Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent Critic Reviews

Magnificent on the Xbox 360, this could be a contender for game of the year.

The result is sweaty-palmed fun, teaming the adult joys of a well-paced thriller with the childish delight of playing hide-and-seek in the dark.

It's got to be the most fully featured stealth action game to date, so if you like the idea of high-tech espionage, it's certainly going to have plenty to offer you.

One of the major new additions to the series that really sets Double Agent apart from the rest is the branching storyline. Not only is the story eons better than the past games in both presentation and writing, but you actually get to change the course of what happens for better or worse.

The movement and animation are as smooth as ever with only a few hiccups on the framerate. Swimming, running, and sneaking around never felt so natural as you are going through all of the various missions. The computer AI on in this game is much sharper and makes it more challenging for all players.

It's the branching gameplay that catapults Double Agent above its predecessors and marks the series as striding forward into a wealth of possibilities.

Even though you won't have the staggering number of gadgets and gear at your disposal, you'll likely still have a blast. Even those of us who were huge fans of the multiplayer action in Chaos Theory came around after a few games.

Involving missions, cutting edge graphics and an excellent narrative that, while not always living up to its potential, strives mightily to expand the storytelling and emotional connection while maintaining the right balance of fun and adventure.

The single-player experience is worth this game by itself but throw in the multi-player mode and you have yourself a candidate for game of the year.

The only thing that really irritated me while I played were the swimming controls – they just don’t feel right. Otherwise, this is an excellent game that you should, at the very least, rent and play through once.

In every sense imaginable, Splinter Cell: Double Agent was meant to exploit the platform on which it was designed, and it excels to an extraordinary degree.

Double Agent is fun, exciting, intense, and definitely a showcase title for the visual elegance of the 360, but if you want a fully fleshed out story, extended levels, more dialogue, and an overall richer Splinter Cell experience, I’d have to recommend the original Xbox version over this.

Just think of Double Agent as the least amazing Splinter Cell yet, rather than the worst game in the series - because it's simply not. It's the gutsiest, and the chances it takes (but doesn't quite nail) give the series room to evolve into something better than could've possibly imagined to iterations ago.

Rupturing quality and oozing tension, this is stealth gaming of the highest calibre, full of imagination and augmented by an excellent two-way Trust system that leaves you pondering every choice you make and then having to deal with the consequences.

I came for the single-player, which I liked rather than loved, and stayed for the multiplayer, which I used to like and now adore. I have a feeling many other fans will feel the same way.

All sorts of improvements have been made to level design, AI, gameplay mechanics (which are simplified yet still require skill), and a meaningful storyline punctuated with directed moments. While some may argue the point, the new Mercs Vs. Spies mode is good fun and should prove to have legs on Xbox Live.

By giving players a real incentive to be the stealthy super-spy, it's opening the game up to being what it should have been. And by wrapping it in a memorable narrative and giving Sam Fisher the ability to be evil, you actually start to care not only about your actions, but the characters in the game too.

Veterans of Splinter Cell Chaos Theory may be disappointed with Double Agent's multiplayer. Yet, while some may call this game stripped down, we thought the lack of gadgets streamlined the multiplayer experience and sped up matches online.

Although there aren’t many significant changes to the gameplay, the game still feels more exhilarating and more immersive because of the improved visuals, better storyline, lack of darkness, and the moral choices Sam if forced to make.

The game has always looked amazing, and now they’ve taken it up a notch by giving more detail to each character, especially Sam, and environments.