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Friday, August 26, 2011

Splinter Cell: Double Agent Review

Written 01/08/2010
Note: This review is written for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video taken from my machine.
With the release of Splinter Cell: Conviction just a month away, I've decided to pick up its predecessor, Double Agent, to get caught up on the series' story before launch day. Luckily for me, I caught it on sale on Steam for just $5. Was it worth it though? Well, yes and no. This review is mainly intended for those who plan on picking up Conviction without any intention of playing Double Agent first. So there may be some spoilers in the Story section. You have been warned.

Visuals and Presentation

For a game that was released in late 2006, Double Agent looks quite pretty. In the display menu I discovered you could set the game to run in either Standard or Next Generation mode. During the credits, I learned that the Standard mode ran the game in the Unreal Engine 2; which is in the same technological time-frame as the PS2, original Xbox, and PCs over at least three or four years old. The Next Generation mode ran the game in the Unreal Engine 3, which is in the same technological time-frame as the PS3, 360, and any mid-range PC found on the market today. Basically, if you can run Unreal Tournament 3 with decent settings, then you can run Double Agent in Next Generation mode.

I didn't test the game in Standard mode, but I played through it entirely in Next Generation mode. If you can run it like that, Double Agent can be a real treat to look at. The lighting effects and shadows, which have always been at the heart of the Splinter Cell series, look great and really add to the atmosphere of the game as a whole while still acting as an excellent gameplay mechanic. Another thing that really helps Double Agent presentation-wise over the other Splinter Cell titles that I've played is the variety of places Sam Fisher finds himself in. Over the course of the storyline missions, you travel to China, Africa, and America just to name a few locales. Each area feels distinct and well crafted, which keeps things fresh. The only real complaint I have with the presentation is when you don't have your night-vision goggles handy. On one level, not having them is not a problem because it takes place during the day. On another level though, which you revisit four times throughout the game, not having night-vision makes life nearly impossible in certain critical areas of the map. Overall, the game looks quite good considering its age.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:4 Star
Sound

First and foremost, if you want to hear this game...at all...turn your volume up to double what it usually is. The audio in Double Agent is output at such a low volume you can't even hope to hear it if you set your speakers to their normal levels. That aside, the voice acting in Double Agent is what you would hope for. Cheese is non-existent in the dialog, and one small conversation in particular between two terrorists should not be missed for humor's sake. Sam Fisher's voice is reprized by Michael Ironside, like in every other Splinter Cell title, and it just wouldn't be the same without him. It's really quite surprising you don't hear his voice in more games outside of the Splinter Cell series, but I suppose to each their own. General sounds are also what you would expect. Weapons with silencers on them are adequately, well, silent; and unsuppressed weapons draw enough attention with the noise they make.

The music is nothing to write home about, but it definitely serves its purpose in creating the mood for certain situations and excellent at heightening tension. For the most part, the music remains so subtle that you hardly even notice it. When an unaware enemy approaches Sam's position though, the music becomes louder and much more serious the closer the enemy comes to Sam. If an enemy does discover Sam, the music almost reaches the intensity of a James Bond action scene as he loudly calls out for backup. Combine the music with the nice voice acting, and you've got yourself a pretty decent audio package. Just be sure to turn your sound up!

Sound Rating: 3.5 Star
Gameplay

This, like every other Splinter Cell title, is a stealth game. It's not a stealth-action game or any other hybrid variation you wish to come up with. Sure, you have a gun and can choose to go out shooting, but you're going to end up frustrated from constantly reloading because you're frequently going to be dead. Your best friends in Double Agent are your bare hands, gadgets, distractions, and your brain. Patience is also a must, because without it you're going to end up eating dirt...again. The game will also put you in countless situations to remind you of that very fact. Quite often, you'll enter an area that can be completely wiped of enemies if you plan everything right, but if you're seen, you don't even have time to pull out your weapon before you're getting a bullet surprise.

