Sam Fisher's leap to next-gen satisfies

Note: This is for the Xbox 360 review of the game.

As the title suggests, this is the Splinter Cell series's first endeavor to next-gen consoles. Just as Sam's previous adventures left man fans wanting more, so does Double Agent. Also just like the previous games, DA continues to revolutionize the multiplayer mode, but, unfortunetly, doesn't evolve the single player mode to much. Now theres times when much attention was focused on single player, but the fundementals remain unchanged.

First things first, this game is damn pretty. And when I say pretty I mean drop dead gorgeous. It isn't until later in the game when your dropped on sheets of ice and the snow is falling down that you can tell this game has some serious power behind it. I almost didn't want to leave the antarctic because of its sheer beauty. That wasn't until I was dropped into shanghi during the Chinese new year where fireworks was blasting around me and I was hanging outside of a larger-than-life building. Just like Chaos Theory pushed out some gorgeous graphics from the xbox, DA does the same with the 360. Only now theres not as much darkness so you can see the jaw-dropping detail crafted in the game.

(Side note: I'll be getting an HDTV this week and will post my impressions of how the game looks on a true HDTV rather than my 19inch LCD monitor I'm using now)

Speaking of the darkness, where is it? I know I said you can see the pretty graphics now that you don't need your night or thermal vision on every blimey second, but come on! People have long complained about the amount of darkness in Splinter Cell games, I have not. This makes the game extremely difficult in some cases because theres no place to hide. Thats not to say theres no where to hide, you can still take cover behind the boxes and furniture and such placed throughout the level, but the darkness is gone in many of the levels. Ubisoft has simplified the game by ridding it of the light meter, which showed the amount of light that was on you, with a color meter, green meaning hidden in the darkness, yellow meaning not hidden, and red meaning your screwed (alerted). This game causes some hair-pulling moments when you can be literally right in front of someone's face and not be seen but someone clear accross the map can see you when your stealth is only yellow. I know it may seem like I'm getting to into this, but if you've been playing SC games for a while and are the kind of person who goes through a mission never getting caught because you keep loading your last save when you do, it gets frustrating. That said, the game is still fun if you learn to adapt to this, but no matter how hard you try your gonna end up wishing for the night levels again. And remember, not all levels are bright as can be, but the ones that are, grrrr....

Now that I'm done with that little rant I supposed I should continue on with the review, after all that is what this is. Aside from the graphics, Double Agent continues the Splinter Cell tradition with top-notch voice overs and sound effects. The same voice actors from the previous games (i.e. the guy from 24 as Lambert and Sam Fisher's voice) are still there. The new characters from the group Sam is infiltrating, which I will get into later, also have above average VO's and then you get to the enemy VOs, by which I mean your average, run-of-the-mill terrorist or whatever, that has some pretty crappy voices, most likely the same one for every character. The atmosphere of the game is not only well played out visually, but also through the audio such as when the rain or snow is pooring down or when something blows up. Then theres the sound, and vibration feedback, you get when your standing right next to an enemy and it sounds and feels like a heart beating which offers a level of pressure in the game.

I guess now would be a good time to explain what the title "Double Agent" is all about. Well, if you couldn't figure it out already, Sam is a double agent, undercover in a "bad guy" hangout. After the first mission, (possible spoilers here) you quickly find out that Sam's daughter has died in a car accident. Lambert then proceeds to explain what happened to Sam as he was dealing with his daughter's death. Apparently he hit rock bottom and was offered this mission to rebuild and recouperate (end possible spoilers). Sam then ends up in jail where he must help Jamie, a member of John Brown's Army, escape. After this is done Sam is taken to JBA's HQ where he is given a mission to go through some obstacle course. These mission types come every so often where Sam has a list of things to do for both the NSA (gov't) and the JBA at the HQ and by doing so many things he can earn trust for either group, however if he is caught using NSA gadgets or in a restricted zone he can lose trust. Throughout the missions you'll be given a list of NSA and JBA assignments you can choose to do. They might result in a loss or gain in trust. Now this is actually a pretty meaty element of DA. At first I thought it was a little cheasy but it has grown on to me. Theres specific moments where your given a direct choice wheather to go with the JBA or NSA and you must do either. The first one is rather lame because your given a gun and told to kill an innocent man, but if you kill him or don't kill him it doesn't change anything, at least on normal mode, and he dies either way. It isn't until around the Shanghi mission, which isn't to much into it, that the decsions start to matter. (Spoilers) In this mission towards the end your told to kill a man by the NSA, only the JBA has a helicopter waiting for you and every second longer you take causes you to lose trust. So if you run straight to the helicopter you hurt your trust with the NSA but help with the JBA and if you kill him you can loose some trust with the JBA but earn more with the NSA. These moments are scattered during the story and they actually come as a bit of a suprise at times. Now the missions themselves are loosely stringed together because you'll just have the head guy from the JBA saying they need you in the arctic, then he'll say they need you in China, and so on. Theres not much things that connect each mission but if you forget about that minor aspect you'll enjoy DA's single player mode.

