E3 2006 Ubisoft Splinter Cell: Double Agent for Xbox 360 - Preview

One of the most successful franchises on the original Xbox console was the Splinter Cell series.  Following the exploits of NSA uber-agent Sam Fischer, the games took players throughout a wide variety of locales and managed to be one of the top stealth games with each successive iteration.  The new Splinter Cell game, Double Agent, puts Sam Fischer in a new role, though, and the designers are letting the player decide the course his story will take.

The story in the new game has players controlling Sam as he tries to infilitrate an international terrorist group.  In an effort to show the blurring of the line between right and wrong when going undercover, the developers are allowing the player to make moral choices at different points in the game that, while making you more accepted by the terrorists, could lead Sam down a dark path.  I was told by one of the designers that these coices can range from small one, such as rather to leak an NSA document to the terrorists to gain their trust, to partaking in a large-scale terrorist attack.  Whether you decide to help the NSA or terrorist will affect the two factions' trust levels, which will be displayed in it's own interface.  Go too far undercover and you may lose your CIA support.

In addition to the changes to the basic gameplay of the game, the graphics have received a huge overhaul to take advantage of the power of the Xbox 360.  In one of the demo levels shown at E3, set in Kinshasa in the Congo during a civil war, you could see the character models becoming increasingly soaked as they sweat in the heat.  Another level, which opened with an extremely cinematic skydive, took place in an arctic enviroment which showed off the impressive particle effects in the game with blowing snow as Sam snuck through the wasteland. 

By shaking up the traditional format of the series by adding new gameplay and story elements Splinter Cell looks ready to really re-invent itself for the next generation.  With some serious competition around the corner thanks to Metal Gear 4, Splinter Cell seems destined to keep the top spot it's enjoyed in the stealth genre for so long. 
 

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