Splinter Cell Double Agent MP Preview [360]

[torrefaction]

IGN (http://www.ign.com) has posted a preview (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/721/721295p1.html) of Splinter Cell Double Agent's Spies Vs Mercs multiplayer.

The MP game itself is interesting. It's certainly more accessible than the online modes of Pandora's Tomorrow and Chaos Theory. Does this mean that Double Agent like Halo 2 is to Halo 1? Fun, yet filled with noobs and harshers? Not sure yet. The maps vary; some are simply better than others. And, of course, the quality of the game totally depends on the calibre of your friends or team mates. But the set up is sweet fun, complex enough to keep upgrading your skills, and still very team-oriented.

I've said it before, I really can't wait to see where they bring this series next. I can't wait for some neck-snapping good times.

[Freak705]

If you watch the videos, those ghost-outlines for the spies are always there, in all the levels. I hope you can turn that off. It's good to have at first, but after you've learned everything it would be annoying as hell.

[digitalErich]

I certainly hope the MP community for Double Agent is better than PT. I loved the MP, but after the first month, the vast majority of people in PT's MP mode were total asshats due to one reason or another. I was turned off enough to skip Chaos Theory all together. Hopefully Double Agent turns out differently.

[Mdot23]

definetly stoked for this. now, to play the singleplayer or multiplayer first...

[Freak705]

Well for the hardcore, the multiplayer is going to disappoint.

BY THE WAY, the delay thread I made was not 6 months old. IGN messed up the post date. It was on their frontpage, and the made it January 26 instead of July 26. Back in January, the game was still slated to come out in March. It's impossible for an article in January to say that it was delayed until October, because the game was slated for March and the delay to September wasn't even announced yet.

Anyway, here's why:

To be breif, they n00bed it up. Hardcore. Worse than the lock on for the rocket or plasma pistol in Halo 2.They gimped it completely. Sure, it was hard on n00bs, but to treat it like they have, to the fans its like eating it, vomiting it up, having chronic diahhrea all over it, coating it in a placenta, then eating it again, shitting it out, and then making love to it, jizzing in it, and smearing it on your face. So now that I've vented a little, I'll explain:

1) They took away the shocker gun-
Spies no longer have their shocker gun. They can't stop mercs for a couple seconds, and they now have no launcher. As a result, there are no sticky cameras, spy bullets, heartbeat detector, or alarm snares. There's a hard hit to tactics right away.

2) They took the rest of the cool spy gadgets out-
The camo suit is completely gone, something that helped spy mobility a great deal through lighted areas.

3) They gimped the remaining gadgets-
Most of all the smoke grenade. Smoke grenades were essential to spies in PT and CT, as they obscured the Mercs' vision, as well as setting up a barrier by slowing and choking mercs. Now all it does is just block vision. No more barrier, at all.

4) All static defenses are gone-
The infiltration now has been dumbed down to 'a look, a door, cool, I'll just run full speed inside now.'

5) They took mines and spytraps out for the mercs, alongside the camera network, the extra gadgets backpack, the tazer, shotgun, the laser sight and SMG-
No more bottlenecking. No more making spies actually think about where they're going. Now spies will just run around and throw stealth to the wind.

6) Mercs have permanent motion tracking-
Any spy standing upright and moving will be outlined in white, even if they're in pitchblack. While this is actually an improvement to current motion tracking, which doubles as night vision, because it inverts the colours under a red layer. But the crime comes in when combined with the ultiimate tragedy:

7) Mercenaries have proximity detectors-
Whenever a spy comes into a certain range, an inidictaor will appear on your screen, and your controller will rumble. Basically, sneak attacks are completely gone. Wanna protect the objective you just hacked to 95%, and make a sneak attack? Now you can't. If the merc has his controller rumble, and with his motion sensing does not see any white lines, he knows that you're behind him. 1 beserk attack and you're laying on the floor. Same thing for hiding. You can't. Mercs will now find you using the retarded "warmer, warmer, cooler, warmer" system. Wanna perform a ledge pull? Now you can't. If a merc is running on a platform, and his sensor goes off, there's a great chance that he'll figure out you're hanging there. Just 1 quick charge forward, and he can't be gassed.

8 ) You can only carry ONE gadget at a time-
Self explanatory.

9) Aside from killing-oriented gametypes, there is only 1 type of objective, wireless hacking-
Both PT and CT had Hacking (stand at a terminal for 10-20 secs, defend it if a merc comes to kill you), Sabotage (place a modem or charge on a wall and protect it from mercs for 20-30 secs) or Extraction (infiltrate to a terminal or computer, take the item or hard drive and return to your spawn point). In DA, you have an armband that will allow you to wirelessly hack a target from a distance. Once its hacked, you must return to your spawn. In a way, the wireless hacking gets rid of the close combat and stealth encounters, one of the things that made the game great.

10) Mercenaries have infinite ammo-
WTF?

11) Basically, they've fucked the game's entire playstyle and feeling over-
No level defenses + no merc static defenses+ no real ability to make stealth attacks + the merc's unholy advantage with the proximity detector = spies running around and mercs following.

NOT spies infiltrating and mercs hunting. It's going to be reduced to hack terminal for 10 secs, merc shows up, can't defend it, run to next terminal, rinse, and repeat and repeat and repeat. Nearly all the strategy has been drained completely out of it. The thinking man's game has been reduced to little more than a running and following action game.

On top of this, there is NO Co-Op for the 360 or PC version of the game. Even then, the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube only get split-screen. No online Co-Op. So for me, Double Agent looks like it's going to be a single-player game for me. I'll go back to Chaos Theory for my Spies vs Mercenaries, thank you very much. The 10 year old n00bs can have this trash. A truly sad approach from Ubisoft. I can completely understand the harsh demand on newcomers, and going after new players is great. But they've shat on the true fans of the game, and that's inexcusable