Overview

There are times like this when we believe that everything is tirelessly linked for the worse. At the NSA, they thought they had lost one of their best elite agents. The tragic death of his daughter, after having sent him to the edge of the abyss, will push Sam Fisher to accept an oh so delicate mission: to change sides. He who served Echelon 3 for many years finds himself, after a stint in the cold, plunged into the heart of John Brown's Army, a terrorist organization like there are hundreds of them today. Finding out what the group is up to, and at the same time stemming the threat, will often be the demands of the NSA, while the JBA will not hesitate to put Sam in charge of primary goals as to their ultimate goal: to purify the United States by blood.

This is the heart of the staging of Splinter Cell: Double Agent. Always torn between his duty as an agent in the service of great America and that of a successful infiltration unit which, in the long term, would thoroughly cleanse an underground group as powerful as it is dangerous, the player must make tough choices. To spice up an already appreciable story, even more, the developers have set up a trust system. Two gauges, representing the credit granted by the JBA and by the NSA, are present throughout the adventure. The best way to gain the trust of a third party is to meet the stated objectives anyway. However, when the goals are poles apart or very risky (for its coverage or its image with the NSA), it is a lot of information, and even lives that must be sacrificed. A situation that is found both in the missions and in the interludes taking place at the JBA HQ. For example, you have to choose between letting an explosion occur or preventing it by going to sabotage equipment in the forbidden quarters of the HQ. The gauges are the same throughout the adventure and zeroing one of the two immediately leads to a game over. However, it is just as possible to play her a secret agent as, to a certain extent, a traitor. Double Agent also offers three alternative endings, undeniably increasing interest.

Gameplay

Double Agent or not, Sam remains a trained undercover agent. Alone against all, or almost, the player must therefore play it as finely as possible. Splinter Cell's recipe is the same since the first opus, to be as discreet as possible. Staying in the shadows, sneaking behind the backs of the guards, hiding the bodies of enemies knocked out or killed, our hero's daily life is as varied as ever. The systems of picking locks or hacking a computer remain in the continuity of what we knew. Why change a winning formula? For the first time in a Splinter Cell, the player is repeatedly plunged into open-world levels, with a list of objectives to accomplish as they see fit.

On the other hand, in terms of movements, Sam is still as restrictive. Impossible to run while armed, just as it is not feasible to crawl when you want to. As this was not enough, the camera tends to be too close to friends Sam and hides the action somewhat. So, of course, it is characteristic of the series to go through a menu for actions relating to the environment (hiding under a bed, in a cupboard, picking a lock). Still, a little more flexibility would have been useful. Everything related to high-tech weaponry and equipment (graciously offered by an NSA confident in its cowboy) is used in the great tradition of action games.

Graphics

The animation, and more generally the technical part of the title are not left out by offering protagonists alive and well modelled with precision. Larger and more open environments, often enhanced by the appropriate logical weather conditions (snow in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, rain in Shanghai during the abseiling of a skyscraper), reinforce the immersive homogeneity of the whole and will eventually convince the most players.

Conclusion

Failing to be revolutionary Double Agent is an excellent first foray on the Xbox 360 and a great game that any undercover enthusiast can get their hands on blindfolded.