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Very disappointed... No co-op splitscreen missions

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 11
Date: October 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought this for my husband's birthday. We loved playing the Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, because of the splitscreen co-op missions where both of us could play together. I read MANY reviews online that the Double Agent game would have the same splitscreen co-ops and we were SO excited. It came out on my husband's birthday, so I had to preorder it and was happy when the back of the game said 1-3 players (this was listed separate from the system link and Xbox Live # of players). We started to play the game and were so mad when we found out that they didn't include any co-op splitscreen missions!!!! It was the only reason we even bought the game! We are extremely disappointed... It should not say 1-3 players, because this indicates (just like on all games) that 1-3 players can play at the same time on the same system without using Xbox Live. It's a total lie... We are still so mad that we haven't even played the game. =(

multiplayer LIE

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 11
Date: November 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

have to agree with some of the previous posts - I too bought this game because the package said it was for 1-3 players - assuming that meant 1-3 players could play via splitscreen rather than going online. Well this is not the case, its false advertising in my opinion and I think the Xbox360 folks and Ubisoft owe an explanation.

oh yeah, almost forgot to say - this is also an extremely boring game for single player - ho hum, climb, shoot, sneak, shoot - yawn. Nothing like Ghost Recon.

What happened to co-op?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: October 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

So I was so excited when I heard this game was going to be another Co-op Splinter Cell, and even more exited when I saw it said 1-3 players. I got this game the day it was released and sat downw with my brother to play some Co-op, but it wasn't there. It is a complete lie and was very disapointing. Also, online multiplayer is a big disappointment. Chaos Theory was great online, but this was not at all fun. Single player it OK, but overall, this game is worse than Pandora and Chaos.

NOt a good game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: November 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am a huge fan of Tom Clancy's games. I love Ghost Recon, and Rainbow Six series. However, this is my first time playing Splinter Cell. This is a total waste of money, and honestly I am not impressed by the graphics. Maybe this is a game for those who love strategy, but for me is a boring game. So far for the Xbox 360 only Ghost Recon 3 has lived up to its expectations.
For the people who love co-op games, I highly recommend "Conflict Global Terror". It's a game for Xbox but the gameplay is outstanding!

not so fun

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 15
Date: January 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Well I ordered this game as a Christmas present and the game was never delevered. I had no luck tracking the down the package, and a even harder time getting though to Amazon. So I can't review the game and have a even worse review for Amazon.

Easily the weakest Splinter Cell game to date

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

First of all, half of the reviews on here have to be plants. In reading their descriptions, they had a completely different gaming experience than me. The Splinter Cell franchise is probably my favorite ongoing series, and this game was one of the reasons I bought an XBOX 360 (especially since I've seen predominantly stellar reviews). So I'll differ from the rest and say that, while this game dresses like a SC game, it's more adequately characterized by moderate attempts at renovation which fail from lack of execution.

Let's start with the positives. Obviously, the graphics are UN-BE-EFFING-LIEVABLE throughout most of the game. This is no surprise, though, given the amazing graphics we've come to expect from this series. There are blatant environmental upgrades in Double Agent, regardless of whether or not you're descending along the face of a skyscraper, prowling across rooftops...whatever, that just beg for you to stop and enjoy the scenery for a moment or two. Also, the in-game save feature is a must for all of the Splinter Cell games because we all know that things can get messy in a hurry and the less you have to repace your footsteps the better. Finally, Michael Ironside returns as the voice of Sam Fisher, with a dark, gruff command we know and love.

Which brings me to my first gripe. The storyline here reduces Sam Fisher to a cross between Jack Bauer of "24" and Locke from "Lost," rather than a stone-cold, military hardass who could wipe both of them out without so much as blinking. With regard to story, this is not a Splinter Cell Game--it's an extended episode of "24" that plays out over the course of a few weeks or so. With Sam's daughter being killed at the beginning, I expected Sam Fisher's badassery to augment, not subside, as he's given a love interest and is thrust into a new setting with an underground terrorist group decorated with colorful characters who are also cardboard cutouts of television shows a 'la "24". Give me a break. These games have always been more or less "park your brain at the door" but at least they used to be grounded in the real world. This game is television.

Gripe #2: The controls. Horrendous. Expect to sneak up behind an opposition with the intention of quickly and stealthly knocking them out, only to have the controls become unresponsive because the game is seemingly EXPECTING you to grab them. Or, vice-versa, you will find yourself expecting to grab an opposition, only to have them repeatedly take one step out of your grasp forcing you to frequently bump into them and...well, we all know what happens next. More often than not, though, Sam will merely sneak up behind an opposition and just sit there doing absolutely nothing while you smash buttons hoping the guard in front of you doesn't decide to turn around. All in all, I'd say something similar to this happens about 25% of the time I'm in such a position, which is huge when you estimate that 1 in 4 guards will eventually get to turn around a blast you away just because the buttons were nonresponsive. Really frustrating.

