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Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent: Navigation

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Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that this game is the latest entry in a franchise featuring surly NSA agent Sam Fisher. The series is notable for its use of stealth, lethal, and non-lethal attacks -- so the players choose how violent their Sam Fisher will act (the violent extremes are throat-cutting, sniper tactics, and throwing enemies to their death). Another moral aspect to this game is a trust meter, which measures how your actions improve or undermine your relationships with the NSA and the terrorist John Brown's army. Some of the choices players make are pretty dramatic: for example, do you protect the mission or save 2000 people from a terrorist bomb?

Families can discuss the impact of including explicit moral choices in gameplay. Do you like contemplating the results of your actions and the way they affect your character? Or is this kind of ruminating a distraction from the kind of shoot-'em-up fantasy and catharsis expected from video games? How does reflecting on the moral fiber of a video game protagonist change the way you feel about characters you control in other games? Also, in an age of global terror are there limits law enforcement must recognize in the pursuit of terrorists? Is there ever such a thing as "acceptable loss"?

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Aaron Lazenby

NSA agent Sam Fisher returns with TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL: DOUBLE AGENT, another excellent entry into the long-running spy series that perfected the stealth genre.

Players control Fisher, a veteran spy for the NSA's counter-terrorism unit. Fisher has a reputation for being able to put a stop to the most nefarious terrorist plots, but is prematurely recalled from a mission when his superiors learn his daughter has been killed. Bereft and self-destructive in the wake of this tragedy, Fisher takes on his most dangerous mission yet -- to infiltrate the ranks of the domestic terror organization called John Brown's Army.

Fisher's double agent assignment gives this Splinter Cell entry ample opportunity to push the boundaries between upstanding law enforcement and excessive force. During one mission, players must choose between killing innocent bystanders and building trust with the terrorist leadership. Another dilemma balances 2000 cruise ship passengers against preserving your cover as a terrorist. Each choice changes the game a little bit -- and colors Fisher's methods as either reserved and upright or aggressive and extreme.

Some of Fisher's workaday tools may raise some parental eyebrows as well. While he uses a full arsenal of non-lethal weapons (tasers, rubber bullets, and choke holds to name a few), Fisher can always resort to throat-cutting, sniper tactics, and throwing enemies to their death. But the game looses much of its character if players opt for a simple guns-blazing run-through.

For all of its nuance (sneaking through a level requires players to manage their exposure to light, the length of their shadow, scenery they can cling to or climb in, and how their footsteps sound against ever-changing ambient sound) Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent remains an adult game dealing with big issues.

Families looking for a more suitable teen choice should consider Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time or Tomb Raider: Legends.

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Content
		CS	adults	kids
Sexual Content
Violence You can complete the game with minimal killing, but you can also slit throats and shoot people in the head.
Language Occasional salty dialogue.
Message
	Social Behavior Missions require you to balance your moral choices -- but you can always decide to go bad.
	Commercialism A few obvious in-game advertisements.
	Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco
	Educational Value

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