Sam Fisher Should Crash E3
Man, we really hope the rumors are true. It’s not been announced yet for E3, but it does appear as though Splinter Cell may be back.
And not just any Sam Fisher, THE Sam Fisher might be back.
It’s been 8 year since we’ve played as Sam. 5 if you count the none-Michael Ironside Blacklist but who counts that? The stars seem to be aligning though to suggest Sam Fisher is coming back. First, Ironside appeared as Sam Fisher in a recent DLC for the massively long-winded Wildlands. It would be one thing for Sam to appear in the game but to get Ironside to reprise the role after getting the boot from the last game suggests Ubisoft’s investing a bit into the character. And second, WalMart Canada appears to have let it slip along with the release of other, unannounced titles.
Maybe a future game could reveal no one can see those blindingly bright goggles
We say now is the right time. Unlike Assassin’s Creed which get more sequels than Madden, Splinter Cell has taken nearly a decade off and is due for reinvention. They’re also risk-taking games for Ubisoft usually piloting an innovation that will appear in other games. The original introduced lighting systems for stealth, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow brought in dynamic and adaptive AI, Chaos Theory brought in coop, then we got asynchronous deathmatch or the execution systems. Splinter Cell games were always incredibly innovative and we’d like to see what Ubisoft could come up with on modern consoles after take this much time away.
To us, it feels like Ubisoft’s enthusiasm for Splinter Cell went away as they launched the Assassin’s Creed franchise. They went way, way nuts about the AC franchise which seemed to lift much of the hyped ideas for future Splinter Cell games, especially around crowds and stealth in plain sight. They had developed a solid engine from a decade of Splinter Cell games and then tried to apply it to other games like Watch Dogs or The Division. While fun in their own right, none brought the narrative impact or story telling strengths of a game like Splinter Cell. We still remember the tense conclusion of the original game that as our captures counted down to our execution while Lambert separately counted down the seconds until they could cut the power to the fortress. Ubisoft gave us so many other games that felt like Splinter Cell, but none were as captivating.
Even after all of these years, we automatically hear that satisfying “Ba-Ting!” sound in our head as he flips on the goggles.
So here’s hoping the old school Sam shows up at E3 in two weeks. If had our druthers, we’d love to see Ubisoft expand the franchise into a shared universe a la Destiny or The Division. You pick up as one of countless agents deep in enemy territory tasked with infiltration, recon, and disruption in a fictitious war-torn country. Social spaces exist in DMZs or in friendly safe zones. Verticality is an option as later Splinter Cell games empowered Sam with upper body strength to scale pipes or walls to find new pathways. You extend the coop of Splinter Cell to parties of 6-8 assigned complex tasks to penetrate an enemy base or execute a high value target (you could call it a strike or, hell, maybe a raid). You could wander into shared world experiences like a public execution or enemy march that you’d need to otherwise disrupt (maybe even get rewards for these public events). You get it.
Ubisoft had a great franchise on its hands with Splinter Cell which paved the way for so many of their subsequent franchises. As they try to go to the MMO route, I say it’s time for Splinter Cell to make a comeback to pave that route too. At minimum, you know it would be WAY better than The Division.
But seriously, the less said about Blacklist the better. These soldiers are terrible.
