Splinter Cell Double Agent

Thursday 27 July 2006
Splinter Cell's spy-vs-merc multiplayer matches have long been one of our favourite online mashups, thanks to a fine-tuned balance and some ace level design. And with Xbox 360 about to play host to Double Agent, Sam Fisher's new mission as a turncoat, we snuck deep into Ubisoft's headquarters for a hands-on multiplayer test.

Aside from new levels - eight of them - and some greatly improved visuals, 360's spies-vs-mercenaries battles will be instantly familiar to Splinter Cell fans. You choose to be a spy - non-lethal weapons, super-stealthy, mean neck-break attack - or sign up as a rifle-packing mercenary, attempting to prevent the spies from reaching their objectives in each level, like hacking a series of computers.

Newcomers might balk at the stripped-down three-vs-three matches, but a limited number of players is crucial to maintain the sort of cat-and-mouse action that makes Splinter Cell's multiplayer so different and so addictive. Even so, now we're living in the next-gen era it's disappointing that the developer hasn't made use of the extra power to build bigger levels and add a few more player slots.

What Double Agent does add is a new level of agility for the spy character, enabling players to dive through windows or clamber around a level in lots of different ways. Silhouettes pop up as you move through the level, highlighting climbable drainpipes, scaleable areas and crawl spaces that you can leap under.

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.