Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Sam Fisher, the slowest moving action hero we all love, is back! Making his first appearance on 360, and the first on any of the ‘next-gen’ consoles, Double Agent is the same stealth game we wowed over many moons ago on Xbox Old but with a twist (and the title allows for ample use of the word ‘Double’ in my review - sorry!).
Double Life
Sam seems to have had it tough while making the 360 journey; a few lives were lost and headed him down a hard and trying road. But everything happens for a reason, and Ubisoft Shanghai has taken Sam to a place he hasn’t been before – on the wrong side of Good. Yes, Sam is now no longer The Good Guy, at least if you don’t want him to be.
Double Take
Through the course of taking Sam through the approx 10 hour single-player game, you'll be faced with a number of choices that affect your standing with the JBA or NSA. Do you pop the helicopter pilot to further your roleplay inside the JBA, or let him live because its "the right thing to do"? You may be inclined to just pull the trigger and move on, but in doing so you may be cheating yourself out of the Double Agent experience, and simply missing what Ubisoft set out to achieve. Its hard to do the 'what would I do if I was a super-agent' thing, but just try to put yourself in Sam's shoes to get that little bit extra from the game.
As you near the conclusion of your time with Sam, a few choices will greatly determine the outcome of the story - don't worry, no spoilers are coming - and you'll be left wondering how things could've turned out if you chose differently. That gives you good reason to play through the game a couple of times more, where you'll not only get a different outcome (should you choose differently at key times), but a different play-through on each level due to the AI adjusting itself nice and subtly to keep you on your toes. The open-design of the JBA missions just add another reason to replay the game
Double Trouble
The series has never been one to get straight to the action, in more ways than just stealthy gameplay. Load times are still on the long side of the average, but at least it gives you time to collect your thoughts after making that last life-taking (or saving) decision.
On the shine-side, the graphics are generally quite good, with the levels nice and varied in their situated locales. You get the odd little graphical glitch, but nothing jumps out more than previous titles in the series, and all is generally polished to be worthy of a 360 appearance. Frame rates do stutter from time to time, but thankfully due to the speed of Sam this doesn’t really cause too much concern.
As expected, audio is solid once again – it does its job just nicely, so you won’t be having any complaint sharing with your mates over it. Michael Ironside IS Sam Fisher, so its just as well he’s back giving Sam that voice the ladies seem to love (or so I’m told).
Double Play
Multiplayer modes will be familiar to Chaos Theory veterans, however just aren’t up to the same standard. Although Co-Op and Versus now allow 3 per side, it’s a little less involved – more streamlined. There’s only the same, single task for Spies to complete on each level (retrieve data), and Mercs can no longer manipulate the environment to make things more difficult for the Spies. Getting together with some mates, Versus is still a nice way to pass the an hour or 5 during the evenings.
Agent Time
Splinter Cell: Double Agent is a very welcome addition to the Sam Fisher story, and worthy of a 360 appearance. Being the fourth in the series, it was going to be hard to bring something fresh for seasoned veterans to be satisfied with. Ubisoft Shanghai have managed to do just that, at least with the Single Player. While the MP side of things doesn’t have that same freshness, its still a solid back-up once you’re done with the multiple endings to the story. Once your done, it should leave you eagerly anticipating Splinter Cell 5, and you know you’ve already got the right system for that one!
