Re: Gift

Splinter Cell: Double Agent

Ubisoft

$59.99

You're an undercover agent, deep classified shit. The terrorist organization you're working for wants you to execute an innocent man. Do you: a) gain the organization's trust but lose your agency rep by putting one in his ear or b) pretend to miss, showing you're willing to deep-six a bitch but also that you're the kind of amateur who misses from 6 feet? If you're playing Splinter Cell: Double Agent, the most common response is probably c) screw up and die.

At its heart, Double Agent is a Hindu game: You spend life after life getting your ass handed to you until you learn to play through the level without embarrassing yourself. Fortunately for you, no matter how much you screw up in your current life, you never come back as a cockroach. You keep reincarnating as Sam Fisher, coldass secret agent mofo.

Stick with this game, and you'll be rewarded with the kind of "I'm awesome even though I'm just sitting on my couch" moments that mark any of your sweeter video games. For example, swimming under ice, for some reason, plays heavily in the game. Swim under a henchman, and you get the chance to break through the ice, pull him down, and stab him in the chest. Who knew tapping "A" twice could be so badass? As always in the Splinter Cell series, we get more cool gadgets and moves than we deserve, and one of the best online multiplayer games going. But we get even more of a challenge in the trust meter, which forces your two-timing self to balance both sides of the law. Playing Double Agent is like watching The Departed but with way more parts where you curse and throw your controller at the screen.