The extremely buggy 'next gen' PS3, Xbox 360 and PC version was developed by Ubisoft Shanghi, which also had the distinction of making the worst Splinter Cell game, Pandora Tomorrow.
The Xbox, Wii and PS2 version was pretty much in the mold of Chaos Theory, and apparently was a lot better and made more sense. It was made by Ubisoft Montreal, who kick ass.
Why the hell didn't they do both? That's just weird.
Read the gamespot Xbox Double Agent review:
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/splintercell4/review.html?sid=6160642The following is courtesy of wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splinter_cell_double_agentThe game begins shortly after the events of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory as Sam is flown to Iceland to investigate suspicious activities at a geothermal plant there. The mission is a joint operation with the CIA, and thus Fisher is aided by CIA agent Hisham Hamza. During the mission Sam can overhear a conversation featuring a character named Emile Dufraisne, whom Sam will later meet. However, the mission was aborted pre-maturely, with Lambert activating a Splinter Cell Co-op double team to destroy the plant shortly after evacuation. Lambert tells Sam about his daughter Sarah's death in a car accident. This information depresses Sam and makes him unfit for continued field duty. During the gap of time, Sam agrees to pose as a double agent while infiltrating the John Brown's Army (JBA), a domestic terror organization that has come to the attention of Third Echelon. Sam is sent to Ellsworth Prison where he is placed in the same cell as a JBA member, named Jamie Washington, and with his cooperation and an indirect assistance from a Splinter Cell Co-op double team, they formulate a plan to break out of prison.During the escape Jamie is captured and put in the gas chambers. [2]. After the daring escape, Jamie offers Sam an invitation into the JBA that Sam accepts.
While at the JBA HQ, Sam finds an e-mail written by JBA member Cole Yeagher. If he chooses to send this information to the NSA, they will extract him for interrogation; if he chooses to send it to the JBA, Emile will send a message on the PA, asking for Yeagher to come to his office, where he is murdered and then dumped in a river.This is the only level you can fingerprint scan in.
Sam is then sent to hijack a train in Grand Central Station, New York carrying a large sum of paper money, gold, and valuable jewelry. Because Lambert pretends to be an arms dealer to the JBA, Sam will have access to his SC-20K and various other NSA equipment. Sam successfully makes his way to the train and moves via the interior of the cars and eventually the roof from the back of the train to the front. He disables the communication systems during his way to the front of the train. Once at the front, he hijacks the train as Jamie Washington switches the tracks. Sam crashes the train, causing it to derail and fall onto its side. The JBA then begin to steal money from the train to purchase Red Mercury.
To test the Red Mercury, Emile decides to detonate it on a Cruise Liner off the coast of Mexico. During this mission, one of the three choices which affects the ending occurs. If the player chooses to sabotage the bomb detonation, then a cutscene shows him and Enrica being severely beaten.
Sam is then sent to Russia to commandeer an oil tanker locked in the ice, during which the captain insanely tries to kill both Sam and himself by arming four bombs within the engine room. Two computers on the tanker have an e-mail to Emile from an anonymous sender who intends to blow Lambert's cover as an arms dealer.
When Emile goes to Kinshasa, Congo to have a meeting concerning purchasing more Red Mercury, he brings along Sam as security. During the course of the mission, the player meets Hisham, and has to choose whether to kill him, or let him go. If the player lets him go, he will receive an adrenaline syringe, which doesn't make an appearance for the rest of the game. One of the opportunity objectives which Fisher accomplishes helps set up a mission for a Splinter Cell co-op double team to sabotage a chemical bunker owned by Takfir. An e-mail on Massoud's computer reveals that there is a mole inside the NSA.
While in the JBA HQ, Sam discovers that the JBA have taken Lambert hostage, and are about to send off the Red Mercury. During this mission, Sam has to choose whether to place false information on the JBA Server backing up Lambert's cover, or plant real information that proves he is with the NSA. He can also choose to disable two of the red mercury bombs to help achieve a better ending. At the end of the mission, Director Williams seems strangely indifferent to the death of Lambert, if the player chooses that route. It can be assumed that Sam did not defuse these bombs, because the Co-op team later has to disable the bomb to Los Angeles on the tanker.
Unlike the other version, regardless of whether you save Lambert or not, the mission starts with the JBA discovering that Sam is a spy, and so he has to kill all the characters in the level, including the higher ranking JBA members(you could just sticky shocker them). During the mission, Sam meets Enrica, but she is unable to kill him, and even helps him by setting off the sprinklers in one room. At the end of a Boss style gun fight with Emile, during which Sam kills him and disables the last bomb, Enrica comes looking for Sam, and is shot by a Splinter Cell agent. As a result, Sam kills the agent and removes his subdermal for his cochlear implant. Sam then accuses Williams of murdering Enrica, and vows revenge, and that the NSA won't find him.
It does look like Splinter Cell: Conviction will be a continuation of the PC/Xbox 360 version though. I am sure it will kick ass in the hands of Ubi Montreal.
