Splinter Cell: Double Agent (or Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent) is an action-stealth game in the Splinter Cell series, released in 2006.
The game follows Sam Fisher as he is assigned to go undercover as a convicted felon in order to infiltrate a domestic terrorist organization called John Brown's Army (JBA).
Double Agent was a major break from the formula of the previous games. In addition to more traditional missions, it provided missions where the player could choose which objectives they completed, choices which affected the storyline, and even unlocked additional missions. There are two main versions of this game, "Version One" for (then-)next-gen consoles (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) and PC, and "Version Two" for the older gen and Wii. Both versions follow the same basic story, but the tone is noticeably different between the two. In Version 1 the player's choices could be described as between idealism and pragmatism — Sam finds himself in a position where he can either perform a horrible deed, or lose a lot of trust within the terrorist organization. Version 2 is much darker, allowing the player to have Sam actually betray the NSA. A third version was developed by Gameloft and released for mobile phones around the same time as its console counterparts. Gameloft's adaptation shares much of the same premise as the main versions but puts more emphasis on Jamie Washington as the main antagonist, and features exclusive levels such as an underwater base and a television station.
Followed by Splinter Cell: Conviction.
This game provides examples of the following tropes:
- Action Prologue: In both versions, the game begins with a routine mission before Sam learns of Sarah's death and he goes undercover.
- Adaptational Villainy: In Version 1, Cole Yeager is just a random guy who happened to be piloting the helicopter Sam and Jamie hijack to get out of prison, and the first JBA headquarters visit is capped off by his execution to ensure secrecy. In Version 2, Cole Yeagher is a member of the JBA, albeit one who's planning on removing Emile.
- Alternate Continuity: The two versions of the game play out differently in terms of storyline, though the end result is roughly the same in that Sam goes rogue after finishing off the JBA.
- Bittersweet Ending: In the canon endings for both versions, the JBA is stopped and the bombs defused. However, Sam's still lost his daughter and is now on the run from the NSA.
- Cosmetic Award: The last equipment to unlock is night vision goggles that see in color rather than in all green. Most players say this is actually worse than the regular night vision, since while both Colour/Night vision get distorted while moving, the effect is increased with the colour version - not to mention that, even if you do every single gear-unlocking bonus objective, you only get to actually use it for one or two levels.
- Deep Cover Agent: Sam is sent to infiltrate John Brown's Army, and actually has to help them get materials for a nuclear weapon.
- Defecting for Love: In Version 2, Sam develops a genuine romantic attachment to Enrica, and is very pissed when she's killed by Third Echelon. In Version 1, though, Sam's just playing her for info, and though you do get some bonuses if you let her live (she hands Sam his gear almost straight away in the final level, rather than Sam having to get to the armory and break in himself, saying she's terrified by and wanted nothing to do with Dufraisne's bomb plot) Sam is perfectly happy to steal her code to deactivate the Cozumel bomb, preventing the bomb from detonating and deflecting the blame squarely on her.
- Double Agent: It's right there in the title. Sam had to perform tasks for both the NSA and the JBA, so as not to lose the trust of either of them. Both versions of the game handle this in different ways: Version 1 has two separate loyalty meters, and You Lose at Zero Trust if either of them drops too low. Version 2, on the other hand, has a single meter that Sam has to keep balanced, with You Lose at Zero Trust occurring if Sam goes too far in either direction. This also encourages the player to mix up their playstyle and alternate between lethal and non lethal gameplay to keep both factions on side.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The PS2 bonus mission "Bunker" seems to be a thinly-veiled allusion to the controversial MKUltra programme the CIA conducted from the 1950s to 1970s. Given the surrealist nature of the level and Fisher being drugged as part of a shady experiment, it's no surprise.
- The Dragon: Moss is this to Emile.
- Easter Egg: Version Two has a secret mission only accessible by co-op in Ellsworth Prison where you rescue baby seals, seriously
. - Final Boss: Version Two ends with a "boss fight" against Emile Dufresne. The fight has a lot of Puzzle Boss elements, but is still very much a "traditional" video game boss fight. This is not seen anywhere else in the series.