At other times, there's no possible way of eliminating even one enemy without being seen. On those occasions, you have to employ everything at your disposal to reach your goal without drawing the least bit of attention to yourself. That's not to say you can't safely draw attention elsewhere. Throw a can or bottle near some enemies and the noise will attract their attention away from their posts, giving you precious seconds to slip by unnoticed. You can also use your pistol's EMP function to temporarily plunge the room into darkness and simply walk past the opposition as they flounder around in the dark trying to get the lights back on.

Stability-wise, Double Agent is very hit or miss. During my play time, the game crashed at least 10 times, but actually closer to the 15-20 range. I'm unsure if I should credit those crashes to faulty programing by Ubisoft, or the fact that I'm running the game on Windows 7 and through Steam. Either way, definitely something to look out for.



Gameplay Rating:4 Star
Story

Unlike the other Splinter Cell titles in the series, Double Agent is not simply a random assortment of missions Sam undertakes with little to no connection between them. At the beginning of the game, Sam is heading to (if I remember right) Russia to ascertain if a certain terrorist group has acquired a nuclear weapon and disable it if that is indeed the case. After disarming the weapon and extracting, Sam is informed that his daughter, Sarah, was killed in what seemed to be a hit-and-run incident. Without anything left to lose, Sam takes on the most dangerous mission of his life; to infiltrate one of the world's most dangerous terrorist organizations. After purposely landing himself in prison and breaking out a member of the terrorist organization, the JBA, Sam finds himself at their headquarters in New York and joining their ranks.

It is at this point that the story progression is in your hands. In each mission, you're given objectives from both the JBA and NSA. At times you can complete the objectives of both organizations without drawing suspicion from either, but there are also times when you must choose who's cause to support because objectives from each organization are completely opposite from each other. Do you choose to kill innocent civilians in order to prove your loyalty to the terrorists and put your motives in question with the NSA, or do you spare the civilians and risk blowing your cover with the terrorists? Choices like this and others change how people feel about you and how much they trust you. They can also effect how the game ends entirely and if a certain mission is available to you at all. It all leads up to an ending that sets up the story for Splinter Cell: Conviction excellently.

Story Rating:4 Star
Replay Value

Replayability in Double Agent is definitely its weakest point. While the story is better-than-average by a bit, there are some pretty cool moments in the missions, and the gameplay is mostly solid, the game just doesn't have enough impact to make me want to play it over again. The frequent crashes are also a big factor in why I won't be giving Double Agent another go; though I don't know if it was simply an issue with Windows 7, Steam, or just bad programing. It was a good ride the first time through, but not so much afterwards.

Replay Value Rating: 1.5 Star

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

Splinter Cell: Double Agent is not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, but it's also not a completely world-shatteringly awesome one either. It provides a good story with solid gameplay if you can survive the crashes. It's available for nearly every system known to man, even GameCube; but you'll have the most luck finding it for PC (system requirements below) with online retailers such as Steam and Direct2Drive, considering its age. The only time I've recently seen a console version of the game was a few months ago at my local Blockbuster. If you see the game for $5 to $10, consider giving it a try; it's worth the nominal cost.

Splinter Cell: Double Agent Overall Score:4 Star



PC Minimum System Requirements:
Supported OS: Microsoft Windows® XP
Processor: 3 Ghz Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 3000 (3.5 Ghz Pentium 4 or Athlon 3500 recommended) - Game optimized for dual-processor-enabled computers.
System Memory: 1 GB or above (1.5 GB recommended)
Video Card: DirectX 9.0c-compliant, Shader 3.0-enabled 128 MB video card (256 MB recommended) (see supported list*)
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c-compatible (EAX recommended) - PC audio solution containing Dolby Digital Live required for Dolby Digital audio.
DirectX Version: DirectX® version 9.0c or higher
Hard Disk: 8 GB available hard disk space
Multiplay: Broadband connection with 128 kbps upstream or faster
*Supported video cards at time of retail release: Single Player: ATI X1300 / X1600 / X1800 / X1900, NVIDIA 6200 / 6600 / 6800 / 7300 / 7600 / 7800 / 7900 | Multiplayer: ATI X1600 / X1800 / X1900, NVIDIA 6600 / 6800 /7300 / 7600 / 7800 / 7900  

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