I thought Ubisoft had an awesome idea. I thought they had morphed Splinter Cell from a third-person stealth-action shooter to a third-person stealth-action shooter with moral consequences. Sadly, they did not.
I'm talking about the last in the Splinter Cell series of games, "Double Agent". Yes, I know, it came out in 2006. Yes, I know it is only the third-newest Splinter Cell game. That's just how long it takes games to get cheap enough for me to buy them.
OK, so what was I talking about in the first paragraph? You see, in this latest Splinter Cell, they employed a sort of "choice" system on various decisions. One choice moves you closer to trust with the Feds, the other closer to trust with the terrorists (who, in neat PC form, are white supremacists). These choices can influence those crappy "in between" videos (ie "You let your friend die!" or "You saved your friend!", etc.). The problem, though, is that when it finally comes down to it (at the last level), you only have ONE choice: to finish the mission on the side of the Feds and defuse the 3 nuclear bombs that have been set in NYC.
"Why?" I ask. Why can I choose to be a despicable person throughout the ENTIRE game, making ALL the "wrong" decisions, but in the end my choice is "defuse or lose" rather than "defuse or let 'er blow."
Perhaps Ubisoft simply felt that giving players the choice to nuke NYC was "too much." Funny, though... they DO allow you to nuke LA and Nashville...
7 comments:
Hmmm... nuke Letterman and an awesome city, OR nuke Leno and the Hollywood-cnetered smog-filled city of excess and the capital of country music?
Yes, please!
Yes, but I want to nuke all three!
This was also the major flaw in "The Sims." If a game claims to be a real-life simulation, then it has to account for complete human moral depravity.
I don't know... in The Sims you can lock your children in your house and set it on fire... that's pretty depraved...
But does it then allow me to collect on both the life insurance and home insurance?
I think not.
You may have a point there.
Ubisoft and EA: you are getting many free ideas here for improving future versions of Splinter Cell and The Sims. Not using these ideas would be like not taking free advice from the epitomes of expertise in your field.
I am indeed an expert in hypothetical depravity.
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