Double Agent

So, I caved in and bought Splinter Cell: Double Agent. I said I wasn't, or at least, that I only would if the reviews were great. Well, the reviews have been good, but we see a significant decline compared to how the last Splinter Cell game, Chaos Theory, was received, a game that earned almost perfect scores all around.

Throughout this game's development I have had my doubts. While I have enjoyed every previous SC game, watching all the gameplay videos of Double Agent did not convince me it was making the significant jump I was hoping for from the SC series. It looked very, very similar to the previous SC titles, recycling almost all of Sam's animations. It did not demand the attention a game like Gears of War does, one that stops you in your tracks and forces you to admire the next gen visuals. The jump also seemed minuscule compared to other Tom Clancy games like Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and Rainbow 6: Vegas.

Here are my impressions of Double Agent, through the first four levels of the single player game. I haven't touched multiplayer yet.

This game feels instantly familiar to SC vets. The controls are basically the same and the levels progress very similar to previous titles. The first few at least. You stick to shadows and try not to tip off the enemy of your whereabouts. The game gets interesting on your third mission, which plays out like no other Splinter Cell game before it. I'm not going to go into detail about the game's story, since that has been covered in countless previews and in all the reviews of the game, but I will say that the free roaming levels that take place in the JBA headquarters are a lot of fun and a breath of fresh air. I have only played one of them (I read there are about three of them) and my only negative about it is that you have a time limit in which to accomplish your tasks. This does add tension to the level, but, I have a serious problems with time limits in games. I hate them. Unless I am playing a racing game, I do not like being rushed through a level. To be fair, they do seem to give you plenty of time to complete all your objectives, but the fact that there is a limit bothers me.

Aside from that, so far, it has been standard Splinter Cell fare. The game is fun . . . and frustrating, as every SC has been before it. Sometimes it can pretty difficult to figure out exactly what you are supposed to do or go in a particular mission. Throw in a time limit (which I already mentioned I HATE!) and this can lead to some frustrating sections.

In the very first level you need to infiltrate a missile silo and disarm a missile that is set to launch. Once inside the silo you have a limited amount of time to figure out how to get to the missile, which you can see clearly, but need to navigate what feels like a maze of rafters and stairs to get to it. Then, to top it off, once you figure out how to get there, you then have about 60 seconds to escape before the entire place blows up! Tense? Yes, very. But mostly because you have no idea where you are going. The result? You need to play many sections over and over until you figure out what to do. Except that by that time, you've already played that section four times and it is no longer as tense or exciting as it should have been.

This has been the case with every Splinter Cell game. It is not even isolated to SC, it is an issue with the entire stealth genre. It can be very unforgiving and is only compounded by the fact that since you need to be sneaking around all the time, it takes extra long to get somewhere, so if you finally do die and have to do a large section over again, you just lost twenty minutes of gameplay. So you do it over, except now you know where all the enemy locations are so it is nowhere near as tense or fun as it was the first time. One solution is to save often. But that only helps in preventing you from playing long sections over, it still effectively kills a lot of the tension, since you always know if you mess up you can just load your game and try something else. It makes you not really have to think about your actions, since they don't really have consequence. Should you try to sneak past that guard and hack the commuter right behind him? Why not, if you mess up you can just load and try a different route. Like I said, this is not a problem with the Splinter Cell series as much as it is just with the genre. It is unfortunate.

So, what do I like about the game? Like I mentioned, it still plays like SC and that is not necessarily such a bad thing. The game has been fun so far and the story is actually decent and easy to follow this time. The game's trust system is pretty interesting as well, since depending on your actions you can gain or lose trust from both the NSA or the JBA (the terrorist group you are infiltrating). You also have to make some pretty harrowing decisions. Do you shoot the helpless News helicopter pilot in cold blood because the JBA asked you to? Doing so will help you gain their trust and secure your cover . . . but he is a civilian and it goes against your training.

Graphically the game is nice, but like I mentioned, I expected more from the Splinter Cell series. The original SC game on the Xbox was one of the most graphically impressive games for its time. The lighting effects were like no other game before it. Chaos Theory still stands in my opinion as the best looking game of the last generation (well, maybe tied with Resident Evil 4 for the Gamecube). So, needless to say, my expectations for a next gen SC were pretty high.

The graphics basically look like Chaos Theory to the second power. The textures are great. The lighting is great. The environments are great. But they are very familiar at the same time. And the biggest reason why is because of the recycled animation.

It definitely appears that Double Agent is using a heavily modified version of the Chaos Theory engine. Shame. I hate when a developer carries over a last gen engine for a next gen offering. Maybe I am jaded, or expecting too much from this generation, but there are many staples in games that I want to not see anymore. And this does not apply just to Double Agent, but to every next gen game out there. Developers need to re-think certain things and finally address some issues that have been around for far too long, which might seem small and insignificant, but I feel is what separates last generation games from the future of gaming. I do not just want higher poly models, high res textures, and improved lighting. Because all that does not equate to a next gen experience.

What am I talking about? Ok, an example from Double Agent. In this game, as has been the case in all SC games before, when Sam is going to interact with something, be it a door, a switch, a item on the ground, or a body, he "warps" into position to make sure the animation lines up properly. That was fine in the previous games, but I do not want to see it anymore. Developers need to develop a new animation system that will allow your character to seamlessly transition from one position to another without all the sliding on the ground and warping, because it looks ridiculous. No matter how photo-realistic you make the character or environments look, if the animation is not evolving with the rest of it, the game will fail to impress me.

Another gaming staple that I want to see done away with: the way characters walk up and down stairs. I want their damn feet and walking animation to change and I want every step from the character to actually land on a step, and not just have them slowly ascend diagonally as they use their regular walking animation. The little details people, the little details!

I guess I am saying that I think animation has been seriously overlooked so far in this next generation. I think I have had this rant before, and it was not my intention to go into now, but animation in my eyes is way more important than textures or special effects if you want to impress me. Give me a game that looks exactly like Chaos Theory did, only implement a system that blends all animations seamlessly, with no awkward transitions and everything flows with absolute realism and I'll take it over Double Agent's visuals any day.

Ok, I just bashed SC: Double Agent huh? That was not my intention. What I meant to say when I started writing these impressions, is that SC is . . . well, it is a SC game. It looks better than any before it, and plays better than any before it. I just expected more of an evolution in its jump to the 360, instead of the baby steps it seems to have taken.

I want a new engine for the next game ok Ubisoft? It is exclusive to the 360, so build it to take full advantage of the hardware.

Ok, all that after only four levels. I've heard the game really picks up at the end. Now watch I end up completely loving the game and saying it is the best 360 game I have played. :P

I'll post further impressions as I advance through it.