Why? Just... why?
1. Splinter Cell was an incredible series that kept getting better, culminating in the masterpiece that is Chaos Theory.
2. It had new ideas like undercover missions.
3. It might just be the first stealth game to incorporate morality and choice, which was previously reserved for RPGs.
4. The game's installer was a whopping 11 gigabytes, making it the single largest game I owned at the time.
5. Should all else fail, my sheer love for the previous three games made me give Double Agent far more leeway than it deserved.
At first glance, Splinter Cell Double Agent looks to be the best game ever!! Then, you start playing it. It's all downhill from there.
First, the good stuff, little though there is. The voice acting is pretty decent and the graphics are alright. That's it. That's all the positive stuff I have to say about this game.
On to the bad stuff. First and foremost, the game crashes CONSTANTLY! It will look for any freaking excuse to crash, no matter how good your computer is. In fact, early in the game there is a snow level that gives you blue screens of death unless you fix the game's shoddy coding yourself. This makes the level simply impossible unless you google a solution. Unfortunate for me, I DID find a solution, so I was able to go back to playing this trash. Did Ubisoft test this game at all before releasing it? Though, after experiencing the core gameplay, I can't really blame them for not wanting to subject their testers to this filth.
The gameplay itself can best be described as a "downgrade". The lighting-based stealth that played a huge role in the first three has been replaced by a rudimentary cover system. Light still plays a small role, in the form of a "yes or no" light on your hud that tells you whether or not you are concealed in shadows. However, even though the light hardly ever says you are concealed, even when it does, enemies can still spot you from a mile away, so just ignore it. What this leads to is a boring and dated experience that has you ducking behind conveniently (and not-so-conveniently) placed objects to keep enemies from seeing you. But after you play the undercover missions, you'll be praying for the backwards gameplay of the other missions.
The undercover missions have you inside a terrorist base trying to blend in whilst also completing sabotage missions for the good guys. At the start, the terrorists will give you some kind of busywork to do like making bombs. After you do that, you have a set amount of time to go around the base and do various tasks to gain trust for both sides. The problem is that alot of these tasks are just more busywork. Like getting a high score at a shooting range or collecting files on various terrorists. But fail to do any of them and the faction that assigned it to you will start to distrust you. Lose all trust with one of the factions and the game is over. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
There are many story objectives in undercover missions that play a crucial role in the plot. Many of them require you to go into areas where you can't be seen by the terrorists or you will lose trust. This wouldn't be so bad if you knew what you were supposed to do! The terrorist lair is huge, and the only clue you have to find your way around is the world's worst 3D map. It only displays a little dot in the general direction of your objective, not accounting for factors like depth. This is a huge issue, because it makes it easy to get lost due to the corridors all being see-through (in the map), devoid of any recognizable landmarks, and filled with security doors. It is a sheer pain to finally figure out where you're supposed to go only to encounter a security door that requires you to scour the base looking for a fingerprint or voice recording or some crap like that from a person with clearance. All the while, the clock is still ticking. In short, you will learn to dread these awful missions.
There's not really much more to say about Double Agent. There's a safe-cracking minigame you can engage in, but 90% of the time, the controls don't even work at all. The story is forgettable in every way, and succumbs to countless cliches. And while in Chaos Theory, every other enemy had something funny to say when you interrogate them, they hardly ever talk in Double Agent, and what they do say isn't even trying to be funny. The morality is black-and-white, with some actions making you the good guy and others making you the bad guy. No more no less. Well, actually much less. Instead of letting you experiment with your choices like the games it was inspired by, it forces you to carefully balance your choices to appease both factions. This completely eliminates any semblance of purpose the morality system could have had.
I gave SCDA alot of leeway. I just loved Chaos Theory so much that I was willing to overlook all of these flaws. Then, the game pushed me past my breaking point. I needed to get this guy's fingerprints to activate a security door, and nothing I scanned would work. I tried his hands, I tried stuff he was touching, I tried camping for the perfect shot, and just as I said to myself "If this level gets any worse, I am done with this game", the game crashed. I wash my hands of this awful game. I uninstalled it from my steam account and never looked back.
Splinter Cell: Double Agent, don't play this game.
Why, Ubisoft? Just... Why?