Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent

"This game butchers the Splinter Cell series"

Made by what many consider a less talented UbiSoft Shanghai Studio, this games fails to measure to the Splinter Cell standards we experienced over the years.

Story: 6/10
You are Sam Fisher , a Third Echelon secret agent of the National Security unit of the United States. The mission of that unit is to infiltrate enemy strongholds to gather information and to neutralize threats without attracting attention. Over the years through the three previous installments of the Splinter Cell series, this game came under the scrutiny that Sam is basically a governmental tool, without free will and emotions. This resulted in no emotional attachment to the protagonist. This game tries to change that. Due to a dramatic event in Sam's life by the order of the government Fisher joins JBA - a terrorist organization on the US soil. JBA is planning something big, and your job your is to gain their trust and to neutralize them when the time is right. The game gives the ability to complete objectives that either hurt his reputation with the government or strengthen it. Sam Fisher is a double agent. All this sound peachy but there is a catch - this game features incomplete story. Some of the events you can only experience on the next generation console which is sad since this is nothing but a scheme to make more money, at the expense of the gamer. I don't ever recall something like that being done with any other game.

Graphics: 7/10
It uses the same engine as Chaos Theory, beautiful environments, shadows, lighting it is all there. There are however some issues. Enemies look detailed, but why does every enemy in a given level look the same. There is clipping sometimes when you die based on the position of your body in terms of the environment. There is also clipping during gameplay. I went through a pool of water at certain level and through the course of getting through that pool I experienced clipping ever step of the way. Sometimes a killed enemy that falls from above just hangs in the air.

Sound: 9/10
Sound in this game is great. Good stealth tunes, voice acting is top notch. When alarm is raised some suspenseful tune kicks in. Environments, guns all make the right noises.

Game-play: 6/10
The game plays from a 3rd person perspective with ability to switch to 1st person view during aiming. It revolves around stealth meaning you should not be seen. However if you are spotted and the foe has enough time to raise an alarm, reinforcements arrive and there is an increase in security measures. The more alarms you raise the higher their level. However if you stay quiet, the alarm is eventually aborted. Since we have the double agent notion here the gamer has the ability to play both sites as this is accomplished using your trust meter on your PDA - OPSAT. So you have your primary objectives, optional objectives, and opposing objectives. By completing objectives depending for who, your trust meter shifts towards JBA (left) or Third Echelon (right). Opposing objectives help you balance things out if you are shifting too much one way. It seems like a nice addition to the gameplay but even if you shift completely towards one faction, you get a notice to prove your trust from opposing side by going somewhere within a certain amount of time, then you are good. So this sort of makes the experience dull. If you take lives, the trust meter shifts towards JBA. Based on your choice during opposing objectives you can see different cut scenes after the end of the level. This makes the game less linear. Also based on your trust meter you get rewarded different gear on the start of the next level. In terms of moves you can crouch, roll, put your back against the wall, climb, repel down the wall with a rope, split jump, hang, zip wire. When Sam spots a vent and if it is within the reach for example he can crawl inside it. Crawling however cannot be utilized during regular gameplay, and to get under something with the delay control on the roll makes it ridiculously tedious. In terms of enemy interaction you can impose lethal or non-lethal attack, pick up and carry their body away, use them as human shields, interrogate them, or use them for fingerprints or retinal scanning. This game also employs few times the use of a second person, for example to give a boost over an obstacle. The way a stealth action is activated is that you have to sneak to the enemy and you see an icon flashing to press a button. Sam has many gadgets: gaggles - enable him to use night vision, thermal vision, and EMF vision (see all electronic devices) and this is also used for scanning/hacking devices from a distance; pistol equipped with OCP (Optically Channeled Potentiate) to disable electronic devices, sticky cameras, wall mines, grenades, etc. His SC-20K is an interesting rifle that contains variety of attachments: launcher, sniper attachment, and shotgun attachment are the most notable. Despite all the gadgets you getting there is really no need to use them all, depending on your style of play. In the levels health stations replenish your health and if you use bullets, you find them lying around as you progress. Hacking in this game is simplified. There are two wave lengths one red and one green and you supposed to fit one on top of the other, by resizing and moving the green one. If successful you have to do it a couple of times more. If times expires, or sometimes when hacking is aborted alarm level is raised. On every door Sam can use optical cable to see if it is safe on the other side. With regards to doors Sam can open them regularly, stealthy or bash them hard in case there is someone behind. Doors do not close behind you. Lock picking is also available but this time around you can bash open every door, if you have trouble picking them.

All this sounds like a typical Splinter Cell games, but there is a reason why gameplay been knocked off 4 points. The main problem is a bad damage physics. You can be hidden behind a corner and an enemy that it cannot see you and you cannot see it, can still damage you, like the cover did not exist. Same thing regarding other covers. This is so annoying and it does not belong in a game. It is a pure miscalculation on the developers part. There is also a problem with explosion damage. On couple of occasions an enemy was in the midst of point blank explosion and it survived. Game employees a neat addition where you can switch hands while aiming with a weapon to give you a better view. However if you are handling a pistol and switch to left hand, than change weapons to SC-20K your weapon is in right hand and your view is abstracted meaning an easy kill for the enemy. This does not make any sense. The enemy movement with drawn weapons is problematic. If you notice when they move in a corridor they are staring at the wall AND NOT ahead. Like I said, the physics of movement and damage is very poorly handled. Other problems also exist. Enemy precision shooting on the run in darkness. On numerous occasion enemy is gunned down, his friend notices the body and while surrounded by the total darkness the enemy shoots exactly where I am standing, although his visibility is 0. All those corks you do not expect in this time of game, especially the 4th installment.

Multiplayer: NA/10
I did not play enough multiplayer to give it a rating. There is not much activity at this time, talking about July 2007, but people still play this. There are basically two modes, co-op where you do missions and LIVE with the following match options: team hack, death match, team death match, blitz, key run, Sam vs. All, countdown.

Final Impression
I love the Splinter Cell series but I was a bit disappointed in this game. Great concept of the double agent but the gameplay blunders were upsetting. Game is also very short, so you can beat it on a rental, it retails for $19.99 at this time NEW by the way. If you can look past the gameplay shortcomings you would enjoy it.
I'll give it 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/08/07