Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Xbox360)

If Sam Fisher did have hair, it would be turning grey by now. Since debuting in 2001, Splinter Cell has proven itself a game that can hang with the best of the big boys in spandex. Relying more on its action and story than cut-scenes, Double Agent proves that with a little fine-tuning you can make one of the best games for the Xbox 360. The game happens to have some of the best multiplayer around, too.

The fun of Double Agent comes from knowing and using your surroundings, since avoiding capture is the highest priority in every mission. Double Agent starts out with Sam Fisher going on a simple mission to defuse a bomb with a rookie agent. Things don’t go as planned, however, and Sam finds himself on the brink of a breakdown. To help ease the pain, Sam is put undercover within a terrorist organization preparing to detonate nuclear weapons in the United States.

Your goal is to find out as much as possible about JBA (John Brown’s Army), which is the terrorist group, and try to actually fit in with them, all while performing reconnaissance missions for the NSA. This is when things get interesting. There is a "trust meter" in Double Agent. If you do a botched job for either side, you will lose all trust and ultimately fail the game. Getting caught in restricted areas of JBA's headquarters and killing people you aren’t supposed to kill affects your trust with both the NSA and JBA. Apparently, Ubisoft loves acronyms as much as we do.

Although the idea of letting the player decide what he wants to do is a novel one, the trust meter really doesn’t play that big a role overall. Even though you could easily fail the game for breaking the simplest of rules, it is quite easy to avoid catastrophe. The missions are broken up into three basic categories: Primary objectives, which are required to complete the mission, secondary objectives, which gain you more trust with a certain group, and alternative or profile objectives, which basically act as a way to identify the JBA’s highest members.

The secondary and alternative objectives never really do anything to advance the plot. What they do grant you is a small gain in trust. Not completing these periphery missions has no effect on the core game. Still, doing some of them will net you star-objective points, which can unlock new gadgets after each mission. The primary objectives are where the whole point of the trust meter comes into play. Some primary objectives have you choosing to gain trust for the JBA or NSA. Whichever side you choose, you lose a substantial amount of trust with the other. Although you may lose nearly half of your trust for one side, it is never enough to actually fail the game. You could easily make it back by doing some secondary and alternate tasks throughout the game. The amount of forgiveness within this gameplay system is a bit disappointing.

It’s moments like these that make the game worth playing, though: hanging onto the ledge of a high-rise in Shanghai while trying to hide in shadow from strapped enemies and a hovering helicopter. Double Agent is also very accessible for newcomers to the stealth genre. The game prompts you when you need to use certain devices. If you are high on a ledge, it will give you the option to rappel down.

Whatever the situation, there is always a surprising method to dispose of your enemies. Of course, since Sam Fisher works for the NSA, killing should be kept to a minimum. That’s when you whip out his sticky shockers and zap enemies to sleep. Although killing them is much easier (and often causes you to fail some secondary objectives), it does attract a lot of attention, which is why using your non-lethal weapons, or just avoiding everyone all-together, is still the best choice.

The biggest improvements in the Splinter Cell series are the visuals and the overall presentation. The amount of detail in some of the levels is astonishing, and Sam Fisher looks almost real. The locations are a breath of fresh air, as well, and some levels, such as Shanghai, fully capture the power of which the Xbox 360 is capable. While a few characters and locations lack flair and intensity, Double Agent on the 360 is a complete visual step above its predecessors. But even with the graphical power to show off the true power of the game, both Xbox versions looks very similar, with the 360 version looking slightly better in minor details and overall polish.

The multiplayer and co-op have also been revamped to allow a much more evenly paced experience. The premise is the same as the multiplayer from Pandora Tomorrow, in that the team of spies must try to locate and activate a set of markers while the heavily armed mercenaries must try to stop them. To make things more interesting, the matches are now 3-on-3, resulting in a faster, more intense online portion. Co-op is definitely a cool addition, as players can now engage in special acrobatic maneuvers and even double-team a mercenary. The Xbox version, however, feels somewhat superior to its next gen brethren in the co-op aspects, as it includes more levels and gadgets. The multiplayer is one of the highlights in Double Agent, and future games in the series shouldn’t tinker too much with this formula. The online play finally feels fair for novice and hardcore players alike.

Splinter Cell Double Agent is a solid game with an excellent multiplayer component. Fans of a gripping storyline which includes intense action and “stealthy stealth” will no doubt enjoy this game.