Also, Sam's little ability to step off of a ledge then turn around and grab onto it? You never know when that's going to work here. Based on my experiences from previous SC games, I found myself constantly walking off ledges to wait for an opposition to step close to my stealthy reach, only to find myself committing suicide in mid-mission. Furthermore, sometimes when you are hanging from a ledge, Sam will just let go and plummet to his death without you so much as pressing a button. I thought, for a second "oh wow...Sam must get tired in this one...that's a little more realistic". Nope, it's just bad programming. On one other instance, I left him hanging in the same place for about 20 minutes while I ate dinner and nothing happened.

Finally, the gameplay is just flat-out ridiculous and tedious most of the time. Laughably so, even. Objectives are vague and leave you, primarily in your JBA headquarters, left to wander around aimlessly until you finally put two and two together to figure out what the objectives are actually trying to indicate. In one instance, you're even given about 25 minutes to complete a major objective, only to find out that you're not actually supposed to complete the "major objective". You're supposed to finish the other objectives then let the 10 minutes you have left simply run out so that you see a "cinematic" where Sam completes said objective. How the heck you're supposed to figure that out is completely beyond me.

Anyway, the game has its moments where its the Splinter Cell you love, but for the most part...I'll keep waiting for a next-generation SC title that's worth the pricetag.

Falls Far Short of Previous Splinter Cell Titles

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 13 / 17
Date: November 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As a long-time Splinter Cell fan who has owned and enjoyed all of the previous Splinter Cell titles, I eagerly anticipated this latest release. Unfortunately, I have been highly disappointed.

The graphics are improved over the last version, but not substantially. I appreciate that the game designers realized that the game's superb graphics were lost in previous versions, because you had to spend most of your time in night-vision mode and not able to appreciate them. In this iteration, you can creep around the dark and still see around you, without night vision.

The game play and storyline, however, are just not as good as the previous games. As well, the game is extremely buggy, as any visitor to the Ubisoft message boards will quickly deduce. While the online gameplay is fun, I am disappointed in Ubisoft's reliance on online patches. I have owned the game for a week after its release, and already it has downloaded two software patches. Yet problems persist. In my case, the game freezes at the beginning of the third level and there is no way to get past it. I can cross my fingers and hope that Ubisoft updates the problem soon, but I am disappointed that I spent $60 on a game that only lets me play two levels. I can't help but think that Ubisoft rushed the game out the door without checking its quality, relying on its ability to patch it later.

If you are new to the Splinter Cell series and own an Xbox 360, I'd recommend that you pick up the Xbox version of "Chaos Theory" instead. It's cheaper, the graphics and online play are great, and it will work on your Xbox 360. Avoid this disappointing title until several months from now. Hopefully, by then, the price for this buggy product will reflect its true value, and some of the bugs will have been fixed.

What the @#$% went wrong???

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: November 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

When video game companies change developers mid-stream on a franchise, you can only expect bad things *(see Call of Duty 3).

Not unlike how John Gruden wanted to make the Tampa Bay Buccaneers HIS team, apart from Dungee's Bucs----second-party developers look to stake their own claim...raise their own flag on a successful game franchise---and more often than not---gamers pay the price.

This game was helmed by Ubi Soft Shanghai...and man does it suck more than an overcrowded Chinese subway. They tried to add a "free will" aspect, which doesn't give you free will at all, but instead gives you timed missions and added, pointless stress that doesn't make the game more fun to play, but likens it unto getting a root canal.

Sure the graphics are great---but I think in the four days since it's release, Playstation 3 owners can tell you that in this day and age---and when it comes to games----beauty ain't everything.

Regardless, avoid this game if you're a fan of the other Splinter Cell titles. RENT IT if you haven't picked one up before. All in all though, this is a bigger ball-drop than "Halo 2" ever dreamt of being.

Over Hyped and Dumbed Down!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 12
Date: October 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Like many reviewers I bought my xbox360 with Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon as the main reasons for the purchase. I've played all the previous Splinter Cell games, on the PC and Xbox, several times and love them start to finish. However I found Double Agent to be quite a let down.

Graphically the game is well done, looks very smooth and sharp on a 1080 HDTV. Also excellent is the sound quality of the game, especially when playing on a home theater receiver with surround sound.

New in this version is an ability to crack safes which is very nicely implemented and intuitive. Sam also has several nice new take down moves, but they seem pointless due to changes in the scoring system which penalizes you for any contact with the guards and prefers you just study the movement pattern of the AI Bots and time your movements through them. Sam can now hide in lockers and use the door bash against opponents, again if you're willing to take the scoring penalty. Also new is the use of a decision tree which effect the final outcome of the game depending on the moral delemma choices you make. This feature is well integrated with the overall story. Sam will also have to do several daylight missions over the typically night time sneaking in shadows missions that add a bit of variety.

