I applaud your patience if you can find a satisfying experience in the GameCube’s version of Double Agent.
The setting begins on the snowy island of Iceland where you and your unnamed partner look into a baddy organization for information. This level is basically a tutorial for the rest of the game, as you learn the fundamentals of a splinter cell in order to deal with life-or-death situations. The shown tutorials make the game look easy, but the real action can be unwholesomely difficult. You play as Sam Fisher, a splinter cell working for the Third Echelon Organization. Adversely, Sam goes bonkers after his daughter dies, landing himself in prison. There, you meet another convict, Jamie Washington, who introduces you to the JBA, another association working to get inside information on the bad guys. Once you get out of prison, you’re dealt with assignments from both organizations, but to decrease suspicion, it’s important to keep both teams content during your duties.
For the most part, the levels are fairly impressive, but certain situations are so messed up you just want to pull your hair out of your head (though I prefer digging the eyeballs out of my sockets). One big setback is confronting enemies, because if you cross paths with one, you’re probably going to die. You’ll quickly realize that most of them are very stupid and, uncharacteristically, blind. Sometimes they won’t even be aware of your presence until they’re three feet in front of you. The hiding spots are very limited, the enemies are ridiculously powerful, and sometimes you just wish you could stab the living daylights out of your foe. But, to get a “good job” mission status, it’s important to get in and get out with causing as little riot as possible.
Most of the controls won’t even respond to your actions in the way you want them to. The shooting is so unresponsive it almost precludes any chance of playing the game fairly. When you’re hiding somewhere and a guard walks by, do yourself a favor and hold fire, because the first shot you take, no matter where it appears the shot landed, will only rouse the guard to your post, as if blanks are coming from your barrel. On top of that, once the guard finally gives in and dies, the majority of your ammunition is wasted. The only way to compensate for this is by using your only gas grenade, sticky shockers, or other devices that will only temporarily paralyze the enemy, but most of this equipment is still very limited. On the other hand, a lot of the gear you get to use is quite intriguing, such as the sticky camera and OCP, which disables electronic devices for a short period of time. Hacking computers and picking locks on doors, however, can get very monotonous and frustrating.
There are only two main guns throughout the entire game, and unless you can master their uncoordinated dynamics, they prove to be pretty worthless further down the road. You have to rely habitually on sneaking around or confronting the bad guys from behind, which can get pretty tough when more than one guard is present.
Graphically, Double Agent is on the borderline of passing and failing, but with all of these other unpolished aspects, failing seems suitable. While using different perspectives, such as night vision or thermo vision, the graphics are really enhanced and look pretty good, but the majority of the game’s artistic value is lagging behind some of the more notable ‘Cube titles. Dying looks simply pitiful – when you’re just standing there and a bullet hits you, your body falls as if it was thrown from a plain, ninja-kicking the air in on its way down, and landing in a Burmese tiger pit, severing all four limbs at once. Yeah, it’s that dramatic.
Despite all other failed attempts in this port, the audio isn’t half bad. That is, it’s nothing exceedingly impressive either. You can hear clanging chain fences and empty soda cans thrown against a wall very clearly and vibrantly. Being in the fray gets the music pumping and the heart beating, gun shots sound nigh real, and the dialogue snippets can be lived with. However, the only real sound issue is present in the dialogue: every enemy’s voice sounds exactly the same. Otherwise, the audio quality was thought out very well.
All in all, the central story is good, but it’s fatally precluded by the flawed mechanics of weapons and seemingly invincible adversaries. Even if you’re stuck with only a GameCube, stay away from this horrible port. In the end, the only thing the ‘Cube’s Double Agent accomplishes is wasting your time.
-Tish-