Double Agent Developer Interview

Perhaps the most famous Tom Clancy franchise, Splinter Cell provides the ultimate in stealth action, and Sam Fisher is the genre's ultimate operative. Both return in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent™ to once again tempt gamers with their intense play and breathtaking action.

We caught up with the usually tight-lipped Ubisoft development team and were lucky enough to pry some Double Agent information loose. No one holds out forever. Once the torture ended, here's what they gave us.

Xbox.com: What makes Double Agent different from the previous titles in the Splinter Cell series?

Ubisoft Team: With Splinter Cell Double Agent, we're taking the stealth genre one step further; whereas in previous installments you could get up close to the enemy, in Double Agent, you have to become the enemy, infiltrating from within in order to take them down.

Sam's new look alone should tell you how different Double Agent will be.

Xbox.com: What is your favorite Splinter Cell game and why?

Ubisoft Team: I got a huge kick out of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Chaos Theory™, especially with the addition of the knife, which brought a more visceral quality to the fights. You still felt like you had to sneak around carefully, but Sam just wasn't so powerless when he got caught anymore.

Xbox.com: Think way back to when you were creating the first Splinter Cell. At what point did you know that you had a special game?

Ubisoft Team: The first Splinter Cell went through a lot of iterations before it became the game that was shipped. However, when Ubisoft presented it at E3, it gathered a lot of very strong and positive reactions. There was no doubt then that it would become known as a great game.

Xbox.com: Double Agent has a unique plot. How does a gamer balance the need to stop the terrorists, with the necessity of maintaining cover?

Ubisoft Team: That balancing act is at the core of the game, and it's the source of a lot of tension in the play. Ultimately, there's no way to perfectly maintain your cover while at the same time stopping the terrorists … and so the player has to make difficult choices. These choices are key moments in the game, and they determine whether Sam succeeds or not in his mission.

The choice you make could determine whether you beat the game.

Xbox.com: Take any roleplaying game and a significant number of gamers will choose to play the bad guy. Is that one of the reasons you let Sam undertake terrorist missions?

Ubisoft Team: The real kick out of playing Splinter Cell Double Agent is to act like a terrorist, trying to befriend them, while secretly knowing that are you working against them. It's the thrill of the undercover agent, and it doesn't have much to do with Sam actually being a "bad guy." Sam is always trying to do what's right … it's just not easy to know what "right" is anymore.

Xbox.com: So, will gamers get to vicariously live their skydiving and scuba-diving dreams through Sam? Any big, James Bond-ish underwater knife fights?

Ubisoft Team: Sam does indeed skydive and scuba-dive in Splinter Cell Double Agent on Xbox 360™! However, we strayed away from melodramatic Bond moments; instead, we're going for a Fisher-ish takedown and drowning of an enemy on the ice. Silent and deadly.

Until you gain some equipment, a lot of your weapons are improvised.

Xbox.com: What new feature are you most proud of in Double Agent?

Ubisoft Team: In this game, Sam can be accompanied by a "sidekick," an NPC doing missions in tandem with Sam. It's very cool to see the NPC, entirely A.I.-driven, sneak around the environment, wait for an enemy to walk by, then crouch-run behind him to the next safe spot, or engage in a firefight and distract the enemy while you can flank them and go for a stealth kill. It's a truly rewarding experience.

Xbox.com: How about the gear? Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™'s cross-com is pretty slick. Does Sam get something new to play with in Double Agent?

Ubisoft Team: Oh, absolutely. He has a lot of new gadgets to play with, including some cool new vision modes, such as the "wave vision," which combines visualization of electromagnetic waves and sound waves.

Xbox.com: Hey, who would you cast to play Sam in the Splinter Cell movie?

Ubisoft Team: I say, make Splinter Cell a high-quality CGI movie, and use Michael Ironside's voice. Can you imagine anybody else speaking for Fisher?

Xbox.com: Awesome. We can't wait to get our hands on the game. Thanks for your time!

Article by Jad Recklaw