bit. I think the only games I've played that have come close to the sort of atmosphere Splinter Cell has is Thief 2: The Metal Age and Thief: The Black Parade (a full fan campaign for Thief: The Dark Project).

After having played the original Splinter Cell trilogy several times even over the last couple years, to those of you who have loved the series for years- I understand it now.