Stealth gaming seems to be one of the growth areas these days, ever since the Thief series kicked off and the first Splinter Cell game introduced the intrepid solo operative Sam Fisher, recruited by the National Security Agency's top-secret 'black ops' arm, Third Echelon.

Sam's soft-footed missions, with his trademark black garb and thermal and night vision goggles, became an instant hit with gamers and the latest offspring, Pandora Tomorrow, offers not only a lot more of the same but also a unique and exciting multi-player option that adds a new direction to the rather clichéd online universe.

There are eight missions this time around, beginning with the stunning opening sequence of an Indonesian guerrilla leader blasting his way into the American embassy in East Timor. Sam's first job involves infiltrating the embassy and helping the hostages, and is used partially as a training mission to get you used to all his stealth moves, climbing skills and use of equipment.

As the story progresses, our hero will have to hide on board (and then fight on top of) a speeding train through France, creep around the back streets of Jerusalem, hack into a computer, track down a secret submarine lair and tackle a potential bio-terrorist at Los Angeles airport.

As lighting (or more importantly, avoiding it) plays such a vital role in the gameplay, it's not surprising that the lighting effects in both exterior and interior locations have been graphically enhanced for ultra realism. The level of detail throughout is so intense that you can almost wipe the sweat off Fisher's brow.

For the most part, gadgets, movements and weapons are largely the same as in the previous game, but there have been some significant additions. For a start, Sam now has the use of binoculars to scan ahead and they work in tandem with his night and heat vision capabilities to make planning less arduous.

A couple of new moves have been introduced, such as the SWAT turn (which lets you 'ghost' between pillars) and the roll, plus Sam can now hang upside down, aim and fire at the same time. The latter two rarely come into operation, though, as they're in danger of alerting the enemy to your presence.

What is useful, however, is a quicker means of accessing your inventory and choosing actions, and a new 'three strikes and you're out' alarm system has been introduced in some missions so that you're not immediately sent back to the last save point after every slip-up. The AI has been slightly relaxed so that after initially being suspicious, guards can revert to their previous state of passivity after a while.

You're still going to find the missions very taxing, especially when trying to sneak up on an enemy to knock him out, or knowing when to take out a light bulb or use a whistle to divert attention.

If you do need a rest from the single player game, then the multi-player game is a complete change of emphasis. Designed for a maximum of four players, you play either as spies like Sam or mercenaries, and the balance of abilities and weapons (spies in third person with all the stealth gadgets, mercs in first person with guns and motion-detecting gear) is so evenly balanced that it quickly becomes addictive.

With its superb graphics, excellent new multi-player option and challenging missions, Ubisoft has managed the unthinkable and improved on the original. This is the kind of game the Xbox was invented for.