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Fisher's next mission: Assasinate Ubisoft writers.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Let me first start off by saying how much of a Tom Clancy and Splinter Cell fan I am, and it gives me great disappointment to have to give this game a poor rating.

Sam Fisher has become my favorite game character ever. Let me also say that it's great that Ubisoft decided to give the SC saga a different twist, rather than the orgindary, straight forward NSA hunt for conspiriters. The storyline to this game had the potential to be one of the greatest, but it turned out to be the worst.

The storyline in on it's own was well thought out, and most likely by Clancy, but it seems that Ubi took it into their own hands to add these ridiculous missions, and on the same map which is repeated 4 times. If you decide to buy the game, you will see what I mean.

And also, as many other people have mentioned. BUGS BUGS BUGS! Ubi certainly did not waste any time put this into distribution. I guess perhaps they were more worried about getting them on the shelves of your local EA Stores and Walmarts, than beta testing the game over and over, and making sure the game was 99.9% bug-free (of course, nobody's perfect).

In conclusion, it is safe to say that Ubi did not pay attention to detail while developing this game. They left too many bugs for the End Users to have to deal with, and an unfinished storyline with many plot holes, and missions you will be asking yourself "What the hell is the point of this mission?" over and over again.

Again the potential was there, but since they rushed it out the door, Double Agent is completely dead. I would not recommend spending $50.00, or even half that price for this game. I hope that Ubi recognizes the disappointments of the game players, and improves the next Splinter Cell. To make a comparison, Ubi basically built a hot looking Ferrari, but with a V4 engine.

Bottom line is, if you are new to the Splinter Cell gameplay, get the 3rd one (Chaos Theory). If you are a Splinter Cell addict, consider waiting for the next SC (I'm sure Ubi will be making many modifications). No patch in the world is going to save this game.

WARNING

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 18
Date: November 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME IF YOU DON'T HAVE VIDEO CARD THAT HAS SHADER 3.0.
My comp is

AMD FX-55
2 gigs of ram
2 daul video cards each at 256 mem hooked up to three 19 inch monitors
250 SATA hard drive

and i still can't run this game.

Disappointed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm a huge Splinter Cell fan, but this game is so frustrating. It's full of bugs that prevent you from completing missions, and quite often saved games become corrupted. Loading the non-corrupted ones isn't an easy task, either. You have to either die or quit the game and then load. The only exception is "Quicksave."

My gaming PC surpasses the recommended specs. Yet, the frame rate is choppy even with the graphics turned all the way down. Sometimes Sam turns entirely black, like a silhouette. I have to exit out to get him back to normal. Choices for resolution are limited. All in all, the frustration outweighs the enjoyment at this point.

Switching weapons and interacting in general is awkward. It seems like the game was made for a console and changed half-heartedly for the PC. I really hate to give Splinter Cell a bad review, because Chaos Theory is my favorite PC game ever. But Double Agent is unplayable. Patch 1.0.1 doesn't fix any of the bugs I've found. I hope future patches will help, because the storyline for this game is great and I'd really like to play it.

Really dissapointed

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game when it was released for the pc. I have to admit, I was sucked in by all the marketing hype, and the previous games, especially chaos theory (I have all 3) were some of the best games for the xbox. This, however, was a serious letdown, for several reasons:

* If you are one of those people with a four-thousand dollar overclocked gaming rig, then this will run at a good speed. If you dont (like me), then you are pretty beat. Just to make the game run at over 20 fps, you will have to eliminate all of the eye candy. Needless to say, at this point the game will look like crap- not at all like splinter cell games are supposed to. Edges will be jagged (without 16x antialiasing), textures will be blurry, and even sam, the best looking part of this game, wont look great.

* The game lacks a good plot. The plot has always been a criticism of the SC games, and this one tries to do it better, but it fails. In a series of animated cutscenes, a backstory will be told about Sams breakdown and daughter's death, but it all goes by too quickly, and afterward it seems like he is unaffected.

Cons

* The game holds your hand the entire way, and you are distracted by large green overlay notifiers ( ). It seems that the trend these days is to eliminate the HUD, which is a real shame, IMHO. You can no longer quickly glance at you light meter or sound meter. Now, you must press a button, which I have accidentally pressed in a critical moment, in order to bring up a tab with info on it. Not a huge problem, but it seems like UBISOFT is just jumping on the bandwagon.

* Sound, unlike the previous game CHAOS THEORY (which had amazing sound fx and a masterful soundtrack by Amon Tobin), is somewhat lacking in Double Agent. Not that it's bad, but it just sounds average, which was dissapointing.

* New gameplay mechanics- there arent any, really. Sam moves in about the same way as chaos theory, but occasionally his movement is hindered by bugs in the game code. The new loyalty system seems quite superficial, it did not really affect any of my decisions, aside from avoiding getting a game over.

* Buggy. I played around in each level, just so I could see what kind of bugs there were. And there were many. For example, on the ship level (seems to be a pale imitation of the cargo ship lvl in chaos theory), when trying to jump over a railing onto an array of pipes, and moving toward the wall, Sam falls through the pipes into an area below, which is inescapeable-- whereupon you must restart from last save (needless to say very irritating, if you forgot to save). Essentially, this game was rushed in production to meet demand, and it shows.

