As many of you may have heard, Ubisoft are changing a few things in the Splinter Cell series. The multiplayer side of things is also having a revamp as much as the singleplayer modes have been sorted out. Much to the surprise of many Chaos Theory veterans, the spies now have no weapons at all. Yes, you are reading it correctly. The spies are now without their favourite gun and now have to rely on sneaking around just like a good spy should. Will this make the game unbalanced? How does the spy play without guns? Take a seat and I will let you know.
Waving my press pass around I managed to get hands-on with Double Agent multiplayer. I took up the pad with some trepidation since I loved Chaos Theory and had also been reading about Ubisoft’s planned changes. A Ubisoft rep said I should try Spies out and see how I get on. Deep breath, get it together. It’s a game after all. Ok, lets begin. Remember in Chaos Theory when spies were a little bit slow to get around? In Double Agent the spy is like an acrobatic monkey, who happens to be on speed and also covered in grease. The preview code shows a little human shaped icon for the spies so they get some idea where they can jump around. I am not sure if they will be in the final version but it does help you find a suitable ledge to jump from when it is so dark. You can now scale large buildings in a matter of seconds, leaving the poor mercenaries wondering what happened. Trust me when I say that playing a spy is a nerve wracking and also an exhilarating experience. My heart was pounding as I was hacking a console, only to see the flicker of flashlight coming towards me followed by a hail of gunfire. Quickly diving through the window I bounded up onto a parked lorry and then shimmied up a nearby pipe, all in the space of about 5 seconds. The merc had no clue what just happened and I was out of harms way, laughing in the darkness.
So I guess you can say that being a spy, even when you have no gun, can still be a great experience and you can also be deadly at the same time. You can still have access to smoke bombs etc and can also strangle the unlucky merc if you get behind him. Thought many of you may like the mercenary as your player of choice. Well you’re in luck because Ubisoft has subtly changed the way you work also. You still have guns and play tools but you pretty much have full access to everything happening on the level.One of those pesky spies hacking your console? No problems! You can see them a mile away on the map, so go and hunt those pesky varmints down partner. Sorry, went a little “Yee-haw” then. As a mercenary you have some nifty Melle attack moves if a spy gets too close for comfort but with the spies now being so fast and agile, it can be a little disorientating. You now have a fancy little drone to help out which you can fire into tunnels and windows to hunt out the spy but it does leave you open to getting strangled by another shadow dweller.
Overall the multiplayer in Double Agent is frantic, fun, scary and also exhiliarating. I only got 20 or so minutes with the game but so far it is looking great and feeling fun. Fingers crossed eh! It will be a must have title when it is released close to Christmas and it will also bring something a little bit new to the 360. You are going to love this multiplayer, so pick your sides now and get ready. 360Monster will do a more in depth Singleplayer and Multiplayer preview as soon as we can get hold of the game. Keep your eyes peeled!
Originally Written By: Barrie Rogers
