There are just some things that never change. The sky will always be blue, Christmas will always be a great family gathering, and Splinter Cell games will never stop impressing us gamers. Released for the Xbox 360, as well as a multitude of other platforms, the latest game in the popular Splinter Cell series has taken the videogame industry by the throat in typical Sam Fisher fashion. So does it improve on Chaos Theory? Does it take the series into new areas and new heights of excitement? For the most part yes, except for a few issues in the single player; Splinter Cell: Double Agent is almost the best Splinter Cell game out there.
Like the past two Splinter Cell titles, Double Agent is split into two sections, single player and multiplayer. Where before these two modes complimented each other in terms of playability and feel, Double Agent takes on a whole new approach. There is hardly anything similar about the two modes except that spies are present in both. Beyond that they are pretty much two different games, and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
The single player in Double Agent is typical of what one would expect to find in a Splinter Cell game. Player’s take the role of Sam Fisher as he once again single handedly tries to stop another national crisis, and protect the good 'ole USA with his vast array of badass gadgets, moves, and attitude. But something is different about Sam this time around, and we only get to learn what it is after the opening level. Sam’s daughter has been killed, and veterans of the series will realize just how much of an impact this is on Sam. She was the one normal part of is life, the part that kept him sane as he went off and killed numerous men, and fought for his country. Now he has nothing to live for, and as such, takes on the most dangerous mission of his career, infiltrating and joining a terrorist cell while at the same time working with the NSA.
As a result almost all the missions throughout the game have Sam working for the terrorist group known as John Brown’s Army, while at the same time completing objectives for the NSA. He rarely wears the trademark spy suit, and the funny comments and jokes he makes with Lambert are gone. They will all be missed. Sticking Sam in the double role as the terrorist as well as undercover agent is an interesting twist for Sam’s character but it doesn’t do the game, as a whole, any justice. Gamers are going to miss just being Sam Fisher. He isn’t as cocky, as calm, or as confident as usual. It’s these things that made Sam...Sam. The whole experience of being a splinter cell just isn’t as satisfying or as cool as any of the previous Splinter Cell games. You can feel how Ubisoft wanted to do something new with the franchise, and it is evident in Sam as well as the levels that gamers are going to sneak through.
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