October 30, 2006 - Let's get right to it shall we? The reason I loved the first Splinter Cell was because it allowed me to sneak around, take out lights, bathe in darkness and be nothing more than a shadow. Sure, the story was derivative and just an excuse to keep levels stringed together, but it worked. It was hard, it looked amazing and it was fun. It also spawned a whole sub-genre of action games. The second Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow, didn't tweak too much with the single player formula (which is good) and focused more on adding an incredible multiplayer mode, something that many considered impossible for this series. At the time, this mode was fresh, intricate and deep. Chaos Theory than came along and changed things a bit; it made the single player mode a little easier and gave you the option to simply shoot your way out of certain situations. This may seem like blasphemy, but it brought many new fans to the series simply because it was a more forgiving gameplay engine. Chaos Theory featured long single player levels, a half-decent story, some cool new mechanics and gadgets and a multiplayer mode that still felt fresh. Enter the Xbox 360 and Sam's Fisher's first new next-gen outing. You'd think things would have progressed for the better, but besides amazing graphics and the unparalleled audio (and voice-work), it seems that this series has taken a large step back. While Double Agent does feature the best story we've seen so far, everything else just seems like a shadow of what it used to be.

The biggest problem with Double Agent is that it forgets what makes the series good in the first place. Double Agent is too easy, too short, too dark, too claustrophobic and too boring. Gone are the light and sound sensors, the need to use any (and all) of Sam's cool moves and gadgets, the clear goal in each level, the sense of satisfaction from a stealthy kill, the need to sneak around in general, the useful training missions (there are some, but they aren't helpful at all), and most importantly, the sense that Sam Fisher is the world biggest bad-ass. The game begins right away with a critical mission. You won't really know what you're doing, where you're going or who your partner is, but that hardly matters. What you'll note early on is that the levels are densely populated with objects and that unless you go into the options' menu and turn up the brightness, you'll be hard-pressed to know where to go since the game is predominantly dark and navigation (there's usually only one way to go) is painful. You'll also note that the A.I. in the single player mode is wonderfully dumb and also that sneaking around is never really needed. Isn't this a Splinter Cell Game? At the end of the first level, a tragic event in Sam's life sends him into despair and next thing you know, he's in jail and the NSA is using him as a double agent. What follows is the story of one man doing one company's bidding while being trusted by another. The dynamic is great and the "trust" bar at the bottom of the screen is nice (it's fun to see what each action affects overall) but in the end you'll wish Double Agent played out less like an action game and more like the traditional stealth game it should be.

Over the course of the game you'll be working for the JBA, a glorified terrorist cell, while still in contact with the NSA and Lambert. Some levels will feel like The Chronicles of Riddick, some will feel almost like an open sandbox game a la GTA, others will feel like James Bond level and a few will even resound with echos of past Splinter Cell games. The last ones, the ones that actually involve the need to sneak around, are the best of the single player offerings, but they inevitably feel watered down and never live up to the great series' potential. All of Sam's previous moves are available, but where the split jump was almost necessary in the first game, it feels like a novelty in this one. Unfortunately, this is the case with all the usual trappings of the game. In the end, the single player mode is simply an exercise in futility which will leave casual fans wondering what made the series great and and veterans scratching their heads in hopes that the next level will be as good as it should really be. This is too bad since Double Agent does indeed feature the strongest narrative of any Sam Fisher outing yet, with great characters and amazing voice-acting, but simply not the gameplay to match what we've all come to expect.

The game also features a co-op mode which many would incorrectly assume to be the ability to go through the story with a second agent, but not so. The co-op is simply a series of challenges against A.I. bots mimicking the multiplayer mode. The multiplayer mode itself, which one would assume to be the saving grace of this title, has been stripped to one mode: Spies versus Mercs. The spies will always be trying to get to designated stations in the hopes of hacking them and downloading their data to bring back to their control drones. The mercs will always be protecting the stations and taking out the spies. The spies in Double Agent are veritable spider-man clones and have the ability to leap, climb, swing, and rappel over/under and around almost any obstacle. You'd assume the mercs would have their work cut out for them, but downloading data takes forever and while doing so, spies are basically sitting ducks. The mercs on the other hand play in a first person view and have access to weapons and a lovely female voice that keeps them appraised of what's happening at all times. The mode is fun the first few times you try it, but matches tend to be overly long and dull after a while. A second or third mode would have been great, heck, Pandora Tomorrow featured more multiplayer options and it was also more fun to play.