Splinter Cell - Double Agent
Has Sam Fisher gone bad? Or was he bad already?
Splinter Cell - Double Agent is the latest instalment of Sam Fisher's campaign to be the next Steven Seagal. Of course there can only be one Steven Seagal which is probably a good thing.
The game has a plot about Sam infilitrating a terrorist crew but first you have to break the leader out of prison to gain his trust. The plot advances a bit but probably not as much as the console version I would imagine. The graphics are very slick for a mobile and even though the game is 2D it has a lot of lighting effects and some very cool moves in there. There are quite a few different areas as well so the backgrounds look nice. Sound is ok with a nice tune when you load the game and some small sound effects in the game which is surprising for a Gameloft game. I was playing on a K600 which is a mid range handset and I know there are some decent sounds in the higher range handsets like some speech thrown in there.
The controls are pretty simple but the in game hints will help you out if you need it. Pressing 5 will strangle people and shoot, down is crouch and up will jump and hide in places. You can press zero to aim and then fire a gun and when you're hanging from a platform, pressing 5 will grab the person and drop them to the ground. Easy peasy and you're basically told what to do.
The game plays well with quite a few different levels. You have the prison levels which involve opening doors and sticking to the shadows, but there's not that many doorways or chances for silent kills. The action changes later on and on some levels you are swimming around with scuba gear and shooting mini harpoons. Very James Bond and a welcome change even if the levels are a little simple (not as much sneaking equals not as much fun). In addition you have some mines to avoid and a bloody great big shark. All well and good, but what's not so good? Well, the game has different difficulty settings which is great, but at times it can feel a little paint by numbers. What I mean is that there's not a lot of freedom and you often get the feel that this is a side scrolling platform game, dressed as a stealth game. The stealth mode is good, but it will only add to your score and not change the progress of the game or the plot / ending. There are medals to collect, but again I think these just influence the score. If you want to spend ages on a level without being seen at all then that's great, but if you don't mind too much, once you're spotted you just have to hide in the shadows until the alarm goes off.
There are some really nice cut scenes which look pretty decent so the whole game has the feel of a movie. They are suspenseful at first, although don't change regardless of level so it's the same on easy and normal. The levels allow you to restart from where you left off and after you complete a level you can play it again if you like. The other levels are suitably different but again, there doesn't appear to be that much change between difficulty levels, apart from the fact that you can't get caught as many times on normal mode. The variety of moves is very well done, but the levels lead you through the game far to easily.
I know that on the high end handsets, the game really does look and play great so definitely worth a look if you have one of these. Otherwise, the game is good and slick in style but not as much substance as you may expect.
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