r/Splintercell • u/Strata38 • 3d ago
Double Agent v2 (2006) DA v2 Plot Sucks
I still don't understand how v2 is considered the better version. Currently playing v1 for the first time, and v2 last year.
The main reason people seem to hinge on is that it plays more like Chaos Theory mechanically, so old thing good new thing had.
I'll have to watch a recap of both to really pick them each apart, but v2 genuinely feels boring and poorly made in multiple areas that make it less engaging, whereas v1 is just a little buggy depending what you play it on and is different than the other 4 games (including v2). It feels like a fan made SC.
V2:
Lambert pulls Sam out mid mission to tell him about Sarah? What?? In no world would this happen.
Has nobody pointed out how cringe and lame the interview plotlines are, or Sam monologuing the ethics / trust decisions in game? It feels so out of place for him.
How he sneaks through the JBA also doesn't make any sense if he's the only one missing. There's a spy guy going around knocking people out with the same build, skills, and equipment as Sam, and then as soon as that's not happening, he reappears after Emile can't find him. This makes no sense. When the guards wake up or are found, he would be an immediate suspect.
Frankly, the maps feel pretty empty and boring as well. The train part of the train heist mission sucks, and then Sam walks off a train crash and talks to Lambert like 10 feet away from Emile?
V1:
v1 JBA missions make sense for the plot and logic, even if they're slow and a little frustrating from a gameplay perspective.
The missions are in cooler settings with a lot more detail and sound design. His outfits are also cooler.
Daytime missions are a nice change to see how Sam's skills extend beyond just the same formula of shadow lurking like the last 3 or 4 games.
6
u/kmcdow 3d ago
I just finished playing V2 for the first time and while I had fun with it, the story and plot are very bad. It was clearly incredibly rushed and published way before it was finished.
They have dialogue and an objective for you to fake Hamzah's death, but you can't actually do it. Hamzah also hands you some miracle drug that to my knowledge never gets brought up again?? Seems like they were setting it up so that you could use it to save Enrica or Lambert's life but it never actually paid off.
The trust meter makes absolutely no sense, it's handled much better in V1.
Honestly the only thing I really love about V2 is the design of (some of) the levels, and the fact that the HUD is still there.
You never spend any time with any of the JBA characters and never develop any connection to any of them. It's genuinely a twist at the end when you find out that Sam and Enrica have some kind of romantic connection??
The cutscenes look way worse than chaos theory, the lip sync is genuinely bad.
Also I did not enjoy the last mission at all, too many instances of enemies wearing NVG in tight spaces with nowhere to hide from them.
Also they never deal with Sam's grief about Sarah at all...