Splinter Cell: Double Agent (GameCube) Review

The Tom Clancy branch of games has certainly reinvented itself this generation. It was previously thought of as primarily the domain of the PC with any console conversions suffering from overly complex controls and a generally poor gameplay experience. Now we have the likes of Rainbow Six looking at home on consoles and the Splinter Cell series combining the realism of the Clancy world with the playability of a console action game. For many Chaos Theory was the epitome of the franchise with all the aspects refined brilliantly and graphics that were simply stunning, so to change things Ubi Soft decided to turn the whole series on it's head by handing the gamer more power than ever before. Now you choose which side Sam obeys, you choose which objectives to complete and you choose what path the plot takes. Well at least in theory, you see...being a double agent turns out to be a very familiar experience.
On a regular mission Sam and a fellow Splinter Cell discover that a nuclear device has slipped into terrorist hands, however the mission is cancelled close to the end as Sam's daughter has been killed in a car accident. Sam decides to go renegade along with his boss and become a double agent, infiltrating the organisation by winning a terrorist ally in prison and helping said ally break out. Very risky, very dangerous... but Sam has nothing left to live for so may as well take the most dangerous missions left. Upon infiltrating he finds out that the NSA now know of the action and will supply objectives of their own to complete. The idea is that you have to try and balance the wants of the terrorists and the NSA without attracting suspicion or ignoring either. Ignore the NSA and you'll essentially lose all respect and get killed. Ignore the terrorists and you die.

In reality though it doesn't work like this, because the entire alliance system is simply not refined enough. The way it works is that in each mission you'll have a list of objectives for whichever organisation you are working for. Within this there will be one or two objectives that you can do in differing ways. For example, an early mission has you discover a traitor within the terrorist ranks. The NSA want it the info to try and use him themselves, the terrorists want it to kill him and make him an example. Whichever one you choose will swing your allegiances to the terrorists or the NSA. Whichever one you swing towards will adjust the missions you play and the equipment you get. The problem is if you play through normally then inevitably you'll sit with zero allegiances and get the neutral ending, and the game rewards this by giving you the pick of equipment.
Another problem is that whether or not you work for the terrorists or the NSA the gameplay stays the same as previous games in the series. There are one or two new mechanics and new moves but it's pretty much indistinguishable from Chaos Theory. Most missions still have you sneaking around, minimizing casualties and getting to a computer or something similar to transmit info or destroy it. This would be fine if we hadn't already had three games displaying this gameplay but when the potential was there for a genuinely different gameplay experience, well it disappoints slightly. There are new parts when you can influence a cutscene through button presses (think Shenmue QTE's) but these are few and far between and only act as set piece cutscenes between the traditional Splinter Cell gameplay. Perhaps it's time to look at the series and really renovate it for the next iteration...

Only a fool would think that this version would have the same time and love given to it as the Xbox 360/PS2 version. We know this will have been rushed in comparison and as a result will not be as polished and not make full use of the hardware. However that is no excuse for the frankly embarrassing graphics on show that detract hugely from the atmosphere that the series is famous for. Textures are simply laughable and character models are hilarious. You rarely see Sam's face in game but when you do he looks like he's had one too many cans of Red Bull and is just a bit hyper. Eyes wide open and mouth slightly ajar, compared to the concept art he looks like a different person. The aforementioned poor textures really have to be seen to be believed but trust us when we say that N64 quality is no exaggeration. Imagine standing and being baffled as to how to climb to a window, before squinting at the screen and seeing that the drain pipe is so poorly drawn against the poor looking wall that you can't see it. Incidences like this crop up all through the game and whilst we at Cubed3 do not judge games solely on graphics it's clearly a major problem when a game so relying on atmosphere has graphics so poor that it affects gameplay. There's really no excuse for it as well, Chaos Theory had better graphics... hell Pandora Tomorrow looks better. The soundtrack is as impressive as ever with subtle use to heighten tension and superb use of no music at all at times to truly unsettle the gamer. Voice acting is of a very high quality and the various "guard chatter" whilst similar to Chaos Theory does the job superbly.

The Splinter Cell series (whilst successful) is in no way consistent. The first was sublime, Pandora Tomorrow was poor and Chaos Theory marked a return to form. The signs were that this could be a new era for the series, back-to-back impressive games and with an intriguing new double agent system. Alas we have another disappointment with no change in gameplay, an allegiance system that is easily manipulated and graphics that show this up for the poor port that it is. That's not to say it's a bad game, if you enjoy the series then it offers a similar experience... it's just we were promised so much more. And even if you do enjoy the game it's sad to say but the GC version is probably the worst port you could pick up, Ubi Soft have always been great supporters of the GC but this is a very sad way for them to sign out of GameCube development. Do yourself a favour and pick up Chaos Theory cheap if you need a stealth fix, you'll save money and show Ubi that we deserve more than half assed ports of above average games.