Many of the aspects of the typical Splinter Cell game play have been changed and/or dumbed down, persumably to make the game available to a wider audience. Scoring in the levels has changed in that you now take penalties for knocking out guards or shooting lights. The security hacking and lock picking are virtually eliminated via an "unlockable" reward which goes beyond explaination. If newbies can't figure these features out add a training level for the newbies over dumbing it down for players that have enjoyed this series from the beginning!

There are several "mini games" in levels that are utterly pointless, for example Sam leaps from an aircraft for a parachute jump and you the player have to figure out how to open his parachute and then cut it away before a cutscene kicks in? Why bother with something so simple when a game like Mission Impossible Operation Surma did a spectacular parachute jump level where you actually have to control the dive as well as your parachute over just pressing a button to release your parachute?

Too many levels are timed and require you to do some busy work mini game, just to kill some of your time allotment, before you go off to real objectives, presumably to add some fake feeling of tension since the objectives are overly simple.

Multiplayer has been changed as well. There is no Chaos Theory style co-op play in Double Agent which came as a huge disappoinment. They return to an updated version of Spy vs Merc similar to what was included in Pandora Tomorrow.

Overall Splinter Cell Double Agent didn't live up to my expectations and is a step down from the previous versions. It's still a worthwhile game but if you're an experienced Splinter Cell junkie like myself you're likely to be disappointed with this installment.

I didn't like it.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: December 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I originally got DA for the regular XBOX, and played a few levels. I thought it was pretty good, but not as good as past Splinter Cells. When I finally got a 360 I decided to trade my XBOX version of DA for the 360 version. This turned out to be a mistake, and shortly after playing the 360 version of the game, I wanted my XBOX on back.

First off the levels in the 360 version are different than the regular XBOX version. This is OK in itself, but to me the levels are just so boring an do not make much sense. To me it seems that the level were just thrown together with no thought on how things would play out when someone actually played the level. A good example is the first "real" level at the JBA headquarters. You had to do a couple of things for the NSA, and to do this you had to find time to go to a restricted area to plant some bugs. Your main task was for the JBA to go through a pretty simple obstacle course and open a safe at the end, all of which takes 4 minutes. However you are given 15 minutes to complete the task. How convienient, plenty of time to plant bugs. And what makes this worse, even after you finished your tasks for the JBA and NSA you will more than likely have 3 or 4 minute left, and then you HAVE to wait those 3 or 4 minutes IN REAL time for the guy to come check on you. How lame can you get? Its a complete waste of time. I blew it off, because it was one of the first levels, but the next levels I played were just as boring.

Another thing that I found missing was the many of the cool things you could do or had access to in past Splinter Cell games is not in DA for the 360. Even the Xbox version has these things, but the 360 version does not. Example, you cannot remote hack, you don't have the visibility and sound meters on your opsat, the enemy tracker in your 3D map does not show enemy positions in real time, its only a snapshot; so if the enemy is walking, you won't see it on your map. the regular XBOX version of th game has this, why not the 360 version? I don't know if you can do the split jump or not, but I never had an opportunity to try it. You can unlock different gadgets by completing tasks without getting detected by the enemy, but why not have them in the game to begin with? It just makes the game more frustrating. One thing I hate about video games, is when they make you unlock stuff that should already be in the game.

One of the only good things about this game was the graphics and sound. But even the sound seemed to mess up during the gameplay. Without warning the sound of enemy talk and weapons firing would go out and you couldn't hear anything except of the enviroment itself and sometimes the background music. In addition to this, my game has frozen a few times without warning, forcing me to start over. Another strike.

The game itself played OK, the controls were pretty responsive for the most part but even that messed up. When the sound started going out, your controls seemed to be affected as well, and there was a slight delay when firing your weapon.

One final thing about the gameplay that was pretty corny in my opinion, is that you have this stupid light on your suit that shows green when noone sees you, but as soon as an enemy sees you it turns red. Why is this nesccesary? This was not in previous splinter cell games, and I think a good reason for that is that it's not needed and it looks stupid. It's just more proof that this game was just thrown together without any real thought into actual gameplay.

I thought I would never give a Splinter Cell game a bad review, but the XBOX 360 version of this game gave me no choice. I finally had enough, so I returned the game back to the store for a full refund. (Thank goodness I bought it used). I had to rebuy my traded game back for the lower used price, but that was OK with me. So instead of getting the full cost for DA for the 360 back, I only netted 20 bucks. Its still OK with me though, because I wasn't at all happy with the 360 version. I am back to the regular XBOX version of the game, and I couldn't be happier.

If you have or thinking about getting Double Agent for the regular XBOX, keep it! To me the 360 version is a huge dissapointment and I encourage others to stick with the more polished regular XBOX version.

I gave this game 3 stars overall, which was very generous, if this was my first Splinter Cell game, it would definetely be a 2. My review for the regular XBOX version of this game is coming soon.

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