Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent

Format PlayStation 2

Developer Unknown

Publisher Ubisoft

Genre Action

Everybody and his split-jumping grandmother knows about Sam Fisher's change in tack for Double Agent. You know, all that stuff about 'moral choices' that define your route through the game's branching storyline. The question now is, how will it all hang together, and will all this 'Sam's a human being too' business make any difference to the gameplay?

In short: yep, definitely. The idea of taking a character from a video game and stripping him (metaphorically, of course) back to bare bones would seem ludicrous. After all, most games' stars have all the depth of a saucer of milk. But with Sam it's different - he's always been a bit of a dark horse, and while he's previously been unmasked, he's never really dropped his guard and let us in, so to speak. Until now. Double Agent kicks off with Sam and a colleague on a mission in Iceland. Round about halfway through it, Sam gets a call from his boss, Lambert, ordering him to proceed immediately to a pick-up point from where he's airlifted out, leaving his partner to finish up the job in hand.

BIRD OF PREY
Once aboard the Osprey (a sort of giant helicopter crossed with an aeroplane) he receives the devastating news that his daughter, Sarah, has been knocked down and killed by a drunk driver. At this point the cargo hold slides open, and with true Hollywood melodrama the famous green nightvision goggles are hurled into the sea. This is the point that signals a change in both Sam Fisher and the style of game. We pick up the story a few months later, where we find Sam a shell of the man he used to be. When he's asked by his superiors at secret agency Third Echelon to undertake his most dangerous mission yet, he agrees - he's got nothing to lose, after all. A mock bank robbery is set up in order to get Sam thrown into jail (that's all part of the plan), during which he accidentally kills a guard (which wasn't part of the plan). Once behind bars, the important business of infiltrating terrorist organisation John Brown's Army can begin.

FRIENDS ON THE INSIDE
On the inside, Sam sets about building up a rapport with a chap called Jamie Washington, with a view to penetrating his tight circle. The anti-American guerrilla group, that is - what did you think we were talking about? Anyway, the early prison-set missions see Sam becoming bestest buddies with him. Escaping from his cell to rendezvous with Washington (romantic, isn't it?), Sam must first time his exit with the passing of a patrol, then clamber through a series of tight air ducts. Once Washington has been met, the race begins to get back to the cell before the guards twig he's gone AWOL. Later, Sam has to find a pair of walkie talkies so the couple can whisper sweet nothings to each other in secret, while another trust-building mission involves Sam heroically bursting into the prison gym to find Washington about to be beaten up. Dud-dud-da! As Sam grabs Washington's attacker, a bunch of prison guards show up, presenting you with your first minor dilemma - do you snap the guy's head from his shoulders and kill him dead, or do you merely put him to sleep with a Spock-style neck tweak?

Escaping jail is the next step, and once a diversionary riot kicks off, Washington and
Fisher skedaddle to John Brown's Army headquarters. Here we see a version of Chaos Theory's multiplayer co-op mode worked into Double Agent's single-player game. This is where all Sam's groundwork with Washington finally bears fruit, as he gets a bunk-up down a dark alleyway that allows him to scale greater heights than he'd be able to on his own. Sam then returns the favour, pulling Washington off the ground and up to the ledge, from where they can continue their voyage of discovery together. Other parts of the game also see Sam working with another buddy, and from what we've seen they're also quite adept at providing covering fire.

UNDERCOVER ELEPHANT
The headquarters of John Brown's Army acts not only as the game's central hub, but also as a major location in which a few of the game's chapters are played out. In between jaunts to political hotspots around the globe, you'll return to JBA HQ with dual motives: to further infiltrate the terrorist's ranks, moving up the pecking order as you do so, but at the same time carrying out recon and spying directives from your employers at Third Echelon.

Sam gains access to more of the compound as he wins over head honcho Emile Dufraisne's trust. That may mean killing an innocent in order to gain access to valuable files. Later in the game, the ethical dilemmas are pushed further still, when love interest Enrica, a JBA chemical specialist, comes under the crosshair; what will Sam do?

Anyone who's played previous Splinter Cell games will be familiar with its 'alert' stages - the more racket you make, the higher the guards' state of activity becomes. The system has been tweaked for Double Agent, so if you make a mistake, it won't be mission over, but you'll face more obstacles, such as gas and laser grids. However, guards can be 'persuaded' to reset alarms, but the issue of maintaining cover means you can't kill anyone here. While Double Agent won't disappoint fans of Sam's famous gadgets, the emphasis here is on building relationships to progress. It's an intriguing new direction for the series,with the manner in which you achieve your goals affecting the game's ending. How you choose to play it is entirely up to you.