Splinter Cell Double Agent

Splinter Cell is a highly respected series that continues its legacy with a radical addition of “Double Agent” to its library. Although the idea of playing as a double agent is an interesting concept, many had second thoughts when it was first introduced into the Splinter Cell universe. So far, everything Ubisoft has shown us of the new title has been outstanding. The game looks amazing and the promises and ideas that Ubi has leaked seem to make for a sure winner.

The team at Ubisoft Shanghai is really out there changing our perception of what a Splinter Cell game is. The Double Agent elements of the game revolve around Sam Fisher infiltrating a terrorist cell operating inside the United States. From there you will be given objectives from both the terrorists and Third Echelon. It is up to you which objectives you fulfill; consequently building your own Sam Fisher, the more missions you complete for the terrorists, the happier it makes them - the more objectives you accomplish for the Echelon, the better you get along with them. Basically, the gameplay is like a seesaw which you have to balance based on who you want happier. Ubisoft is also introducing decision making aspects that will require you to rationalize, keeping the future in mind; would you kill an innocent hostage so you can save thousands of people further down the line?

The E3 footage that was shown recently hints that the game uses the Chaos Theory engine with additional features that couldn’t be added due to the original Xbox’s hardware limitations. One of the levels is showing Sam Fisher swimming under ice and it looks simply amazing – the ice reflections are spectacular and you can even see your enemies walking on top of you in a realistically-distorted way. At the same time, the other mission that was shown at E3 was a daytime operation, another radical change for the series. Although Pandora Tomorrow did include a light-dusky mission in the jungle, it is still far from the desert, hot sun, mission that was shown for Double Agent.

The HUD has also been totally revamped, or rather pretty much removed from the screen. Your light sensor that is seen in every Splinter Cell game is now in the form of a light indicator placed on Sam’s back and is a very unique and intuitive way to tell the player how hidden you are. You will also quickly notice that some missions won’t include Sam’s goggles, nor will he have Echelon’s futuristic weapons and tools when doing missions for the terrorist cell. The E3 footage did show that some of the guns include heat sensor/night vision in their scopes and it would seem that the developers don’t want to completely take away the abilities that built the Splinter Cell success formula, they simply want to mix it up a bit.