Splinter Cell Double Agent on the 360 is a very good game, but unfortunately most of the game's potential was wasted.
Gameplay: We have got the year 2008. Everything begins when Lambert is telling Sam that his daughter Sarah has been killed by a drunk driver. Not only this happened but the John Brown's Army (JBA) organization are using new tactics and weapons, they are much, much more deadlier and brutal. Fortunately Fisher didn't give up. Sam and Lambert came up to the plan to destroy the enemy from inside. If they want to do this so Sam will have to go to the jail and from there he will try to join JBA. Sam Fisher is now a Double Agent and this mean that he will have to cooperate with the NSA and JBA. So the storyline is well done, it's interesting. As a double agent you will have to make a lot of really hard decisions. Decisions such as kill or not kill. NSA will give you a task not to kill an agent but on the other hand JBA will give you an order to kill this person. Each decision you make as a double agent will depend on the ending. Actually Splinter Cell Double Agent offers three endings. Bad, good or the best ending. Beating this game with the best ending will give you a bonus mission, unfortunately it's very short. So making those complicated decisions in this game is very interesting and great. Trust meters will help us not to lose too much trust from NSA or JBA, we are able to check the trust meters to make sure what decisions we can make. Another cool thing of this title are interactive cinematics. In the Okhotsk mission Fisher jumps from the plane and we have to open his parachute. In the Shanghai mission we have to take control of the helicopter but it's not hard to align the flight. It is also really cool. First we can complete a short training and then we have ten missions with bonus mission but only if you get the best ending of course. These missions take place in Iceland where Sam has to infiltrate Geothermal Plant, jail (really good mission), JBA Headquarters Part 1,2,3 and 4 (the last ten mission), Cruise Ship, Shanghai and my favorite mission in Kinshasa. That's eight missions but they have two or three parts so that makes it ten. The bonus mission is a Coast Guard Boat in NYC where we have a task to stop the last JBA terrorist. You probably think that if this game has that superb missions then it's almost perfect but unfortunately I have to say no. The missions (not all missions) are not as cool as it looks like. The first part of JBA's missions is really good, but the second and third mission in the JBA are simply boring for me. We almost have to do the same things over and over again. Search some informations for the NSA, plug Trojan horse to the JBA's server, practice at firing range, record some meeting and more. We have a lot things to do but they are not interesting when we have to do it in the second part and again in the third part of JBA's missions. The fourth part is fortunately better. Also I'm very angry because I saw many cinematics in the trailers, for example Sam was in the train, so why those cinematics are not in the game? In the trailers we were seeing that they are in the game. Maybe Ubi Soft cut them? I don't know but it makes me very angry. One of the biggest minuses of Splinter Cell Double Agent for the xbox 360 is that the game doesn't have fantastic cooperation mode better known from Chaos Theory and in Single Player Sam is also working alone. Yeah, in Geothermal Plant some agent is going with us but he's not going the same way that we are going and this agent has been killed. Also in Kinshasa mission we have to help a CIA agent Hisham Hanza, but it's only a minute of cooperation with him, Sam helps him jump through the fence and that's it. The game is also short, missions are short. We can easily beat the whole game in about ten hours. Chaos Theory on xbox has longer missions. As I said, I think that unfortunately most of the game's potential has been wasted. Of course it's not a bad game on the 360, it's a very good title with really good gameplay, but I don't have the same awesome feelings that I still have with Chaos Theory for xbox. I also have to say about Sam Fisher. He has great outfits in the missions and he's using a lot of outstanding gadgets. I like the new sticky camera, she can blow out! Fisher also has some new moves, finally we can grab an enemy and kill him in the water. The swimming in this game is a fantastic idea. I also think it's great that the missions are by day not only by night. The gameplay in Double Agent on the 360 is very good but unfortunately I have many reservations to this title.
Multiplayer is a little bit different that he was before. Of course we can play as spies or mercenaries. For me playing as spies is a lot better than playing as mercenaries. Spies are faster, they have great moves and also you are almost untouchable. The maps in multiplayer are really good and big. I'm thinking why all spies and all mercenaries are bald? I don't know but it's funny for me cuz it looks very unrealistic in my opinion when all of them are bald, both spies and mercenaries. Really funny.
Graphics: The graphics are awesome! We have bump-mapping, normal-mapping and more. Textures and the environment look amazing. Character models are very detailed, also character animation is really well done. The lighting and shadows are sharp and they look realistic. The snow storm, rain, fog are great. All weather effects are superb.
Sound: The soundtracks in each mission are very atmospheric. Voice acting is a superb job and other sounds like weapons noises are cool. The sound when we are underwater is very realistic.
Overall: As I said, I love Splinter Cell series, Fisher is my favorite character but Splinter Cell Double Agent on the 360 is not as good as I thought it would be. I thought that there will be more cinematics from the trailers, that the missions, especially JBA's missions will be more interesting. It's a very good game overall, very good game but it's not a revolution on the 360. I think you will like this game cuz it's not bad but also Double Agent on the 360 is not a perfect game unfortunately.