For the single player mode, not much has changed. I mentioned the doing away of the light meter but thats pretty much it. The AI remains clueless to monkey-smart mostly and all of Sam's moves and gadgets have retruned. There may be a few new items here and there but, for the most part, Sam's arsenal has returned, from his stick camera's to his sonic noise gun. What doesn't make any sense is why Sam gets his government-issued gear from the JBA. That said, all the controls are the same and anyone who has played a Splinter Cell game before will know what they are doing. Just remember, theres less darkness and this game is hard. I mean harder than CT. Before if you got caught and were shot at you could just whip out your automatic and hose down the enemies that saw you, now it seems like once you get caught, your dead. Which is weird because this one is supposed to be streamlined for more mainstreat gamers to play. One other thing I need to mention is the load times, those damn dreadful load times. I thought Chaos Theory had lengthy load times but those were only a hair over 10-15 seconds. In Double Agent you can be waiting 20-30 seconds for load times!, yes I timed it. This gets rather annoying but considering when your in the vast mission the only other times you wait are for saving and loading checkpoints. So I don't blame them because these levels are massive.

Suprisingnly, though, the multiplayer seems like it takes less time to load. This could be because the graphical quality isn't quite the same, for obvious reasons. Speaking of the multiplayer mode, its gotten a huge overhall. So this is what they added: 3 vs 3 (good), new maps (good), less gadgets (huh?), less guns for mercs (uhh bad?), and less modes (ok what the heck is going on here???). Now at first I thought the developers were being lazy and I hated the whole thing, but I've come to accept what they've done. Their goal was to make is easier for people new to the game, and they did a good job of it. But it also balances the game out pretty well. The loss of modes is unfortunete, but when you look back those were pretty unbalanced to begin with (people who played Pandora Tomorrow or Chaos Theory online know what I'm talking about, otherwise you don't need to worry). Granted, if you've played any Splinter Cell game online before you still will probably be better than anyone else new to them, but it does help out the game. Before spies could be aggresive and win, now everyone still wants to be spies but they can be taken out much more easily. Gone is their little electromagnetic gun replaced by a little arm band hacky thing. Spies can use this to turn off lights, which Upsilon forces can then turn back on, breack glass, neaturalize (turn off the flash light of) the enemy, and hack into terminals. Now the spies can not visioucly attack their enemies because they can no longer elbow butt them or jump on them and wait for them to wake up to jump on them and kill them. The upsilons now have a little safety time where they can escape from being jumped on and no longer die as easily. Spies can still break their necks but are meant to be much more stealthy. Each side can now only hold one gadget (4 in the previous ones with even more options). This truly does balance the game though. It helps spies not worry about pesky mines and focus on their new escape moves and such. I would say that it does seem a little unbalanced favoring the spies more though, but it is more equal than ever before. Now back to the gadgets, the upsilons have a drone which they can deploy while the spies can choose from smoke or flash grenades, a jammer, or a seringe (which gives the player or his allies life). Both sides have a vibration and sound that plays when they are close to an enemy, or if the spy throws a jammer down it tricks the upsilon into thinking a spy is there.

As for the multiplay game itself, as I said before, there is only 1 mode. This is where the spies must hack into any of the 4 terminals and retrieve 2 files. They are given 20 minutes and, in my opinion, it should be 3 files. This is because the spies can rush and get one early on and easily take thier time to retrieve the last one. The mercs need to stop them from hacking 100% of a file and have their automatic which doubles as a sniper rifle, 3 grenades, and 2 drones (which I think are useless) to kill the spies. The mercs can reload these things as the spies can reload their gadgets, but the mercs have unlimited bullets. They also have built in motion sensing to their visor, encouraging spies to stay hidden. The electromagnetic vision (you can see the spy when he uses his vision or wristband) and flashlight also make a return as well as the backwards move to knock down a spy and the rush attack for the merc. The mercs can also turn on lights and use their grappeling hook to go from the top floor to the bottom with ease. Since theres 3 spies and 3 mercs it makes it much harder for both to get around without being seen. The spies hack using their wrist band and the closer they are the faster their device downloads. A lot of the time people online won't even bother stopping a spy who gets a file but in co-op the bots seem to try to stop all the time. Anyway, there are about 9 levels (3 at first) which can be unlocked as you play more games and improve your stats (gadgets, stealth, etc.) for each side. Theres also now skins and bonus artwork which can be unlocked. What I really enjoy is the co-op mode. In Chaos Theory it was much more mission based, but now its like multiplayer mode except with bots. At first I hated the idea but when you play it you just fall in love with it. The rules are very similar only there are variatons. Like your shooting for points and there are unlimited respawns for mercs. Some missions require your team to retrieve as many files as possible, some want you to get as much information downloaded as possible, and some want you to retrieve 2 files with 1/4 at each of the four terminals (blue, yellow, red, and green). Then gold, silver, or bronze medals are given to your team based on what you accomplished accordingly. Theres also a double-agent mode where all 3 of you compete to retrieve 2 files the fastest. The co-op missions are seperated into 3 groups of difficulty with 6 or more missions each. All can be enjoyed and played over and over again while remaining fun (except the first 2 since their solo missions).

All in all this is one package of next-gen content truly worth $60 dollars (theres also a Collector's Edition for 70 bucks). Double Agent offers a truly next-gen approach and feel to the Splinter Cell series with evolving the single player mode and continiuing to make it enjoyable and making significant enchancements to the multiplayer mode which will keep you returning for more. I was going to rate this a 4/5 but due to the outstanding changes made to the multiplayer mode, I gave it a 5. So if your looking for ONLY a single player adventure, your still getting a solid game, but a lot of the meat is in the multiplayer mode.