Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Prima Official Game Guide) [Paperback]

Dan Birlew (Author)

Book Description

Series: Prima Official Game Guide | Publication Date: October 17, 2006

No Matter Whose Side You're On, You Need This Guide

·Find your way: Maps of all missions to guide you
·Choose your environment: Comprehensive walkthroughs for the Xbox 360, PlayStation2, GameCube, and PC versions of the game
·Avoid all alarms: Strategies to take down or evade every foe and obstacle in every solo and co-op mission
·Play all angles: Use the new Trust Level system to convince either the government or the terrorists that you are on their side
·Know your gadgets: Complete description of all equipment (and guns) of Splinter Cell agents
·Multiplayer mayhem: Get the drop on the competition with our expert tips and suggestions, including exclusive strategies from the Frag Dolls!

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Prima Games (October 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761552871
• ISBN-13: 978-0761552871
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.5 x 10.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #179,785 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dan Birlew is an author and video game expert who has been writing official, published video game strategy guides since 1999. His original career goals included acting and directing. Video games always excited Dan since he was seven years old, but at the age of twenty-six he began honing his playing skills with the goal of becoming an expert gamer. He enjoyed publishing online documents regarding games, known as "FAQs". Dan inadvertently created an online persona for himself when he wrote and self-published on the Internet a plot analysis of the highly popular survival horror video game, Silent Hill. "The game's story was somewhat vague, and demanded that someone try to explain it," says Birlew.

Upon receiving an overwhelming number of positive responses from other Silent Hill fans, and after some gentle nudging from his wife, Birlew decided to set aside his acting and directing activities to establish a career as a video game strategy guide author. He sent writing samples to several publishing companies. Based on the merits of his very first submission, he was hired by a major publisher within 24 hours. Birlew says, "It was as though I had won the lottery."

Birlew has authored over sixty published video game strategy guides and seeks other methods of publication, such as review columns, articles, and other non-fiction video game-related books. Birlew says of his passion for games, "I love exploring video games, the industry, the culture, the fans -- and there is so much of it about which I can analyze and write." He also bears a strong desire to publish fiction, and is currently working on a novel concerning the paranormal.

Dan Birlew is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, and has lived in Pennsylvania, Texas, and California. He now resides in Las Vegas with his wife of seventeen years. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993. Besides video games, Birlew also enjoys Japanese films and dining with his family and friends in the restaurants and clubs of Las Vegas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Two small guides in one (with minimal pix and info), October 19, 2006

By 

Joe Kixxon (So Cal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Prima Official Game Guide) (Paperback)

I understand that guides are for multiple platforms, but this is silly. Prima did the whole SC:DA guide twice. Once for PS2/GC and again for XBOX 360/PC. Its two small books in one. But for about the price of two (retail of $20 rather than $12 which is the usual price for the skinny guides).

I thought I was getting this big guide filled with features and great pix (see the Halo 2 or GTA San Andreas guides) but instead I got tiny pix and very minimal info. The second half of the guide is essentially the first half over again.

I like the guides for epic games, because it's basically like a coffee table book that goes with the game, but this book is on it's way back.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Enough Information, November 22, 2006

By 

Jim M. (Virginia Beach, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Prima Official Game Guide) (Paperback)

Just like the last Splinter Cell Game Guide, this book does good in providing you a walk-through to get through the game, but it lacks depth of knowledge that those who have played SC DA before would need to improve their game. There are many ways to get to places and handle situations that the book doesn't cover. The biggest disappointments were that it did not cover the X-Box version, which is much different than the X-Box 360 version and it didn't have any maps of the Versus mode of play. Also if you are using an X-Box 360 or PC, you have to refer back to the PS2 section for details and explanations - very inconvenient. For a beginner who gets stuck, it is worth while to help you get through the game. For anyone else, the few tidbits you get from the book isn't worth it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good guide, February 6, 2007

By 

Itxaka Serrano (Madrid, Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Prima Official Game Guide) (Paperback)

A nice looking guide, covers Gamecube and PS2 versions on the first half of the book and the X360 and PC on the other. Very complete guide but is a shame when you are looking on page 256 for a mission and says "for more info on this item go to page 6" so you have to go all over back to check than item and then come back to the last pages again (this is if you're looking at the X360 and pc pages). Some 10 pages more with all the gadgets and items on the beginning of the x360 and pc part wouldn't hurt :)

For the rest very good guide, nice maps, quality pictures, quality paper and very well explained, should have concentrate more on alternative routes but well, for people like me that get stuck in games like that it was enough help to get pass some missions.

The only bad thing is the "Frag doll comments" on multiplayer games, I find most of them pretty lame as they really say nothing important about strategies for the game.

Must have for SC fans.