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: Several choices the player must make, although pretty much every one has an obvious "correct" choice, obvious because one of the choices will be a bonus objective (such as opening the cell doors for the JBA in Ellsworth Prison), unlocks bonus content or expand the level (such as not shooting the CIA agent at Kinshasa), be the only option that isn't completely stupid when taking the trust meter into account (such as shooting the kidnapped helicopter pilot during the first HQ visit in Version One, which will provide a much-needed boost to JBA trust right at the beginning of the game), or be opposite of a choice that immediately gets very direct negative feedback. There is one decision in the game which doesn't have such an obvious solution (whether to let the JBA destroy the cargo ship), but even that fits the pattern when the Prima official Strategy Guide recommends that the player lets them destroy it, although with that being said, you can Take a Third Option and frame Enrica in version 1, increasing your NSA trust (since you stopped the bomb) with no decrease in JBA trust (since they think Enrica stopped it.
- The Infiltration: The entire point of Sam's mission here.
- Initiation Quest: Sam Fisher is assigned to infiltrate a terrorist organization called John Brown's Army and must perform specific nefarious tasks for the terrorists to get them to trust him without losing the trust of the agency that sent him on the mission.
- Karma Meter: You have to infiltrate the terrorists without helping them out too much. In Version 1, the way it's presented is more in line with an Alliance Meter - you have one meter representing the NSA's trust in you, and another for the JBA's - but in practice it's almost entirely a bog-standard karma meter: almost everything you do that boosts trust from one side results in an equivalent hit to the other's trust, outside of optional side-objectives at the JBA headquarters between missions, like assembling mines or beating the firing range score; as such, Version 2 presents it as a single meter, with your trust sliding between the JBA and NSA ends with each choice. The only outlier in Version 1 is on the highest difficulty, where the amount of trust lost by one side for an action is boosted, without boosting the trust gains as well.
- Leeroy Jenkins: John Hodge in Version One, the Splinter Cell who accompanies you in Iceland. He rushes into the front entrance of a terrorist base when the way is clear, thinking it will be faster, which ends as well as you'd expect it to.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: While it's more of an ammo saving measure than anything else, in Version 2 of the game, Jamie Washington can be killed by disabling his pacemaker with the pistol's OCP attachment.
- Multiple Endings: Which ending the player gets in Version One depends on the player's trust with the NSA and what decisions are made at three specific points. In Version Two, it depends on whether the player defuses the LA and Nashville bombs in the second JBA HQ mission or prevents them from being defused.
- New Meat: The rookie Splinter Cell who joins you in the first mission of Version One demonstrates some skill, but his over-eagerness gets him killed before the end. In the sixth-generation version, however, the new guy not only survives but returns later in a mission.
- No Canon for the Wicked: Played with. While the evil options of the first two big choices, blowing up a cruise ship and killing Hamza, are non-canon, the third, killing Lambert, is canon.
- No-Gear Level:
- In Version Two, you fight a final boss battle against Dufraisne inside a maze of laser tripmines; he's got a heavy machine gun, you're unarmed (navigating the maze to reach your discarded pistol is a large part of the fight). Of course, it is possible to rush him and stab him, as well as kill him with a frag grenade.
- Both versions have this to an extent with the escape from Ellsworth Prison. Sam can pick up equipment as he goes, though in Version 1 Jamie gets a combat knife for him before he even leaves his cell, whereas in Version 2 he has to scrounge a carving knife from the carpentry workshop.
- Nonindicative Name: Somewhat. John Brown's Army doesn't have anything to do with abolitionism and is a curious name for a Right-Wing Militia Fanatic organization. The name seems to have less to do with John Brown's ideals and more with his methods: the charter for the organization you can read while exploring the HQ between missions claims that they see the current American government as hopelessly corrupt, and one of John Brown's tenets was that the only way to abolish injustices such as slavery was armed insurrection against the corrupt government that condoned them.
- Prison Riot: Sam uses a prison riot as cover to escape from Ellsworth.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The E3 2006 trailer shows Lambert being captured by the JBA and Sam, who's undercover, being ordered to finish him off.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: In the second version of the game, the final confrontation with Dufraisne is a traditional Boss Battle, something the series never previously had, since it tends to err on the side of realism. That said, he doesn't take any more damage than the game's mooks.
- Weapon of Mass Destruction: John Brown's Army is developing Red Mercury bombs, which are more or less non-radioactive nukes, with plans to detonate a few on American targets and sell others to their allies in Shanghai.
- Wham Episode: The ending, where you can kill Lambert or, in "Version Two", blow his cover. It was later confirmed as canon.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Killing Dufraisne or Moss at any time before the game's climax results in an instant Game Over.
- You Lose at Zero Trust: If you lose all trust with either the NSA or JBA, you lose the game.
