Splinter Cell: Double Agent Preview

Actual gameplay footage is not exactly abundant at the moment. What is featured in this preview are screenshots taken from the current-gen game build. However, we did get to see some high-res Xbox 360 shots (which we unfortunately cannot run). Let's just say that the game appears to make sufficient use of the advantages of the Xbox 360 hardware. We had a hard time believing we were looking at actual in-engine shots. Ubisoft is really looking to polish the game for Xbox 360 users. We're not entirely sure about the exact differences between the Xbox 360 and the PC version, but we do know that one level (a nighttime mission taking place in Shanghai) is being hailed as an Xbox 360 exclusive. According to what we've seen thus far, the designers seem to have worked their tales off to bring some of the in-game characters to life. Some of the Xbox 360 models look amazing.
The power of the Xbox 360 platform also allowed the developers to tweak the AI to react to situations as realistically as possible. In many missions, players will truly have to make an effort to avoid being detected by enemy sentinels. Once again, it's all about ingenuity and stealth.

That's a lot of gun pointing.

Hush, Gordon Freeman. I'll get you out of here.

The growth of the Splinter Cell series has been more or less apparent over the years, but certainly less apparent than it should have been (at least in the single-player department). At its core, the game remained the same - good old Sam Fisher sneaking through the shadows and streaming down on his unsuspecting pray. Recent titles in the series began to feature a few minor annoyances, such as excessive use of the Sony Ericsson trademark etc. Still, that's modern-day advertising for ya. There's not much we can do about that, except complain. But grumbling won't stop publishers from stuffing their games with ads for Mountain Dew, Nivea or L'Oreal (Sam into skin cosmetics much? - Ed).

As we understand it, Ubisoft has spread the project across many of its branches to bring the game to various platforms. So, Ubisoft's Shanghai studio is handling the PC and Xbox 360 versions (the same dudes who worked on the single-player campaign for Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow), while PS2, Xbox and GameCube builds are being developed by Ubisoft Montreal. An additional development team is working on the PSP version (Splinter Cell Essentials). In all, Splinter Cell Double Agent is coming along nicely, and the developers also appear to be pleased with the game's multiplayer mode. SCDA features the Challenge Mode, which basically puts player in a co-op mode against bots. Your ranking will depend on how well you handled yourself on each map. PC, PS2 and Xbox versions will have a brand new Spy vs. Spy mode and some changes were also made to the 3 vs. 3 MP mode. The Xbox 360, Xbox and PS2 versions will see the return of the Spies vs. Mercenaries multiplayer mode and, as you'd normally expect, Live! support was also confirmed for the Xbox 360 version.

SCDA is scheduled to hit US stores during March 2006. The game is still going through the fine-tuning stage, but we hope Ubisoft will send us a playable build pretty soon.