* AI is alright, but seems dumber than SCDA for some reason. Maybe it is my slow computer.
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Pros

* Multiplayer has always been great in SC, and it is in this one too. Multiplayer is very fast paced, and has challenging online play. Multiplayer almost redeems this game alone. It is not as graphically taxing either.

* Great graphics, if you have the hardware for it. Just for fun, I set all the settings to maximum. I got about 4 FPS, but it is gorgeous. Scenery is beautiful.

* Despite it's flaws, it is still splinter cell, and the single player has some redeeming moments. I did enjoy the prison level very much, although it reminded me alot of SC 1.

Overall, if you want to play and enjoy this game, you have to have at least these specs:

Cpu: 2.5 Ghz, preferably dual core.
Gpu: Radeon 1800 and above. Dont let them fool you, a Radeon x1600 will NOT be able to handle this game well, despite its PS:3 capabilities. I dont know about Nvidia cards, but make sure that they support pixel shader 3, or it wont run. This is a common complaint with people.
RAM: 1 gig should be enough, 2 gigs preferable.
For online play, you should have at least a DSL.
OS: Windows XP. Wont run on Vista as far as I know, might run on win 2000

In sum, you should make sure that you have a killer pc, or are obsessed with Splinter cell and can deal with the bugs and slightly better than mediocre gameplay, before you buy this. I hear that the 360 version is better, but I wouldnt know. I would stick with Chaos theory, which is a rock-solid game, has almost no bugs, amazing multiplayer, FANTASIC graphics (almost on par with this). Plus, you can get it for a fraction of the price. Or buy a 360.

Buggy and not well thought out

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I bought Chaos Theory at Half-Price books for $9, and it was a much better game than the $50 Double Agent. In fact, they should have named this game "Chaos Defined".

I agree with other reviewers that this Splinter Cell installment is not the good quality experience to be had from the prior SC's. One is never quite sure if Double Agent will fully load before throwing an exception and causing the Microsoft debugger I have installed to ask if it should start debugging Ubi's product. However, one can be quite sure it will throw an exception every time you try to exit the program. Fortunately, exceptions don't happen very often during play, but they do happen. So get familiar with the F5 Quick Save key to minimize frustration.

The game save system stinks. After finishing the first map, the "Continue" (last game) just says "You don't have any saved games. So I have to resort to bringing up my list of saves and loading from there. You can't name your saved games; the program assumes you want to name them all "Save" and you can't change it.

Lastly, the story and gameplay can get tedious with too many timed sections. Even if you finish with time to spare, you still have to mill around burning time on the clock before the next sequence begins. It all adds up to a product that feels very much like it was rushed through design, development, testing, and finally out the door.

Waste of Money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: September 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The Splinter Cell games have historically been the top-of-the-line tactical shooters. Then they released Double Agent and ruined my entire perception of not on the game series but the company of Ubisoft as a whole and the Tom Clancy games in particular. I have patched the game and updated every driver in my system but the game hangs and I have yet to be able to finish it or get past the point on the ocean liner. It is complete and utter waste of money. They have stopped patching the game at this point and are advertising the next Splinter Cell game already, as if I want to play another game that is total garbage, I can't even finish this one! I won't purchase another Tom Clancy licensed game EVER and Ubisoft will be very lucky if I ever purchase another game with thier name on it either. This was the most disappointing piece of software I have ever had the misfortune of spending money on. I doubt I would play the new Splinter Cell game if they gave it to me for free.

Do not buy the PC version

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: December 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Alrighty... Let me start off by saying that the music in this game is INCREDIBLE! If there was an album i would buy it instantly. With that said, this game has many many problems on the PC platform...

most people already are aware of the setting of the game and the situation of Sam Fisher if you watch anything on TV, there's so many commercials for the game! Anyways, i got excited to play this game and couldnt wait to get it on PC. I finally got it and i started playing the game on my pc and i was quickly disapointed because i noticed that the game ran VERY VERY slow. And, i EXCEED the recomended requirements for the game and i had everything set to LOW. Then i put everything to HIGH and the game ran with about a 2-3 fps difference of an average 15 fps! Im a computer god, i know if my baby is running slow or has a virus, I tell you right now that the PC version of SCDA is complete crud and the coding for the game is terrible becuase i run bf2142 with everything maxed out and i never drop below 50 fps.

Ubisoft SHANGHAI didnt bother optimizing the game for the PC, they just ported the game directly from the xbox360 to the PC, and everyone knows that the xbox360 platform is completely different from a PC because the xbox360 has three 3.2ghz in-order processors and the PC has 1 very powerful out-or-order processor, architecturally speaking, so that is why the game runs terribly, it was written for the 360. Basically, the processor in the xbox360 executes processes in the perfect order of which they were given, but the PC executes multiple executions simultaneously in any order that it was given, which is why an amazing PC processor costs more then a 360. The 360 cost about $300 total becuase it has in-order processors, which are heavily stripped down processors and thus, can't really be considered a real processor. anyways...

