When the original Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell arrived in 2002, it threatened to dethrone Metal Gear Solid’s tight grip on the stealth genre. And for some purists, it likely succeeded, given its groundbreaking technical displays of light and shadow that were more than just pretty to look at. The game also pushed you to move with more caution, with enemies that, in some instances, were far more perceptive than what Metal Gear Solid 2 offered at the time. MGS3 would arrive shortly after to up its stealth game, perhaps having learned a thing or two from Splinter Cell, but the original SC and its two direct sequels remain incredible challenges for those of us who like to lurk around in the shadows. And if you’ve been craving a return to Sam Fisher’s first outing, then let me tell you about this incredible mod that makes it hard to go back to the original.
Enhanced SC is a project from modder Joshhhuaaa that you can grab on GitHub right now for both Windows and Steam Deck. It introduces a suite of improvements, which include a mission statistics tracker that lets you know just how stealthy your current run is, proper widescreen support, fixes to movement speed, better controller support, maps based on original Xbox versions, the Nuclear Power Plant level from the PS2 version, and so much more.
While many mods of this kind sometimes make for an experience that feels quite different from the original game, Enhanced SC feels remarkably faithful to what it was like to play Splinter Cell on PS2 or Xbox back in the day. There are some notable tweaks to the gameplay, such as the inclusion of whistling (which would show up in later SC games), and distinct commands for opening a door fully or partially to peek into the next room. These feel like very natural inclusions to the original game–in fact, until I read through the patch notes, I didn’t realize they weren’t in the first SC.
Steam Deck support, however, is where this mod really shines. It runs surprisingly well for such an old game on a Linux machine. There’s also a dedicated “EnhancedSC Layout” controller scheme you can download from the community layouts that allows for precision aiming by way of the right touchpad, and a quicksave and load feature mapped to the left one (this makes quickly resetting to your last save for save-scummy playthroughs a breeze).
If it’s been a while since you’ve jumped into Sam’s sneaking suit, do yourself a favor and check out this mod. Who knows when (or if) we’re getting that damn remake anyway.
