Your name is Agent Fisher, your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to go undercover and stop the elite Terrorist group JBA (John Brown’s Army) from setting off a bomb that is sure to mimic the effects of the September 11th attack on this country. Wait this is Splinter Cell not Mission Impossible! Anyhow, Ubisoft has once again released an amazing addition to our Xbox 360 library. This time it comes in the form of Splinter Cell: Double Agent and it is both everything you would expect from a game in this series and, at the same time, something totally new and different. The Splinter Cell franchise is what old school Xbox fans remember as one of those gems that really put the Microsoft console on the map. The first time around the graphics were like nothing ever seen before and the gameplay was just plain innovative. With a start like that it is hard to imagine the series getting any better but it just did; with Double Agent you get to finally play both the good guy and the bad guy (your choice). When Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter was released it was easily the best 360 game at that time, now we have another game from the mind of Tom Clancy and it is easily as good, if not better than G.R.A.W. I advise you to read the rest of this review to find out what makes this game so spectacular but if you are like me and have no patience just go pick it up, then come back and read the review, you will not be disappointed.
The gameplay style of the Splinter Cell games has always been something that has been cherished by gamers and copied by developers. Although Splinter Cell: Double Agent would fit under the action genre of gaming it is more on par with games like Metal Gear Solid and other games that focus on sneaking more than shooting. That said if you come into this game expecting a Ghost Recon or Quake IV type game you will be disappointed, but if you come into this game knowing exactly what time of game it is you will see that this is easily the best title of this sub-genre ever created. The story mode has always been the bread and butter of the Splinter Cell franchise; this time around Ubisoft has done no differently. Sam Fisher must take on his most dangerous mission yet and while doing so he must also choose between good and evil. These decisions you make throughout the game (interactive cut scene’s) will have an impact on how the ending of the storyline plays out. Speaking of storyline, it is great. The acting and voiceovers are top notch this time around and the story itself just draws you into Sam’s world and really makes you care what is happening. All of the levels, besides the JBA HQ levels, are very similar to what we have come to expect from the Splinter Cell type games. You have a few missions to complete and during gameplay you proceed to different areas in the level (sneaking of course) and complete those specific tasks. The tasks range from bugging a satellite on the roof to assassinating a former CIA agent, it is all here and the different styles of tasks add a much-needed uniqueness to each of the levels.
The levels themselves are designed amazingly, everything from the Shanghai level (my personal favorite, for obvious reasons) to the outdoor African level will literally make you say to yourself “this game is freaking amazing”. There are some levels with the close quarters gameplay but others (Ice level) that are wide open with multiple routes and passageways to explore. Enough has been said about the level design but Double Agent has some of the best levels I have seen in a video game in my lifetime. I mentioned earlier the JBA HQ levels, these levels are something new to the Splinter Cell franchise because they for one take place inside the enemy head-quarters, something usually left out of previous games. Also Sam Fisher is supposed to be there (a never before tried aspect of a level in Splinter Cell), well in certain parts of the building I mean. You have a time limit to complete a list of tasks and you can finish these in any order as long as you complete the main task assigned to you. Throughout the entire game you will have three shots at the JBA HQ to finish as many missions as possible and they range from gather intel on the terrorists, to fingerprinting the terrorists, to building landmines for the next mission. Although I didn’t personally find these levels to be more fun than the normal levels they are a nice addition to the game and just allow the storyline to flow better, plus it is something new and new is always good. Splinter Cell: Double Agent is pretty damned hard, even on the easiest setting you will find yourself replaying specific parts of levels over and over again until you figure out the right way to go about doing things. There is no one right or one wrong way to go though a level, from the beginning Ubisoft had told us that while Splinter Cell is a fairly unilateral game they wanted to give the gamer the option to either A) shoot out the light bulb, take the elevator shaft to the roof, knock out the guards, and scale the side of the building back down to the basement while never being seen once, or B) shoot the guard at the elevator, take the stairs to the roof, break the guards necks, and then proceed to shoot your way back to the basement. Both options will work; it really depends on how you want to play the game.
