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game
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
genre
Action
date
Late 2006

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Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Written by James Hobbs

'Sam Fisher is back,' intones the press release. The alarmingly prolific Ubisoft have seen fit to add Sam Fisher's stealth-laden tomfoolery to their rapidly expanding portfolio of Wii launch-time titles, albeit with Wii-tweaked controls. Sam Fisher is back, but not in quite the same way.

Splinter Cell: Double Agent for Wii is being based on the GameCube build of the game. This does mean that the game will be lacking some of the missions found in the Xbox 360 version of the game, but it also means that the developers have time to optimise the code for Wii. Which, surely, can only be a good thing. The game sees Sam Fisher, the gruff secret agent, stealthing his way through enemy territory in an effort to infiltrate a terrorist organisation. As the title suggests, not only will Fisher be taking orders from home, he will also have to fulfil objectives handed down to him by the terrorists, in order to gain their trust. This duplicity seems to be the driving mechanic of the game, and could potentially be rather interesting.

To those of you who've never played a Splinter Cell game before, this may well all sound a bit James Bond. However, the previous games, with the exception of the DS title, have all been fairly well executed and effective. It is genuinely tense, entertaining, and occasionally frustrating to sneak around with all manner of gadgetry by your side. This aspect of the game does not appear to have changed, with Fisher still able to employ not only Government-sanctioned boys toys, but also 'black market terrorist weapons.' Exactly what those are, I'm not sure, but they sound like jolly good fun.

The graphics are looking rather lovely, as you can see from our screenshots above. These screenshots are 'next-generation screenshots,' meaning that they are of a vague, middling standard in order to represent no particular console, but they do look extremely crisp and detailed. If the final game looks as good as that, and runs at an acceptable frame rate, I think it's safe to say that we'll be in for a treat.

Some of the missions promised include underwater levels, a sandstorm, and even skydiving - it would seem the diversity is in place. My main concern, as with most of Ubisoft's games, is that they get the controls right. Clumsy, inaccurate controls could potentially ruin this game, and I really don't want to see that happen. If they get it right, this could be yet another must-have title for Wii.

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