Sneak Saturday| Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Version 2)

 

Image Credit: Xbox

Welcome back after a short hiatus on my reviews to another Sneaky Saturday. Continuing on from Chaos Theory I played through Version 2  of  Splinter Cell: Double Agent the forgotten Xbox and PS2 port that many people except for fans of the series overlook as not many people know that it is in fact a different game from the version most experienced on the 360, PS3, and PC. The version that we are reviewing today is Ubisoft Montreal's version that continues much of the gameplay setup from its predecessor and feels similar to all of the original trilogy of splinter cell. Overall the game feels like a true sequel to Chaos Theory in many ways but also makes some weird steps back in other parts. Lets dive into this review! (Reviewed on Xbox Series X backwards Compatibility with Series X Enhancements)

The story feels like a tonal shift from large scale military espionage to a more subdued 24 like terrorism plot that an undercover Sam has to find out and then foil. This game also focuses more on Sam as a character as the story is told through a debrief after the operation was complete and reacting to the major moral choices the player makes involving saving or killing characters or allowing the terrorists to carry out their plans or foiling them from within. I personally experienced the "Good" path choosing to foil and save many characters and showing restraint to keep NPCs in the levels unconscious rather than killing them. The way the game reacts to your choices is very paper thin as it has a binary alignment system of either the terrorists or the NSA trusting you more but we'll talk more on that in the gameplay section. For a quick summary this game's story takes place in late 2008 after Sam's daughter Sarah is killed by a drunk driver. Lambert gives this assignment to Sam as he no longer has anything left to lose and as a chance to grieve his daughter and get back to work. Sam is thrown in undercover at a high security prison in Kansas to befriend a member of John Brown's Army (JBA) and infiltrate their organization. Once in the game takes you to many locations including Congo, Mexico, and Russia. 

The gameplay is very similar to Chaos Theory just the HUD has had some changes and I feel it is clunkier than in Chaos Theory. The major change is now there is a morality system that is determined by how you play and which objectives you choose to complete. Killing enemies rather incapacitating them will move your trust closer to JBA than the NSA and vice versa. The morality system determines what gear and how much ammo you receive in a mission more trust with the JBA will net you better equipment and more NSA gives you less gear and ammo as it designed to be the stealthier playstyle than the JBA. The morality system is very easy to exploit as if it reaches one side completely you have to send a signal from a laptop to prove your loyalty to the other side and never has major consequences. I mainly played with high NSA trust as I felt it was the right way to play making the "good" decision in most circumstances. Also the beginning half felt way more linear than Chaos Theory but the second half reminded me a lot of Chaos Theory in their design. Overall this game plays almost identical to Chaos Theory without any innovation to the gadgets, but if it ain't broke why try to fix it?

Finally the music one of the low points for me personally as it just didn't feel as present as it was in Chaos Theory and pulled me out in most of the cases there are a few good tracks but nothing standout like Chaos Theory. Overall the sounds are very similar but has some outliers. The VA's definitely deserve some praise as they are the main thing that kept me engaged as they made the JBA so despicable that it drove me to want to see how the plot progressed and what Sam would eventually do to them culminating the in the final mission telling us to kill all the JBA and even saying that your score wouldn't be negatively impacted by the kills. Sam and Lambert's actors really do a great job in making the game a more personal story for Sam and pulling us through Sam's sorrow and anger that lead him through the story.

Overall this game pulls many great parts from the previous entry but really fails to innovate in the way its predecessors all did. This game has a great story and feels like a good step as you can only save the world so many times and focusing more on a domestic threat over an external one feels like a great move to prevent staleness in the story. This game has earned a 3/5 as it feels great to play but doesn't innovate and feels more linear at times than Chaos Theory but is a decent follow-up to such a great game that still is seen by many as a genre defining game. What are the best or worst tonal shift in any series you can remember? Leave it in the comments below!

Thank You for reading!