Splinter Cell Double Agent

Perhaps it was by accident, or perhaps it was because there was simply nothing stopping you - either way, if you’re a veteran of the Splinter Cell series, then you’ve probably spilled innocent blood. But what if summary execution is your mission, what if killing an innocent man on live TV in front of millions of horrified viewers is simply another path you could take…what if the omniscient Lambert wasn’t there, what then?

Releasing in September worldwide on the Xbox 360, Xbox, Playstation 2 and PC, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 4: Double Agent will be the first in the acclaimed series to have a sub-title that actually makes any sense. Replacing Sam Fisher’s stylish rubber ensemble with an orange jump suit, Ubisoft have seen fit to incarcerate our under-cover hero and ultimately obliterate our preconceptions of the Splinter Cell series. Now, instead of actually ‘being invisible’, Sam will face the more complex challenge of ‘appearing invisible’ as he is forced to associate with criminals in order to work his way into the terrorist’s upper echelons. However, ‘forced’ may be the wrong word to use, as SC4’s most astonishing paradigm shift moves out from the dilated shadows and into the squinty light of non-linear gameplay!

In the three previous Splinter Cells, though you were given the choice as to how to go about any particular encounter, the game was - at its core - a linear experience, with only one final outcome. SC4, however, completely breaks this mould, as a persistent theme of binary choice runs throughout the course of the game. This new contrivance is called the ‘honour system’, and just as in games like Fable or SW: KOTOR, you will be presented with innumerable choices between good and evil - or in this case, between maintaining your cover and basic morality. Simply put, how many people are you willing to kill with your own hands in order to prevent the deaths of 30,000?
It’s this kind of sweaty conundrum that now defines Splinter Cell.

In a stunning display of pure gumption in an industry rife with cloned forgery, Ubisoft have not rested with this one admittedly risky change to their ultra successful formula. For instance, in some of the levels Sam will be accompanied by an AI-controlled cohort, who will help him through the level, watching your back and increasing your collective firepower. In other levels Sam will don a pearl white rubber suit, and in others still, Sam will operate in the middle of broad daylight! Changes like these, combined with an improved lighting engine, complex AI systems and a variety of different locales - including Shanghai in Asia, Kinshasa in Africa and the dank US penitentiary - all coalesce to ensure that Splinter Cell is going to be much more than simply another addition to the franchise.

From what we here at NZGamer saw, Splinter Cell 4: Double Agent is going to be one of the most controversial games to be released this year. Outside of additions we expected, like a new vision mode (called ‘wave vision’, allowing you to see sound!) and more gadgets to Sam’s already bulging arsenal, Splinter Cell 4 is proffering something that is genuinely new to the series, something that in my opinion will prove to be a massive point of debate amongst the countless Splinter Cell fans. However, when it’s all said and done, all we can really do is wait, and ponder, over Ubisoft’s tantalising breadcrumbs.

"Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 4 will be even more thrilling and heart-pounding than its ground-breaking predecessors”- Yves Guillemot, president and CEO of Ubisoft.

Suddenly September seems a lifetime away.