There is a ton of false advertising for this game.
-On the game box it says you can unlock gadgets and weapons to defeat your enemies, or something like that. Yea, you can unlock the gadgets, you just can't use them! Ever! Nice.
-Also on the box, it says "Optimized for Dual Core processors" which is not true, and infact, the game runs worse on dual dore computers then single core.
-No Lobby for internet or lan gameplay. So if you wanted to play with your friends via the internet, HAH! Good luck! The only option you have for finding a game is "join session" and when you click on that the game finds a session for you and joins it. Directly ported from the xbox360... So sad... It doesn't end there, the game is FILLED with so many disconnect bugs in multiplayer that you never actually get to play the game you paid for. And this is after ubisoft released a patch to fix this; trust me it isnt fixed.

This game had so much potential for the PC but it was blown off by Ubisoft Shanghai and whoever else participated... I've been waiting for a REAL patch for the game which actually fixed the gameplay itself and add a multiplayer lobby, but its been over 3 weeks of people complainging on forums and writing letters and still nothing! Not even a word of acknowledgement that the game is not working as intended for the PC.

Honestly i tried to play this game but it was so bad i gave up. Multiplayer is embarassing and looks like crud plus singeplayer is riddled with wasted "fill levels" for the JBA ( a HUGE majority of the game) where you are given a task, like making 10 mines for Enrica or something silly... They basically give you a task and return in 25 minutes to see if you completed it and if you aren't where they left you when they come back you lose faction. Its ridiculous because i spent more time in the JBA hideout then on any other map and it was frustrating to waste so much time on a really graphically ugly level. I literally had sam standing for 8 minutes with all my quests completed just waiting for the level to end. Its LAME!

Splinter Cell has taken a turn for the worss

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

First off the games graphics are some of the best I have seen the sound effects are great and the story is not all that bad. But! if you are a fan of the old Splinter Cell games be warned this game is nothing like them. The whole way you play the game has been changed, in the previous games it was all about playing the shadows, tricking mercs, and over all pulling off your mission with out ever being detected. This game has totally changed the way you play by replacing our beloved shadows with a far to simple light that is always strapped to your back. How this works is whenever any one starts to notice you the light turns yellow when no one can see or hear you it is green, and when some one sees you it turns red. Now this may not sound that bad but! it has nothing to do with where your character is standing! you could be in the middle of a base standing under a light and have the light be green and everything is fine a guy will even walk right past you because don't worry the light is green! or you could be in the most dark part of the map hanging off a ledge and a have a guy spot you from yards away. if you are looking for good graphics this is your game if you are looking real stealth action move on because they have killed Splinter Cell.

PC version not as polished as previous Splinter Cells

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I found a number of problems in this first unpatched PC release of SC:DA, and a few style changes that makes the game feel more like a console game than PC:

- Can't customize mouse buttons, they are fixed on fire and alt-fire

- Unlockable items don't unlock

- While using pistol to disrupt a light, I was not able to holster the pistol until I fired a shot from it.

- After I knock out a person the game forces me to pick him up. I don't want to pick up a person every time I choke them down.

- Game runs much slower than previous SC games.

A few interface changes I didn't like, which are subjective:

- Sam looks like a walking traffic light
For the stealth indicator, a component on Sam's suit turns bright red, yellow or green to determine how visible he is. This indicator takes immersion away from the character since it looks silly to see an agent walk around with a bright-colored light emitting from his back. It looks like he is trying to direct traffic rather than sneak around.

- Interaction interface uses big icons instead of text-based menu as in the previous games. It's annoying to guess what icons are what when quickly trying to pick an option, and I found the text-based options from previous versions better.

Graphically the game does look good with HDR, and levels appear more detailed.

Overall there should be more options and customization available for PC users since customization is an advantage of the PC platform. Ubisoft should have left the game to cook longer with QA before release.

Game loses 1 star for bad QA, 1 star for performance, and 1 star for lack of PC control customization. If you have to buy the game, buy it used. Who knows if and when ubisoft will patch the game to make it more enjoyable for PC customers.

If Ubisoft patches the game to address these issues then I will edit and change this review accordingly.

Bugs mar an otherwise stellar review

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I would love to give this game 5 stars overall - but I can't. The game is exceptionally fun to play, with great graphics and excellent stealth play alongside a well-thought storyline. The BUGS, however, are too much! The game crashes each time a new level loads. At one point it required a complete reinstall, because after one of the crashes it just wouldn't fire up anymore. Save games get overwritten without notice. The "Quick OPSAT" button is buggy. Once I hit reload on my weapon, and lost all weapon functionality entirely - couldn't shoot, couldn't reload, couldn't put the weapon away. These bugs bring my overall review from 5 stars to 2... which is a complete shame. My friend has it on xbox 360 and it's a stellar experience, showing what kind of quality title it *could* have been. It's a real shame that the PC did not receive the same attention to detail and quality production that the 360 did.

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