YMMV / Splinter Cell: Double Agent

• Broken Base: Which version of Double Agent is the best one: the PS2/Gamecube/Wii/Xbox version? Or the Xbox 360/PS3/PC version? With both versions being made by different divisions of Ubisoft, having completely different level designs, different gameplay mechanics, and different ways parts of the story play out, there is some debate over which one is superior. The PS2/Gamecube/Wii/Xbox version is more akin to the previous three games in terms of gameplay, while the Xbox 360/PS3/PC version introduces some significantly new elements (such as levels where Sam is out in broad daylight).
• Complete Monster: Emile Dufraisne is the leader of the domestic terrorist organization John Brown's Army. The product of a rich traditional upbringing, Dufraisne liquidated his holdings to fund John Brown's Army. When Sam Fisher is recruited as a double agent, Dufraisne is (in the PS3/PC/360 version) introduced tasking Fisher to kill a helicopter pilot, who would be killed by Jamie Washington should Fisher refuse. Believing that the US government are traitors to the Founding Fathers, Dufraisne plans to topple it with his terrorist activities. His main plan was to destroy the cities of New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville, Tennessee (where the US President will be speaking) with bombs containing several kilograms of red mercury. To test his weapons, he plans on using one of these bombs to blow up a cruise ship. If the player manages to foil this plot, Dufraisne will either (depending on the version of the game) torture his weapons expert, Enrica, as well as Sam in a fit of anger, or outright kill Enrica. When the police and feds finally storm his compound, Dufraisne begins his plan to destroy New York in an attempt to gain some victory in his defeat.
• Porting Disaster: The PC version has several weird problems, many of which can be laid at the feet of Ubisoft's evident decision in that generation that the only platform worth developing for was the the Xbox 360:
  • Menus are difficult to navigate, because the game doesn't allow you to just use the mouse like in previous Splinter Cell games; you have to use the "use", "crouch" and movement keys specifically, even for entering codes for keypad-locked doors that in the last two games let you just enter then with your keyboard's numpad.
  • Saved games are laid out in a completely random order, and occasionally checkpoints will overwrite hard saves and vice versa.
  • Gamepads are not supported except the Xbox 360 controller or any other Xinput-compatible device. This isn't new to the series, and it's traditionally used the mousewheel as an "acceleration" control to manage how fast you move, but the new safe-cracking sequences are affected by it in a way that picking locks are not - if you sneak at the lowest possible speed up to a safe and then try to crack it, you'll find yourself unable to do anything with it until you scroll the wheel back up to full speed.
  • The graphics were made markedly worse to make it appear as though the Xbox 360 version is superior, as the game supports a pathetically low set of resolutions (not even any full HD or 16:10 ones) and cannot be set to the actual maximum graphical detail without editing the game's main .ini file. It wasn't even possible to enable anti-aliasing until a patch unlocked it (which was the only thing that patch did, mind you).
  • Part 2 of the Kinshasa mission in particular is extremely crash-happy, almost guaranteed to do so if you try to load a save in it. According to the guy responsible for the series' widescreen fixes, it's the fault of the minimap, as having activated it at all during the mission will cause any saves made after that point in the mission to crash the game.
• That One Boss:
  • Dufraisne in Version 1. He patrols with three Elite Mooks around the bomb, has always figured out you are the double agent regardless, and it is nigh-impossible to kill or stun any of them silently beyond waiting for them to all look away or wander into total blackness. And yes, Dufraisne and co. can hear silenced weapons and launched gadgets. Even from several meters away.
  • Second part to Sea of Okhotsk in Version 1. After killing/subduing the crew, the player has to follow the captain down to the lower decks, where he is wandering with a flare on a catwalk over a huge amount of oil, planning on dropping it if he so much as sees you. He spends his time wandering around and turning suddenly, and if he either glimpses you or is defeated beyond taking him hostage from behind, he drops the flare and it falls through the catwalk, destroying the ship and killing you both. The kicker? When you take him hostage, he drops the flare through the catwalk anyway, it just doesn't count as setting off the oil.
• That One Level:
  • The Sea of Okhotsk level in the PS3/PC/360 version isn't very difficult to complete, but extremely difficult to get a perfect stealth score on. To elaborate: despite starting in a blinding snowstorm in white camo, Sam can barely see five feet ahead; however, the enemy can see you just fine. This is because the game fails to factor in the blizzard for the AI's detection rules, so as far as it's concerned you are running around in broad daylight.
  • Also Cozumel in the PS3/PC/360 version. Even with all the general mission difficulty aside, the end of the mission requires heading through the ship's bridge, which happens to contain 4-6 people (depending on difficulty). Did we mention this section takes place during broad daylight near very large windows and with little cover?
  • JBA HQ Part 2 in the Gamecube/Wii/PS2/Xbox version. Most of the mission consists of exploring a bunker full of narrow, well-lit tunnels with guards patrolling through them. This is already tough enough to get through, but the Red Mercury room in the Xbox version is by far the hardest part of the game to do 100% stealth. There are two guards patrolling the room in really tight patterns, one in Emile's office, which you have to sneak into, is well lit, and the cabinet is against the window which the other guard can see you through, and another on the ground level who sometimes go up a left ramp. You have to get a sample of Red Mercury from the center of the room, which requires first either hacking the keypad or using a password from the computers up the left ramp, then actually going up to it and scanning it. The problem? The ENTIRE CENTER OF THE ROOM IS FULLY LIT WITH NO COVER EXCEPT A THIN CABINET ON THE LEFT SIDE and the scanning takes a good 7 seconds to do, during which you are standing still and are fully exposed to the two guards in the room, and you have to quickly escape the room through an air vent on the right side as the front door closes and the room fills with gas. If you don't have the reflexes and timing of a god, you WILL get seen there. And it's not over after that if you are going for the good ending, as you'll have to defuse two bombs under a time limit. The one on the roof is easy to deal with, but the one in the docks has 4 guards patrolling the area who get suspicious really quickly, and the area is rather well lit and has some security cameras to deal with. Also, chances are that after you defuse the first bomb, your NSA trust will go completely to the right and will force you to report to Emile at the beginning of the level, wasting some of the precious time on the bomb timer. Good luck beating this mission with nobody knocked out.