The Splinter Cell series has always been about stealth, where avoiding soldiers is generally preferable to shooting them or disabling them. With that said, the last installment of the game, Chaos Theory, made it possible for most players to get a 100% stealth score on most maps, even when playing on hard difficulty. This was mostly due to the fact that disabling guards (i.e. taking them down without killing them, such as by knocking them out) didn’t impact your stealth score, whereas killing them did. That was fun.

Alas, tis but a memory now. In Double Agent, stealth scores are going to be hard to keep above 0%, let alone at maximum. Basically, the system is the same as before, where you start a mission at 100% stealth score and then lose points based on your actions. The difference is that many more actions are capable of lopping points off of your stealth score here. Shooting out lights, for instance, will lop off some of your stealth score. The biggest change here is that disabling enemies will now also impact your stealth score, to a lesser degree than killing them, but still to the point where knocking out a single enemy will eliminate your chance at getting a perfect stealth score.

Now, stealth scores don’t really impact anything about the game; completing your objectives, especially those marked with stars, are more important. It’s mostly a matter of pride. However, unless you’re willing to spend hours and hours on each level, learning guard routes and perfecting your timing, getting 100% stealth scores are going to be almost impossible in most of the real missions.