The lead-up to Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory’s release was, personally, a frantic one. I distinctly remember having finished Pandora Tomorrow and being disappointed, earnestly pining for Ubisoft Montreal (the creator of the Splinter Cell franchise) to return to the series.

Late one night, news broke of an off-screen ‘Splinter Cell 3′ gameplay video and I spent the evening desperately hunting for a glimpse of the game. I did everything from registering at Ubisoft’s forums to refreshing my Google search every 5 seconds. Finally, my eyes met the shaky-cam footage of the best-looking game I had ever seen. I showed my friends, my enemies, and my parents. My excitement simply couldn’t be contained; after all, who wouldn’t want to grab an enemy while hanging upside-down or yank him from the edge of a building?

Unfortunately, the title’s November 2004 release date was postponed. My heart sank. I had no desire to play any other game that year, not Halo 2 nor Half-Life 2; not even the impressive Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I didn’t buy any game that year, nor did I receive any for Christmas. My soul was set on Sam Fisher’s newest exploits.

March 2005 did (finally!) arrive, but my video game-hating mother did the unthinkable: she looked at the game’s M-rating and refused to let me play it. I begged and pleaded outside the small GameStop in Bozeman, MT, but to no avail. I spent the two-hour ride home trying to justify the game’s Mature designation and eventually wrote a letter to my parents explaining that my 14-year old mind wasn’t going to be poisoned and ravaged by the violence and language.

As they thought it over, I settled for secret play sessions of the Official Xbox Magazine’s demo at my friend’s house. We endlessly explored and experimented within the Lighthouse mission’s confines, finishing it with multiple variations that each achieved a 100% completion rating.

Several months after it’s release, my mother agreed to let me purchase the inferior PS2 version of the game, but only with my own money. I got a job as a gardener, planting flowers, watering vegetables, and picking weeds for an elderly friend, earning $5 per hour. I finally accumulated enough dough to pick up the game, used, at the same GameStop. After 18 months of anticipation, I achieved my goal and got my hands on what became one of my favorite games of all time.

Not all was well in Chaos Theory-land. I grew disappointed with the less-impressive visuals and chopped-up missions that plagued the PlayStation 2 edition. It wasn’t until 2007 when I bought my Xbox 360 that I was able to sit down and enjoy the entirety of the definitive version of the game. At first, I thought a bargain-bin copy of the Xbox game would suffice. “Why not? It’s an old game,” I told myself. “There’s no need to spring $50+ on eBay for the collector’s copy.”

That mindset didn’t last long. Chaos Theory took over my time once again and I proceeded to not only buy the Xbox collector’s edition, but the soundtrack, a now long-lost t-shirt, and a second-hand PC collector’s version that was incompatible with my computer. I was stunned that a game could dominate my gaming time with such conviction, but its rule wasn’t quite over.

This year, I was finally able to experience Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory in high-resolution and surround sound, courtesy my powerful gaming PC and Steam. For those keeping count, that’s a total of five (5) copies of SC:CT in my possession. That’s quite a bit of shelf space compared to the other titles in the series, or any other game for that matter. Ubisoft Shanghai’s follow-up, Double Agent, only grabbed my attention to warrant two purchases and the first two Splinter Cell games are one-copy titles.

This article comes as UPS delivers the latest iteration of Ubisoft’s storied franchise to my apartment. My initial impression of Splinter Cell: Conviction is one of slight disappointment. As a fan of silently slipping past enemies and leaving no trace during Chaos Theory’s gameplay, the action-focused Conviction doesn’t seem to be up my alley. Should it prove me wrong and truly progress the Splinter Cell franchise forward, I’ll most likely be a poorer man in the long-run (damn you, collector’s edition!).

For now, I think I’ll just buy it once.

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Sage Knox is a Contributing Editor at Crush! Frag! Destroy!

This editorial was originally posted here.